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Post by BeansMom on Nov 1, 2004 19:32:32 GMT -5
Ok, by Saturday morning, Adolph was so covered with ICH, that his EYES are totally clouded with it. This is in part a rant, so here goes, I have NEVER and I mean NEVER had a Mardel product ever work on any of my fish. M1 and M2 given to Smarty's fin rot were useless; the rot just marched on. I had to put him in Tetracycline to see any improvement. M1 and M2 for Trigger - nothing. And these products are three times the price of any others! So much for their Coppersafe. Adolph has stopped eating (now for day 3). I pulled out 50% of the water (my local Tropical guy advised), and put them all in Quick Cure. There is quite a bit of improvement in the number of visable ICH, but Adolph is a MESS. He has sores all over him - in part from the body slamming in the gravel, and in part from one of the Shubunkins mercilessly, constantly, picking on him. My fish need another round (I am to pull out 25% tonight and start the second of 3 treatments), and they also need an antibiotic, but you can't use one with this ICH Treatment (or any other I saw except for Coppersafe). I am very close to losing Adolph. My question is, should I treat with the Sulpha, and then do another round of the ICH med, or should I do another round of the ICH med and then treat with the Sulpha (assuming he even survives)? As you can tell, I am EXTREMELY upset. Oh, by the way, I purchased a heater for this tank, and have been slowing raising the temp to 78, but dare not go beyond that. Also, should I figure a way to remove the Shubunkins? I really need some help here, so you recommendations will be most appreciated.
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Post by amanichen on Nov 1, 2004 21:04:10 GMT -5
Truthfully, I'm not a big fan of mardel products either. Maracyn 1 BTW, is just erythromycin, which isn't really effective on anything, and I have experience to confirm that. Needless to say I don't go out of my way to recommend Mardel products.
The only ones I've used have been coppersafe (marine fish) and maracide (old formula.) For ich I've used salt and/or Rid ich+. Quick Cure has the same ingredients as Rid Ich+.
As for the antibiotics...I've never personally mixed sulfa with formalin and mal green, but I've never heard anything that recommended against it.
The ich is going to be the biggest problem at the moment, so treat it first. Stay away from the antibiotic unless the sores become infected.
As for removing fish -- don't bother. Leave them all in unless they're harassing each other.
Sorry, I should have told you to use the rid ich or quick cure earlier.
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Post by Rachel on Nov 2, 2004 10:55:36 GMT -5
Hi Beansmom, I just wanted to jump in and wish you the best of luck with treatment. And to also mention as an interesting side note, you're not the first person to feel that way about Mardel products.
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Post by BeansMom on Nov 2, 2004 17:03:36 GMT -5
You are exactly right, Amanichen, I checked the ingredients on the Quick Cure before adding to the tank, and it is the same as my Rid-Ich+. It seems to be doing the trick. Last night I changed out 25% of the water as instructed following the first round. I did not instill another round, perferring to see what it looks like tonight. I am not seeing any "gravel itching" this morning, and the whole tank appears to be more active. I know there is still plenty of the med in the water, and without changing my carbon and keeping the temp up, it should continue to work, shouldn't it? And Rachel, I'm glad to hear that you also agree on my experience with Mardel. Too bad there are so few other choices.
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Post by amanichen on Nov 2, 2004 17:22:04 GMT -5
You are exactly right, Amanichen, I checked the ingredients on the Quick Cure before adding to the tank, and it is the same as my Rid-Ich+. I didn't read your reply carefully enough and I didn't think to tell you to use the rid ich+ because it had worked for you in the past. With aquatronics leaving the consumer market, it's going to be more difficult to find good meds. I've selectively used Mardel's products, and Jungle doesn't impress me either -- save for JFE which is just a shotgun-style cocktail, albeit a decent one because of its ingredients. It's getting harder to obtain working meds, and it's getting harder to get fish that are healthy from the LFS (a number of reasons behind this.) I'm always very careful about buying fish, so I avoid most problems, but not everybody can.
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