Is it Safe to add Medicine to tank after Adding Salt?

[LizStreithorst]

Please don't throw meds at your fish without knowing what you are throwing at them. It does no good and in the long run can do harm.

I strongly suggest that you treat for worms first. Absolute Wormer is similar to Safe Guard wormer for mammals and domestic birds. It is extremely well tolerated with a high margin of safety. Levamisole has a smaller margin of safety and can set the fish back for just a bit but shortly after stimulates the immune system. It is used in human cancer patients. Either will work on your fish. Your fish is in excellent physical condition. Don't worry about the time it takes to get the medications in. This is not a crisis situation so relax.

It was Al who taught me about poop and hex vs poop and worms. I, like most everyone else, always believed that any light colored poo meant hex. He told me that hex poo is white and sometimes stringy. When it indicates worms, it's solid yellow like your fish's poop.

I suggest that you treat the fish in the big tank with it's buddies. If one is showing symptoms all of them have been exposed.

[matt parsons]

I agree with Liz 100 percent.
I would put the fish in the qt tank back in the 65 and treat them all once the metro shows up. A few days wait will cause no worse issues than already exist.
Not treating them all will cause issues down the road for the untreated fish.
General cure does have metro in it along with Praziquantel I believe.
You are not suspecting tape worms or flukes so no need to add another medicine in my opinion.
Some people like to treat preventatively but with a sick fish now is not the time.
Get everyone healthy and then weight out the risk verses reward in a month or two.
Keep us posted please.
Best wishes, Matt
Liz, thanks for the clarification on the water . It’s been a long time since I worried about any of that. Our ph is high and our water is moderately hard but it’s stable so I leave it alone. Stable is better than a-specific number that the old books told us mattered in my experience.

[Pet Detective]

Thank you Matt and Liz! You are wonderful in every way.
Since I can't medicate the main tank until Tuesday with the Metro, do you think it will be alright to leave Betty in the QT tank that has been medicated until I can treat the main tank on Tuesday and transfer her then?

[matt parsons]

That’s really up to you sir.
If it were me, I guess I’d leave her where she is until you get your metro.
I would do water changes per the directions but I would not add any more medication. Then before you treat the 65 I’d do a large water change in there.
I’m sure you know this but just in case I’ll say to match your water temp and ph before you move her again. Get a lot of air pumping in the tank or if you use canisters make sure the current in breaking the surface tension. Hot water holds much less oxygen than cold water does.
I’d ask some of the others ( I’m not sure) if your other fish can handle the high temps.
Some plants will melt at 90 degrees to so keep an eye on that as well
Best wishes for a full recovery.
Respectfully, Matt

[LizStreithorst]

I don't think we told you but your metro should be pure metro and you should treat at the rate of 500 mg per 10 gallons for 12 days. This is double the doseage on the label and the duration of treatment is much longer. The parasite has become resistant to the medication mostly because many people have been treating indiscriminately.

[Pet Detective]

Help!The ph in the 20 gallon QT tank has dropped below 5. I added 1/8 tsp of pH up (directions say 1/2 tsp per 25 gallons). Gh and Kh both below 50, Nitrites 0 and Nitrate 5. Is it better to leave her in the QT tank and continue trying to raise the pH with a 1/8 tsp every two hours or move her to the main tank.

65 gallon main tank has these readings:
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 5
pH 6.5
KH 40
GH 30

Thank you in advance for giving me direction on this.

[LizStreithorst]

Move the fish now. I can't imagine why your pH dropped so suddenly. Maybe someone else can help with figuring it out.

[Pet Detective]

I forgot to mention in the previous post that when I did the water change yesterday I removed the carbon from the filter and added 10 ml's of quick start bacteria in addition to the tap water conditioner. It must have been the quick start.
We moved her to main tank and she is doing well for now. With your recommendation of the metro treatment, do I just do one dose for the 12 days? I will need to do some water changes, should I add more medicine after the water changes?

[LizStreithorst]

Metro breaks down quickly. Dose the for the 10 mg for gallon every single day for 12 days. Do as large a WC as you can every day. It's a matter of out with the decaying hex organisms and in with good fresh water.

[Pet Detective]

I cleaned the canister filter, removed the carbon, and removed half of the plants from the main tank. I also vacuumed the tank today and did a 50% water change. I am ready to add the metronidazole and want to verify the dosage. I don't have metric measuring spoons, so I estimated I will need 3,350 mg for 65 gallons. The conversion chart says that equals .65 teaspoons. Is that correct? And you said to dose once a day for 10 days, and water changes daily.
Thank you in advance for clarifying the dosage.

