API General Cure and carbon filter?

[DioAquatics]

Alright so I bought API General Cure and I was going to dose my 10 gallon female livebearer tank with it but I was reading the instructions and I have a few questions. It says that I have to remove the activated carbon in my filter, but for my 10 gallon tank, that's all that in the filter besides these 2 blue things (one holds the carbon cartridge, the other looks like its to make sure no large pieces of anything come out back into the tank.) If I take out the cartridge with the activated carbon, will the BB die out? How can I keep BB alive in the tank but take out the carbon in the filter?

 

[Sarcasm Included]

Take the cartridge out, cut the bottom of the floss and dump out the carbon. You can put the filter back in and not have to replace it till it falls apart or you want to remove the medicine.

To be more specific, You do not have to change your filter cartridges every month, couple weeks, or whatever they told you. The carbon is what needs to be replaced, but is unnecessary unless you are removing medicine. You can rinse the cartridge off once a month and replace it. I suggest getting foam in place of the cartridge, as it is more durable and holds more bacteria than floss, just cut it to fit in your filter.

 

[DioAquatics]

Wow haha that's such a simple solution lol. Thanks

Yea I never change the cartridge unless its falling apart like you said. I just give it a very good shake inside of a bucket of tank water when I'm doing wc's. I cut open the cartridge and shook it like crazy until I got most of the carbon out of it. Where can I buy the foam to replace the floss?

 

[Big Red]

Petstores that sell those filters and if you can't find them find a foam pad or matt and cut to size to fit the filter that's the best way to do it.

 

[Sarcasm Included]

Any canister foam will work fine, look for ~30ppI or you go for the good stuff at Swisstropical.com. 10-12 year shelf life on poret.

 

[Wetsleeve]

Second the HMF foam. I had a bio wheel that was clogging constantly, the filter. Bought a chunk of HMF in 15 and 30. Ended up using the 15, worked very well.

 

[sassymomma]

Should I pull my assassin snails out before beginning a treatment series?

I've removed my carbon, and both units are still running. Does anyone have tips for successful riddance of parasites?

Symptoms:
Bloating in three fish
Putting in forehead in two fish
Two fish swimming in place/ darting

Appetite is good

Can't test water....money to buy test kit was just spent on medication
Water temperature 24c
Fish: 4minnows, 5 neon tetras

Tank size 29 gallon
Pool filter sand substrate
Lightly planted
T8 strip on 8hours/day

 

[Plecomaker]

I might, many meds are Hard on inverts.

What parasites are you reffering to, internal vs external makes a difference.

 

[Geoffrey]

I don't think metro or prazI affects snails or shrimps, but it's safest to place them in another tank anyways.

What are the symptoms?
Can you go to your LFS to get the water tested?

 

[sassymomma]

Internal

I'm doing a food soak right now...20 minutes, right? In half a pack of meds mixed into tank water?

Then, after I feed them, I'll put the other 2 1/2 pouches in, if I understood the instructions correctly

Symptoms

I got some new neons a couple of weeks ago

A couple of days after that, a minnow got a lump on its belly

I fasted, fed peas, and saw improvements

Next day, two minnows had white, pitted foreheads and one neon has a belly lump

Whilst the first minnows belly was swollen, I was sure he had a dark squiggly line in the swollen part.


Question:

As I have shared supplies and gravel, should I do the ten gallon tank too?

 

[Plecomaker]

If you're sure, I would consider it.
id probably toss any cheap tools that have been in both or boil them.

 

[sassymomma]

Ok so I fed all fish(including the Betta in the other tank) medicated food at both treatments

I didn't do the actual ten gallon, as the Betta tank currently holds all of my snails and the plant with their eggs

The 29 gallon infected tank got the full course, and is seeing improvement

The neons are again bright. The two with pitting are less so. Only two out of nine look bloated now


So I believe now I wait two more days, do a 25% wc and add my carbon back into the filter

I'll see if I can get a sample down to the pet store too...can anyone tell me what I'm asking them to test for?

 

[Plecomaker]

High nitrates, nitrites or ammonia are what id look for

 

[sassymomma]

There are high nitrites in the Betta tank but not the main tank. Main tank is 0/0/0 as it always seems to be....Betta tank has nitrite of .25ppm

 

[Jason0389]

HI is there a uk alternative to the apI general cure as I can’t seem to find it in the uk?

 

[Gypsy13]

Hello. There’s something just as good. Might need to ask. I’ll try to remember in the meantime. Coradee we need some UK med help.
Jason, are you sure it’s general cure you need?

 

[Coradee]

Hi, we are very limited here with fish meds, I can’t think of an alternative off the top of my head.
What is it you want to treat?

