Tetra Lifeguard vs Seachem Polyguard

[SHMG]

Hi,

How do Tetra Lifeguard compared to Seachem Polyguard? One drawback I have found is that Lifeguard is only available in small quantity: pkg of 12 or 32 tabs and each tab treats only 1 gallon! This makes it expensive if you have large tanks to treat; so I think of Polyguard which also treat bacteria and parasites. Yet, which is a better treatment if you don’t have the $$ to get multiple packages of Lifeguard to treat a large tank? Are the two equally good?
If anyone has had experience with both, could you share your viewpoints? I am looking for a good alternative for Lifeguard. My parrot seems to have Dropsy (raised scales, bloated belly turning him upside down) coupled with red gills membranes protruding as he breathes. Laborious breathing! If I can’t afford Lifeguard, is Polyguard my best bet? My favorite vendor is short of Lifeguard,too!

Thank you!

 

[EmdeReef]

I’ve never used either so can’t speak to efficacy. I believe lifeguard’s active ingredient is N-halamines which have shown some promise as a less toxic replacement for formalin - It would follow that it would treat similar issues. Poly guard is a sulfa based medication.

what you are describing with your parrot sounds like it could be a number of illnesses but I’m not sure that either tetra or seachem would help.

can you post pictures? Is the fish struggling to stay afloat”? Have you tested for ammonia? Redness around gills is often a sigh of ammonia poisoning.

 

[SHMG]

EmdeReef! Thank you for your reply! So if you have no experience with those two medications, have you run into similar situation and used something to treat those symptoms, or ever heard of any successful treatment for such conditions from the members of R2R?
Here’s a photo of my parrot:
The body being bloated like that is what some people call “pinecone”. His been floating too much that he can’t flip back to a normal position to swim! Last night, being so nervous to see his conditions worsening, I stopped the Polyguard and started the Lifeguard already. This morning, unless I am too subjective, he seems a bit strange when he struggles to swim, but the belly is too bloated and stiff that he fails to that all day till now.
Note that he does not have white spots like Ich, but some people say the whites pots can and can be invisible to naked eyes, and it can attack the gills, and the liver, causing bloating! It looks like Dropsy, but the difference is that many years ago when I had fish with Dropsy, it didn’t float like that!
I have asked some people whom I thought should have better knowledge than I; they either ignored my message, or dodged it! Tetra was one of those, ironically!

 

[SHMG]

Correction: “...he seems a little bit stronger- not strange”.

 

[EmdeReef]

Sorry I don’t have much experience with freshwater fish.

N-Halamines, based on research I’ve read, work as baths where formalin was previously recommended (velvet, uronema, some bacterial etc.)

this looks like it could be a swim bladder issue. At least for saltwater fish there’s not that much to do other than vent it but I’m not sure how to approach freshwater fish.


@Lasse?

#reefsquad?