Feeding Antibiotics

[Huskymaniac]

@Jay Hemdal had a few power outages and surges over the last few weeks and my fish are all banged up with scrapes and scale damage from darting into rocks and branches of my sps. Some of the areas are healing slowly and I am a little concerned with secondary infections. Is kanaplex the best antibiotic for mixing into food? I have amoxicillin, sulphaplex, cipro, kanaplex, and metrodonizole on hand.

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

Hi - not to second guess you, but are you confident there is cause and effect here? We have had some major power outages at my facility over the years and I've never had issues like that. Just checking that it couldn't possibly be flukes? They can leave the fish looking rather tattered.

So, assuming the fish are just banged up - slow healing by itself may not be a reason to dose antibiotics - I look for redness, white slime and/or increasing size of the lesions as my "trigger" to dose with them.

Have you read my article on medicated food? If so, then you also know I'm not a big fan of dosing antibiotics in Focus as the dose is totally uncontrolled. If you prepare your own food, the Kanaplex can be used at 50mg/kg fish body weight for 5 to 7 days. Amoxicillin can be dosed at 80mg/kg of fish mass, daily for 10 days. Cipro has also been used, but I don't know the dose. Metro is for protozoans and anaerobes, so I wouldn't use that.

Jay

 

[ostrow]

Kanaplex and metronidazole are both pretty gentle on the fish and work well together. I mix it into frozen food, but I like to add Seachem Focus, as it is supposed to help bind the others to the food. I have no real idea if that works. But doesn't hurt. Refreeze once absorbed if you want. I keep a whole flat of medicated Rod's (with prazi added as well, and garlic and Selcon), for new additions or emergencies.

 

[Huskymaniac]

Hi - not to second guess you, but are you confident there is cause and effect here? We have had some major power outages at my facility over the years and I've never had issues like that. Just checking that it couldn't possibly be flukes? They can leave the fish looking rather tattered.

So, assuming the fish are just banged up - slow healing by itself may not be a reason to dose antibiotics - I look for redness, white slime and/or increasing size of the lesions as my "trigger" to dose with them.

Have you read my article on medicated food? If so, then you also know I'm not a big fan of dosing antibiotics in Focus as the dose is totally uncontrolled. If you prepare your own food, the Kanaplex can be used at 50mg/kg fish body weight for 5 to 7 days. Amoxicillin can be dosed at 80mg/kg of fish mass, daily for 10 days. Cipro has also been used, but I don't know the dose. Metro is for protozoans and anaerobes, so I wouldn't use that.

Jay

Pretty sure. Maybe tatered wasn't the best word. Fins are all good but ton of abrasions on the top of the head and side of the body. When the power was literally going on and off every 5 seconds the fish were getting spooked from the lights constantly turning off and the pumps making grinding noise. The fish woukd bolt into the rocks but my tank is basically one giant staghorn tank so the fish would crash through the stags getting into the rock. Pretty sure that is what it is. I have prazi on hand and have no issues prophylactictly dosing for flukes. I haven't added anything wet in a super long time. Been a year maybe a bit longer.