 

[Gypsy13]

Hi, we are very limited here with fish meds, I can’t think of an alternative off the top of my head.
What is it you want to treat?

I’m not sure why the OP was wanting general cure. But you have mentioned good meds available in the uk. Is there a list of them on fishlore? I’d love to be able to link them. Thank you for jumping right in!

 

[Coradee]

I don’t think there’s is a list of comparable Uk meds.
I have to go out soon but I’ll do a bit of research when I get back & try & put some kind of list together though I doubt it’ll be a long one as we’re so restricted here.

 

[Jason0389]

Thanks for all the replies basically I have two cherry barbs not not eating and breathing very heavily and have lost a lot of weight and are now noticeably smaller than the others I’ve tried treating with interpet antI internal bacteria but no luck and I have heard the general cure is shrimp safe also, I have never had to treat sick fish before I’m very new to this.

 

[Gypsy13]

I don’t think there’s is a list of comparable Uk meds.
I have to go out soon but I’ll do a bit of research when I get back & try & put some kind of list together though I doubt it’ll be a long one as we’re so restricted here.

Thank you. This definitely sounds terrible. Everything I can think of isn’t available to y’all. Frustrating.

Thanks for all the replies basically I have two cherry barbs not not eating and breathing very heavily and have lost a lot of weight and are now noticeably smaller than the others I’ve tried treating with interpet antI internal bacteria but no luck and I have heard the general cure is shrimp safe also, I have never had to treat sick fish before I’m very new to this.

We’re working on this. Do you know your water parameters and how often do you do water changes? Also do you use a water conditioner/which one? You have shrimp in this tank too? Do you have a qt you could put the sick ones in?

 

[Jason0389]

Thank you. This definitely sounds terrible. Everything I can think of isn’t available to y’all. Frustrating.



We’re working on this. Do you know your water parameters and how often do you do water changes? Also do you use a water conditioner/which one? You have shrimp in this tank too? Do you have a qt you could put the sick ones in?

I generally change my

Thank you. This definitely sounds terrible. Everything I can think of isn’t available to y’all. Frustrating.



We’re working on this. Do you know your water parameters and how often do you do water changes? Also do you use a water conditioner/which one? You have shrimp in this tank too? Do you have a qt you could put the sick ones in?

I change water about 50% percent every 1-2 weeks they have been fine with this usually, I’ve them since Christmas time the only things that have changed in recent weeks are this heat wave we’ve had and I purchased some live daphnia from my local store I’m now thinking maybe they have worms ? Also about 30 minutes after I posted photos my female passed away after struggling for oxygen near the surface I noticed the sick male was rubbing against my plants was wondering could this be Gill flukes? I’m just speculating as I have very little experience, thank you again for everyone’s help.

 

[Gypsy13]

I generally change my

I change water about 50% percent every 1-2 weeks they have been fine with this usually, I’ve them since Christmas time the only things that have changed in recent weeks are this heat wave we’ve had and I purchased some live daphnia from my local store I’m now thinking maybe they have worms ? Also about 30 minutes after I posted photos my female passed away after struggling for oxygen near the surface I noticed the sick male was rubbing against my plants was wondering could this be Gill flukes? I’m just speculating as I have very little experience, thank you again for everyone’s help.

We’re you able to get your water parameters? Do you use water conditioner to remove chlorine, chloramines, ammonia, nitrite? Unfortunately they may rub against things for a vast number of things. Including ammonia, nitrite, chlorine poisoning. Tell me about your filter. How do you clean it? Do you have aeration in the tank. You’ll need it if it’s too warm.

 

[Jason0389]

We’re you able to get your water parameters? Do you use water conditioner to remove chlorine, chloramines, ammonia, nitrite? Unfortunately they may rub against things for a vast number of things. Including ammonia, nitrite, chlorine poisoning. Tell me about your filter. How do you clean it? Do you have aeration in the tank. You’ll need it if it’s too warm.

I don’t have a test kit the tank has a good amount of aeration provided by the filter fluval u1 and I also have a small pump with a tube that draws air in from the surface

 

[Gypsy13]

I don’t have a test kit the tank has a good amount of aeration provided by the filter fluval u1 and I also have a small pump with a tube that draws air in from the surface

Do you take your water to LFS to be tested for Ammonia/nitrite? Do you use water conditioner at all?

 

[Mazeus]

Hi, just to mention, you can buy general cure on amazon in the UK. It's shipped from the US so it will take a few days to arrive.

 

[Gypsy13]

Hi, just to mention, you can buy general cure on amazon in the UK. It's shipped from the US so it will take a few days to arrive.

