# Bloat meds



## BenHugs (Jan 13, 2007)

Ok so I have bloat in my tank and I caught it quite early but I could not get to my LFS as it was closed and I had a shift the next day so I treated with what walmart had. I used Jungle fugus eliminator which states on the bottle that it's good for fish bloat and swim bladder disease etc....
I know this wasn't the right meds and it did seem to help but now I'm having trouble getting the proper meds. I talked to the LFS and they are having problems getting in Cloat and Metronidazole because of some over the counter drug rules??? I have Mardels' Maroxy and Erythromycin at home do any of these work or should I stick with the Jungle fungus eliminator and hope for the best??? The active ingredients in the jungle are nitrofurazone, furazolidone, potassium dichromate.
Any help on saving these guys would be great.
Thanks all for your help.
Oh and I'm feeding with NLS non-medicated Thera anti-parasitic pellets.


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## cichlidaholic (Dec 7, 2005)

What about Jungle brand Parasite Clear? That has metronidazole and praziquantel in it.

Or, Jungle brand HITH Guard...

I would also check with another LFS!


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## BenHugs (Jan 13, 2007)

Does petsmart carry any of those??


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## cichlidaholic (Dec 7, 2005)

They should! They do here in Ontario.


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## BenHugs (Jan 13, 2007)

Thanks Cichlidaholic...... You are great :thumb:


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## BenHugs (Jan 13, 2007)

Ok so a trip to petsmart got me enough jungle parasite clear tp treat 240 gallons (that's all they had) I have a total water volume of 300 gallons I aslo bought the jungle parasite food which also contains the metronidazole. 
Any tips from here???
The food tells me to feed exclusivly for 3 days. Should I go longer??? And petsmart may have more meds in the next day or so do I buy more and how much???
Thanks again, Ben


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## cichlidaholic (Dec 7, 2005)

Just one treatment for 240 gallons? (3 are required for a full course - should be spaced 48 hours apart with 25% water change prior to the 2nd and 3rd treatment)

If you think you're going to have problems getting more meds, then you should treat the ones that aren't eating in a small hospital tank and feed the main tanks medicated foods.


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## BenHugs (Jan 13, 2007)

cichlidaholic said:


> Just one treatment for 240 gallons? (3 are required for a full course - should be spaced 48 hours apart with 25% water change prior to the 2nd and 3rd treatment)
> 
> If you think you're going to have problems getting more meds, then you should treat the ones that aren't eating in a small hospital tank and feed the main tanks medicated foods.


Thanks cichlidaholic
I'm off today to find more jungle. I don't have a hospital tank at the moment as I ended up with a ton of denisoni fry. I'm also worried that more than just the two fish are affected and it's really hard to tell as nobody wants to eat the jungle parasite clear food (except for the cat fish they're having a hayday).
I will treat with more meds to get me up to the 300g treatment then get two more doses if all goes well.


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## cichlidaholic (Dec 7, 2005)

Try soaking the medicated food in some tank water 20-30 minutes prior to feeding, then mush it up with your fingers a bit.

They don't generally like it, but will usually eat it when you don't offer anything else.

You might want to come up with another hospital tank. That's an awfully large tank to have to treat with any medications, and it can get quite expensive. :thumb:


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## BenHugs (Jan 13, 2007)

cichlidaholic said:


> You might want to come up with another hospital tank. That's an awfully large tank to have to treat with any medications, and it can get quite expensive. :thumb:


I hear ya I have just spent a total of a $100 on meds for these two fish and when I got home one was dead (7" milomo) I'm not sure if the taiwan reef will make it either and now my F.rostratus looks quite fat. I hope I can beat this :-?

Any idea of how long you can safely feed medicated foods????


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## BenHugs (Jan 13, 2007)

Also does anyone know why you do 25% water changes before re-medicating. If all my water paremeters are in check why would I dilute the meds????


