Malachite Green With Antibiotics

Is this okay or should they never be used together?

What about salt with antibiotics?

 

What are you trying to do?

 

Can I just please ask that you read this thread before using antibiotics because it can actually cause an effect on your aquarium, the ocean life and even us!

Important - Please Think Before You Medicate!

 

Thunder
Have a serpae tetra that appears to have a bacterial infection and it's presenting some fungus which is reduced/removed with malachite Green + salt, however the underlying infection appears to have moved/spread. I'm doing another round of Malachite and salt and about ready to add erythromycin.

Mary
I'm 62 years old and I've been taking antibiotics my whole life. Admittedly I don't take them very often and for exactly the reasons that you would imply. I don't want to have to fight off superbugs.

 

Be sure you use the right gram positive or gram negative for it. There are broad spectrums that are said to treat both. As for mixing I can not say. I have never done that. I have not used malachite green in 45 years.

 

All I've ever used for 45 years is malachite green and salt, followed by lots of water changes.

I was recently talked into buying expensive antibiotics : API General cure, furazone and erythromycin

 

You understand I spent over $50 to cure disease on $25 worth of fish? In the old days I would have never done this.

If salt, malachite green or methylene blue were not effective I would just move on to some stronger fish.

Eventually I grew fish to live10 and 15 years, but we're not talking about sensitive fish either nor expensive ones nor rare ones in except that they did live a long time.

In my experience with common fish only one out of six lived a long time and only one out of 30 lived a really long time.

But I am a computer guy and no vet, so what the heck do I know about fish disease?

 

Like how do you tell if it's gram-positive or gram-negative without doing the culture? Is there some kind of electronic detector nowadays?

 

I was an importer for many years and owned a LFS for too many years so we're talking lots of fish. My go too shotgun drug treatment was a half dose of malachite, a full dose of furazone and salt for 3 days, longer if needed. It worked very well on most problems. So I would say your right on with General cure, salt and malachite.

 

Thank you buddy I did that almost exactly.
I gave the tank a half dose of Weco Nox-ich which is malachite green and salt. I gave the problem fish a slightly stronger dip.


The next day I gave another half dose of Nox-ich to the tank and the first dose of furazone. 12 hours later I changed 3/4 the water & I left the fish rest for 12 hours with clean water.

The third day I gave another half dose Nox-ich plus furazone. 4th day the same, then 12 hrs changed 3/4 the water.

The wound diminished at first but now it is about the same again. I decided to try the erythromycin.

Anyhow, I think you have answered my question. Malachite green and salt can be used with antibiotics

 

By the way I did try the API general cure for 4 days before using the malachite green and furazone treatment, but to no noticeable effect.

 

I can tell you an old timer, I also use Nox-ich, you can't bear the price!

 

Like how do you tell if it's gram-positive or gram-negative without doing the culture? Is there some kind of electronic detector nowadays?

That is the thing, I really do not have much experience at all with sick fish. I guess I have lived a charmed life. Ick 3 times in the last 50 years and a couple of light boughts with fin issues (mating cichlids play rough ) so I am not sure. I have heard there is some way but the others here might know. The broad spectrum seems to work well from the reviews I have read over the last few years.

 

Okay I'm getting that broad-spectrum antibiotics treat both gram-positive and gram-negative, but I'm not sure if EM or Furazone qualify in either respect. (or both)

 

I've been keeping tropical fish for 45-plus years and I have always used aquarium salt as both a cure and a prophylactic method.

My problem is maybe that I didn't use enough salt.

Until lately I didn't realize how hard it was on the bottom fish. I think I may have salted some poor corydoras to death.

Now I am very careful about adding salt to the tank, and if I can really detect it on my reef tank hygrometer I know I've got more than I want.

I have another tank with the same issue and it houses a betta, a neon, and 3 corydoras.

The betta has a spot on its nose. I've been giving the tank Nox-Ich and he got a fast dip, but I only put half dose in the tank because I have the Cories and neon.

So I have one sick tank & my quarantine tank is full.

Somebody mentioned using Epsom salts as a dip for bettas and I thought I might try that for him but he doesn't appear to be pineconing per se. That doesn't mean he hasn't got internal infections.

I don't know if the Epsom salts would be more or less harsh than aquarium salt.

I probably only used it on myself maybe once in my entire life.

 

I only use salt when a tank has a problem. It is rough on bottom fish. I think furazone is gram neg and pos. A lot of internal problems are cured with metronidazole.

 

Well I left the malachite Green in the involved tanks, and added the EM to both.

After half a day I don't see any positive change in the betta, but the serpae does seem to be improving. He's been on malachite longer than the betta so that's expected.

I mixed them up some medicated food with garlic and I'll see if I can feed them tomorrow.

 

I didn't have much luck with the garlic infused food. I'll try without the garlic tomorrow.

I gave each tank another half dose of malachite today.

They both got more EM as well. I'm seeing positive behavior in all the fish.