[Pet Detective]

Oh, I also raised the temp to 93 degrees

[seanyuki]

It's difficult to come up with accurate conversions from milligrams to teaspoons for a lot of ingredients, because they don't really measure things the same way. Milligrams are a unit of weight, and teaspoons are a unit of volume.

I cleaned the canister filter, removed the carbon, and removed half of the plants from the main tank. I also vacuumed the tank today and did a 50% water change. I am ready to add the metronidazole and want to verify the dosage. I don't have metric measuring spoons, so I estimated I will need 3,350 mg for 65 gallons. The conversion chart says that equals .65 teaspoons. Is that correct? And you said to dose once a day for 10 days, and water changes daily.
Thank you in advance for clarifying the dosage.

[Pet Detective]

After five days of dosing with metro, she isn't looking any better. She has not eaten anything. I noticed a few days ago that her breathing is labored, compared to the other fish. I am not sure if the medicine is doing anything and I am not sure if the metronidazole was 500 mg either. When it arrived from Discus.com it was in a small plastic ziplock bag that had a sticker on it "50mg" which was the weight. No instructions, no light proof container, just white powder in a ziplock bag. Very disappointing because after researching the dosage and strength per dose, I learned that if the medicine is exposed to natural sunlight, it will decompose and be worthless. I also read that if there is no improvement with the fish after 5 days of treatment to stop treatment.
What should I do. I am feeding all of the fish the meaty blend sold to me by Discus Hans, and the other fish appear to be doing just fine.
Should I continue with the metronidazole or stop? The labored breathing concerns me, and she hasn't eaten now for nearly two weeks.
I am not sure if the youtube link will work to the video I shot this evening. The video was taken after I did the 50% water change and the tank looks cloudy, plus thel lighting is dim and makes her look more blue than she really is. Her color is actually somewhat pale. Please advise, I am getting very concerned.

https://studio.youtube.com/channel/U...SCENDING%22%7D

[Pet Detective]

Problem

1. Please explain the problems with your fish. When did you notice the problems and did anything unusual happen that you think started them?
My Checker Board discus is still not eating, her breathing has been labored compared to the other fish. This has been noticeable for more than five days. One of my other discus's has brown stringy poop, and another one, just brown poop. Is this normal?

2. Symptoms (i.e. turning dark, excess slime, not eating, clamped fins, flashing, darting, clamped gills, white/yellow/green poop, hiding, headstanding or tailstanding, white on tips of fins, rotting or fungus, blisters/white zits on fish, bloated, cloudy eyes, wounds). Brown stringy poop on two other fish. Color is very pale and fading on the checker board


3. What medications/ treatments have you already tried and what were the results. Include dosage and duration of treatment.
I started metro a 9 days ago in the main tank with all fish. The UV filter was running for the first 4 days, then I turned it off for the past 5 days.


Tank/Water

4. Tank size and ages, numbers and sizes of fish.

65 gal
5. Water change regime (What percentage and how often).
50% every day

6. How long has tank been running? Is it bare bottom? If you have substrate, what type and how deep is it?
Six months
7. Do you age your water? If you do for how long and what is the ph swing.
Yes, for 24 hours

8. What type/brand water conditioner do you use? Do you add it to the tank or aging barrel? How much do you use?
API Tap Water conditioner

9. Parameters and water source;
Municipal
Note: Water Parameters are important in diagnosing problems within a tank. If you don't own test kits for the following information, you can purchase them, test your parameters and post this info as soon as possible.
TODAY, Sep. 16th

- temp _____92 Degrees

- ph _____6.6

- ammonia reading ____

- nitrite reading ____0

- nitrate reading ____<20

What type of water or combinations of water sources do you use? If it is an RO/tap/well water mix, please list percentages in the mix.

- well water ____

- municipal water __X__

- RO water ____


10. Any new fish, plants or inverts added recently.

NO
11. Please tell us what you feed your fish and how often. This can be critical information for solving the problem so be as specific as you can.

Meaty blend from the breeder

12. Include any pictures or videos you have which shows the symptoms. If you can't add them to this post, please provide a link to them.0D0A6914-6B6D-477F-BDFA-9C286DE59C99.jpg

[Pet Detective]

I am becoming more concerned. After 9 days of medicating I do not see any improvement with my checkerboard discus, and have noticed long stringer brown poop coming from two of my other discus. Everyone is eating normally, except for checkers, I have been doing 50% water changes daily. It seems like the metro is not doing anything because nothing has changed. This photo is one of the other discus with the long stringy poop. Checkerboard is in the background, haven't seen any poop from her since I put her back in the main tank 9 days ago.