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## cichlidaholic (Dec 7, 2005)

Bloat is believed to be spread by healthy fish mouthing the feces of infected fish, so the substrate vacuumings that go along with the water changes are very important. Water changes ALWAYS benefit your fish when they are ill. Medications do not continue to work for extended periods of time, each med you use will only be "active" for so many hours, whether you remove it from the tank or not.

I've fed medicated foods to wild fish for up to 2 weeks.


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## BenHugs (Jan 13, 2007)

Thanks again cichlidaholic if this all works I'm going to name a fish after you. 
I'm on my second dose of Jungle parasite clear and second day of Jungle parasite foods.
Anyone know how good the non-medicated Thera+A NLS food is for this sort of thing???

A side note when I was in the mall buying my meds I also decided to get some lunch. I noticed a couple of people looked at me sort of strangly. I figured out why when I looked over at the meds to see that only the words Parasite Clear showed very clearly through the bag.

Does anyone stock up on meds?? I could get enough Jungle parasite clear to treat 1000g online for around $30 instead of the $100 I ended up paying locally.


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## BenHugs (Jan 13, 2007)

An update.....for anyone who goes with the argument that bloat can be caught when healthy fish mouths the sick fish feces. Here is some leverage to your theories. My F.rostratus now seems to be bloated aswell. The F.rostratus is always digging in the substrate and was very healthy then very quickly became infected. He looks very fat and eyes are bulging. Strangly enough I didn't notice any problems with the fish until I started treatment for the others.


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## cichlidaholic (Dec 7, 2005)

The NLS Thera A contains garlic. Garlic is believed to be good for the immune system, so you can't really go wrong using it. I'm not sure that it would "cure" anything the fish already had, but it's a good quality food and might prevent future problems like this.

I keep meds on hand at all times, but you want to really be wary of the expiry date on them before buying large quantities. Basically, I try to keep enough of several different kinds of meds to do one full treatment on my largest tank, that way if I get caught before I can get to the LFS, I'm good. However, I've wound up throwing some away because of expiration dates.

That's good news, though. It means my fish are healthy!


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## BenHugs (Jan 13, 2007)

cichlidaholic said:


> I keep meds on hand at all times, but you want to really be wary of the expiry date on them before buying large quantities. Basically, I try to keep enough of several different kinds of meds to do one full treatment on my largest tank, that way if I get caught before I can get to the LFS, I'm good. However, I've wound up throwing some away because of expiration dates.
> 
> That's good news, though. It means my fish are healthy!


I have a friend who works in the pharmacy and he tells me that almost all meds that have expiry dates don't actually expire. For example a head ache remedy (I'll keep away from naming brands) you may keep in your house has the expiry date stamped on it so you would throw it out and buy new stuff.
If it came to it I could ask about specific drugs to see if they would indeed expire.


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## cichlidaholic (Dec 7, 2005)

My daughter used to work for a pharmaceutical company as a drug rep, and they claimed their meds were good for 6 months after the expiry date, but I don't want any meds that expired 6 months ago! :lol:

I know that with antibiotics, you would NOT want to go past the expiry date.


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## BenHugs (Jan 13, 2007)

How long am I supposed to go with the treatment?? I'm 24hrs into the third round and my fish look a little better (although still not eating)?????


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## cichlidaholic (Dec 7, 2005)

That's why I said you really need a hospital tank. Sometimes you have to go two full rounds with the meds, especially when you have fish not eating. If you have them in a smaller hospital tank, it's easier to do that, not to mention cheaper.


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## BenHugs (Jan 13, 2007)

When you say two full rounds thats twice at 3 doses (1 every 48hrs for 3 times) each???


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## BenHugs (Jan 13, 2007)

cichlidaholic

A BIG Thank You =D>

I only lost one fish (Milomo) to bloat mostly because of your advice. My eel took a beating from the meds but is now eating and happy again. The taiwan reef is finally eating again too...
Like I said before I would name a fish after you if they lived so what is your name???
It's a hap/peacock tank so if you have a favorite we could name that one as I don't actually have any names for my fish :roll:

Thanks again, Ben


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