Can someone please help me with dosage of metro?

[Aquila]

Hi guys, one of my electric blue rams is getting really skinny with a very notable hollow belly. He is the only one out of 4 that is really bad but I've been watching the others carefully and am worried that they are also starting to get a little skinnier. They all have an excellent appetite which obviously means he must have some sort of internal parasites.

I started treating him and another male (who I figure is at the beginning of the same path) with Drontal at 2mg/L this week because I hadn't noticed any white fluffy poo before. They are doing ok on the Drontal but its probably not helping and last night I noticed for the first time, white poo from these 2....so I guess that means that they have Hexamita and I should be treating with metro.

I have a vet who is happy to prescribe me some and just wants me to calculate out how much I will need.

I have the 2 sick rams in a 5 L hospital tank with a couple caves so i can save money on medication. He says he has liquid metro at 40 mg/mL, 200mg tabs and 400mg tabs.

I've read from a couple other posts that people dose a 400 tab per 40L...and to repeat this every other day for 3 treatments. I wanted to try dosing the hospital tank first to see if this actually help them before I ruin my biological filter in the main tank.

I forgot to ask how much the liquid and tabs cost...but I imagine the liquid form will prob be more expensive and basically redundant anyways. So I was planing to get about 3 x 400mg tabs and then dose at 1/4 tab for 10 L for the duration stated above. What kind of water changes do i need to do? And is it necessary to treat the main tank or can i just treat the fish separately and up the water changes for a while. Would I be re-dosing in 2 weeks time?

Cheers

[jim r]

I suggest you use the liquid form and soak the food in this. ( it works for me and also works out cheaper ) The tablets when crushed have a tendency to float on the surface and remember when using tablets you have to treat all the water in the tank.

[Jennifer]

If the fish is not eating you can place it in a concentrated bath of 5 mg Metronidazole/litre of water for 4 hours repeating once a day for 3 days. However, metronidazole is not very soluable in water (it forms a suspension that sinks) and it also is not effectively transported into the blood stream through the gills so the oral route is best fed once daily for 3 to 5 days.

A commonly used dose for metronidazole in fish is 0.05mg/g body weight. On average, a 4cm fish weighs 1 gram (although this varies with the diameter of the fish so it is always best to weigh the fish if you can using an accurate gram scale).

To feed metronidazole it is easiest to inject a bloodworm with the medication. This acts like a small capsule that delivers the dose accurately every time. Firstly a single 200mg tablet of metronidazole will need to be crushed and made into a 0.1ml/0.05mg suspension. This is accomplished by very finely crushing the tablet between a folded piece of paper and adding the powder to 20mls of water or oil. It is best to put it in a small container that can be shaken well (and stored in a cool dark place). Then take a 1ml syringe with a very fine needle (such as a 27 gauge) and draw up 0.1ml of the metronidazole suspension (mixing well immediately before drawing it up). Then (carefully) inject a large blood worm with the medication. Feed one bloodworm per gram of the fish's weight.

Your vet should be happy to supply you with the needle and syringe and once you get the hang of it this method is very easy and so effective.

Do not keep the remaining suspension as it will degrade quickly. Also, be aware that metronidazole is very toxic to the organs (liver and kidneys) so avoid overdoses.

[ryanjury]

Sounds like some very good advice there

If I also read correctly did you dose with drontal or droncit? Drondal contains other stuff that I am unsure is good for fish, droncit is pure prazi..

[Aquila]

Thanks for the help guys.

Yes I had tried using Drontal (which I know has other stuff in it but I read sites where people have used it for their fish and the vet also thought the other drugs might help if it wasn't flukes causing it) because it had a higher concentration of prazi. I didn't notice any negative effects, but I also didn't see any improvement.

I have been using metro now in a hospital tank on 2 of the fish which were the skinniest and so far it doesn't seem to be helping either. If it does help then i will treat the others...i just didn't want to risk killing them all. I'm still pretty sure its Hexamita because i have seen white fluffy poo. The behaviour of the fish is good and they are still eating but the bellies are still slowly getting worse

I will try dosing through the food jen. Thanks for the info.

Its really frustrating. How come it seems so easy for people to de-parasitise their discus by just doing a couple courses in the tank?

Hope this doesn't get all of them....

[vincent discus]

1.5gm of metro per 100L of water...

[dbden]

i think those electric blue rams that were going round were the problem as i had the same problem with mine cleared up mine with drontal but lost the carryers the rams but havnt had a problem since