Metro Doesn't Work! PLEASE HELP!!

[Gooose]

HI everyone, i would greatly appreciate any help anyone can give me. About two weeks ago i realized one of my discus was really sick, and when i saw white poop(long and stringy) coming out, and a hole in the head, i decided to quarentine him. i treated him with metronidazole for about a week, (250/10 gal) every 8 hours and unfortunately i have seen no improvement. he still doesnt eat and isnt looking any better. is there anything last resort measure i can do to save him, i really would hate to lose him considering he is, or was, my most beautiful fish. thank you so much for any help and hopefully we can save this guy. ANY suggestions would be appreciated(even crazy ones), thanks:(

[dntx5b9]

I heard Jungle Parasite Clear works well. I never had luck treating discus with Metro, so I am going to buy some JPC to have it handy just in case.

[fishgeek]

i would suggest the dose should be about 5 times that
i use 25mgs/litre though it is not applied as often as you are doing

metronidazol is not particularly water soluble and it may be that at the lower levels there is never a high enough plasma level in the fish

if the fish is eating try to get it internally
crushing metronidazol and allowing filter feeders like daphnia to swim in it and ingest it can be a nice way if you are happy feeding live foods

andrew

[j.c fishfan]

How are you treating it with metro?

Try getting the discus out and squirting the medication into its mouth.

HTH

Jamie

[Pauluk]

Tetra (the fish experts) have published an article and state using metro at more than 10mg per litre is both unecessary and can cause side effects like cancer to fish.......

If you're in a country where Emtryl (dimetridazole) is available, then this would be the drug of choice used at 5mgs per litre with the fish being left in it for 3 days, Tetra tested both substances and proved metro is just a flagellate suppressor, whereas Emtryl was proven to destroy them.

Also please bear in mind if the fish is eating and not going dark or showing signs of fin erosion, then it probably has a digestive dissorder rather than a flagellate problem.

If this is the case a combination treatment of interpet no.9 combined with flubenol 15 has proven to sort this, and this would be the obvious way forward if there are no proven flagellate symptoms, increasing the metro dose to a level above 10mg per litre would be foolhardy and possibly dangerous, according to the experts, so please don't go there...........................

[Pauluk]

Tetra (the fish experts) have published an article and state using metro at more than 10mg per litre is both unecessary and can cause side effects like cancer to fish.......

If you're in a country where Emtryl (dimetridazole) is available, then this would be the drug of choice used at 5mgs per litre with the fish being left in it for 3 days, Tetra tested both substances and proved metro is just a flagellate suppressor, whereas Emtryl was proven to destroy them.

Also please bear in mind if the fish is eating and not going dark or showing signs of fin erosion, then it probably has a digestive dissorder rather than a flagellate problem.

If this is the case a combination treatment of interpet no.9 combined with flubenol 15 has proven to sort this, and this would be the obvious way forward if there are no proven flagellate symptoms, increasing the metro dose to a level above 10mg per litre would be foolhardy and possibly dangerous, according to the experts, so please don't go there...........................

[fishgeek]

can you post a link to the tetra article please paul?


refrence for dose listed in my post is BSAVA manual of ornamental fish 1996

If you're in a country where Emtryl (dimetridazole) is available, then this would be the drug of choice used at 5mgs per litre with the fish being left in it for 3 days.

here is a scientific paper with dose's for dimetridazol of 80mgs/l in discus affected with cryptobia(a flaggellated parasite) http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/q...=pubmed_docsum

just to show that dose's for different infections/situations can vary widely

Tetra tested both substances and proved metro is just a flagellate suppressor, whereas Emtryl was proven to destroy them.

another link showing that both medications have a similar efficacy against spironucleus as a flagellated parasite, both are called inhibitors
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/q...=pubmed_docsum

Also please bear in mind if the fish is eating and not going dark or showing signs of fin erosion, then it probably has a digestive dissorder rather than a flagellate problem.

i may be misunderstanding this statement, are you suggesting that a flagellate problem can not be a digestive problems aswell?

obviously the correct thing to do is make a firm diagnosis
then establish the correct treatment and the most efficacious method of administration
unfortunately in the aquatic hobby that rarely happens

andrew

[samir]

Here's an entire paper supporting Andrew's point of view.
http://www.int-res.com/articles/dao/38/d038p047.pdf

Goose, maybe you should up dosage to 500/10 gal or try an alternate like dimetridazole. Have you used metro before. Generally anything available over the counter is abused and is not very effective.
if the fish starts eating feed him 1.5g metro per 100 gram food till the poo is solid for 3 or 4 days.

[j.c fishfan]

DO NOT USE DIMETRONIDAZOLE!!!

I know someone who keeps tropheus (they are prone to bloat) and he treated with dimetronidazole he then figured out that dimetro kills all benificial bacteria.Not only did he have a case of bloat on his hands he had a nasty case of ammonia poisoning!!

Please dont use dimetro for yours and your fishes sake.

Jamie

[samir]

he could have put them in a hospital tank ???