There seems to be a legal issue with metronidazole because it’s an antibiotic in the UK. Just FYI OP.

 

[Mazeus]

There seems to be a legal issue with metronidazole because it’s an antibiotic in the UK. Just FYI OP.

Hmm, just did some googling apparently it is illegal to import it. I did not know that. I'm surprised amazon allows it to be sold. Well, you learn something new every day.

 

[Jason0389]

Do you take your water to LFS to be tested for Ammonia/nitrite? Do you use water conditioner at all?

No I don’t I’ve never had a problem with my water before my fish are usually quite happy I’ve ordered general cure from amazon hopefully this helps thank you to everyone who has helped me

 

[Gypsy13]

If you get a chance, do get the water tested. You’ll at least then know if your fish are really ok or just on the edge of ok. Wishing you well. Update soon? Please?

 

[baldegale]

so it appears I might have a GBR with parasites of sorts, I was wondering how this stuff works? it says to remove all activated carbon from
filtration but this might be an issue cause one of my filters is a tetra whisper 10I and isn't the entire filter cartridge carbon? id be losing half my filtration

 

[jacob thompson]

You would but also carbon removes medication. This is the main use of it. You can cut open the bag and remove the carbon and then you’ll still have whatever biological filtration on the cartrage but so you know the treating of a tank usually kills off a lot of the beneficial bacteria in the process of killing the disease so you may experience a minI cycle

 

[baldegale]

You would but also carbon removes medication. This is the main use of it. You can cut open the bag and remove the carbon and then you’ll still have whatever biological filtration on the cartrage but so you know the treating of a tank usually kills off a lot of the beneficial bacteria in the process of killing the disease so you may experience a minI cycle

oof wonderful, sounds stressful

 

[jacob thompson]

Yeah medications are stressful for fish, they are basically low levels of poisons but we use them because most fish can handle the low levels(not scales fish though) and it gets rid of the disease that would kill them eventually. It’s kind of crappy that it is the only way to treat the fish but that’s why everyone trys to keep the water pristine, so their is a low chance of disease inhabiting your tank.

 

[baldegale]

Yeah medications are stressful for fish, they are basically low levels of poisons but we use them because most fish can handle the low levels(not scales fish though) and it gets rid of the disease that would kill them eventually. It’s kind of crappy that it is the only way to treat the fish but that’s why everyone trys to keep the water pristine, so their is a low chance of disease inhabiting your tank.

sadly, I purchased him/her yesterday with the parasites already cause I was unaware of the symptoms and I thought it was just from stress. he/she has been fairly active and did eat already, so I don't know, it potentially could still be stress

 

[jacob thompson]

Yeah that’s the bad thing with parasites the symptoms are often the same as stress symptoms and it’s hard to differetiate in the store since you don’t know the quality of the water and how long they’ve presented with the symptoms.

 

[baldegale]

Yeah that’s the bad thing with parasites the symptoms are often the same as stress symptoms and it’s hard to differetiate in the store since you don’t know the quality of the water and how long they’ve presented with the symptoms.

plus yesterday (when I purchased) the worker told me someone came in and bought like 10-15 GBRs and I just assumed the netting process stressed him/her out. would you say its safe to wait a couple a few days or so to see if things get better? he/she is eating

 

[jacob thompson]

Yes waiting to make sure and observe more of the symptoms would be good. With parasites the decilne is very gradual so you have a little bit as long as he is still eating. That’s when to get worried with parasites.

 

[baldegale]

Yes waiting to make sure and observe more of the symptoms would be good. With parasites the decilne is very gradual so you have a little bit as long as he is still eating. That’s when to get worried with parasites.

I just wanna see if the stress of being added clears up, the other GBR that I got is doing well minus some glass surfing
the bottom one is the suspect

 

[jacob thompson]

It’s strange he is exhibiting signs of stress by just sitting on the bottom but his color is still very vibrant which is one of the first signs of illness. I honestly think it is just stress if you don’t see any stingy poop or abdominal bulges. It could be just the PH change or temperature change alone assuming nitrates were low in both the store tank and your tank. You probably just got a more sensitive gbr, not uncommon as these can be pretty delicate, and he’s just adjusting to the new water perameters.

 

[Fashooga]

You sure it has a parasite? What makes you think it has one? New fish takes time to get used to it's new surroundings. If it ate the food and the poo is brown I think your ok. If it tries to eat and spits it out and it's pooing clear white, you have a parasite.

 

[baldegale]

You sure it has a parasite? What makes you think it has one? New fish takes time to get used to it's new surroundings. If it ate the food and the poo is brown I think your ok. If it tries to eat and spits it out and it's pooing clear white, you have a parasite.

its just a potential option, I'm trying to figure everything out before things get potentially bad. I can't tell really if she fully ate, it looked like she did but I'm not positive. I took some shrimp pellets and crushed them into smaller pieces and dropped them right by it to make sure it got some instead of all the tetras eating them. it was picking at the gravel getting the pieces. I haven't seen any poop yet, I think there was some in the bag from the lfs yesterday and it was brown but I didnt examine any further cause I wasn't thinking anything. couldve been from either of them though.

It’s strange he is exhibiting signs of stress by just sitting on the bottom but his color is still very vibrant which is one of the first signs of illness. I honestly think it is just stress if you don’t see any stingy poop or abdominal bulges. It could be just the PH change or temperature change alone assuming nitrates were low in both the store tank and your tank. You probably just got a more sensitive gbr, not uncommon as these can be pretty delicate, and he’s just adjusting to the new water perameters.

temps were the same, I know lfs keeps them at 80 and mine was at 80-81. I floated then drip acclimated them

 

[Gone]

Not sure if it's relevant, but recently I had an albino cory that was laying sideways on the bottom that looked deader than a doornail. Somebody looked in the tank and said, "You've got a dead fish." I looked and said sure enough. I got a net to pull it out, and it shot across the tank and started swimming around. It's been fine ever since. Usually if they go sideways they're done. I'm wondering if he was basking in a particular water current or something.

 

[baldegale]

it looks like both of them have a tiny bulge but I don't know if its normal or not. I tried getting a good picture but I couldnt. but now, I know that the more active one is the female and the stressed/parasitic one is the male.

this is the more active female.

 

[Phish111]

I'm having to dose my main tank with API General Cure and possibly Erythromycin. Are these safe for Mystery Snails? It does not say on the packaging. TIA!

 

[Goodbye]

General Cure doesn't contain copper so it MAY be ok. I don't have any mystery snails but I have loads of bladder snails and MTS.
I used the product in conjunction with Pimafix without thinking about my inverts. It didn't harm my Amano shrimp. However, almost all of the snails crawled out above the waterline and onto the plastic rI'm of the aquarium. They stayed there until the treatment was finished and I did a large water change and added carbon.
So, it didn't kill them but it must've irritated them.
I recommend moving your mystery snails to another tank during treatment as they probably are not as hardy as my pet pest snails.
Erythromycin should not harm your snails.

 

[fish 321]

General Cure doesn't contain copper so it MAY be ok. I don't have any mystery snails but I have loads of bladder snails and MTS.
I used the product in conjunction with Pimafix without thinking about my inverts. It didn't harm my Amano shrimp. However, almost all of the snails crawled out above the waterline and onto the plastic rI'm of the aquarium. They stayed there until the treatment was finished and I did a large water change and added carbon.
So, it didn't kill them but it must've irritated them.
I recommend moving your mystery snails to another tank during treatment as they probably are not as hardy as my pet pest snails.
Erythromycin should harm you snails.

I used it with my mystery snail and they did not seem to mind but I believe I only was using half dose.

 

[Goodbye]

I used it with my mystery snail and they did not seem to mind.

It could have been the Pimafix. My whole house smelled like exotic herbs while I was using it. Lol

 

it should be ok but your better with malafex and pimpa cure combined they work very well the other cure is a risk with snails

 

[Phish111]

In my 36 g I have an Angel, 1 dwarf Gourami, 7 Panda Corys, and 5 Mystery Snails. My Angel is not eating and suspected bacterial infection. (HITH?) Need Gram Negative antibiotic. I have API General Cure.

I have set up a 10 gal QT tank tonight, using some of my sand substrate, a bio-bag of floss, ceramic rings and Bio-Max from my 36 gallon. I also rung out 2 of my sponges I have in the HOB of my 36. I have some of the ammonia from Ace Hardware that's as stout as you can get. I fed it 3 drops just to get a reading of .25. Will monitor and keep feeding my BB in QT tank until it's safe to add fish/snails.

My main question is do I need to treat my Angel and Gourami in QT tank or main tank? Or remove my snails and place them in QT tank during treatment? My Angel gets extremely stressed when netted and the last thing I want to do is stress her even more unless that is 100% the best option in getting her in the QT. Also if I do treat my main tank, will it harm my Panda Cory Cats?

Do I need to remove any of my filter media during treatment? I have a ton of media stuffed back there and DO NOT want to lose it all. I've read conflicting reports regarding this.

Any and all advice greatly appreciated!! I've had some wonderful advice to get me to this point but I believe they may be offline and I want to make sure I'm doing everything correctly and get the TX started asap. Thanks in advance for any and all answers, ideas, etc

Kris