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Does anyone have any experience using either of these? I ask because they were recommended to me to treat some of my amazon dwarf cichlids that are most likely wild caught. I know the dosage to use,so thats not a problem, but finding metronidazole has been. If anyone has any comments on this please post.

All depends on what symptoms your fish are displaying...

Metronidazole is a man-made antibiotic used to treat infections in humans.

--garyroland.

I have used Metronidazole before to treat hexamita in 6 2" discus. The closest you can get is Hex-a-mit sold by Aquatronics. It seems Aquatronics went out of business and Hex-a-mit is sold out! I was told that hex-a-mit was "weak" but the only other way to get it was a real Dr. or a vet. 5 of the 6 made it, the one that didnt make it refused to eat the tetra bits soaked in it. This is a very hard drug to use, it will kill your filter, you have to do large stable WC's. If the fish dont have holes in their head or white feces I wouldn't use it.

Strangely they are quite common and easy to find here in Indonesia.

Despite what the others have said, what I have heard is that Met.it is very mild and and does not have any side effects on the bio filter. It is quite often used as a prophylactic treatment of wild caught fish, who tend to have all sorts of weird and wonderful parasites lurking internally.I've read quite a few hobbyists who keep this type of fish as saying it's indispensable.

I used it once many months ago for a gourami with internal parasites. Had no effect on the filter or caused any stess to the fish. My understanding is that it actually oxidises in a few hours.

---

Some days you're the pigeon and some days you're the statue.

Remember that age and treachery will always triumph over youth and ability.

Strange as it may seem, Metronidazole, tested on rats and mice, showed up as a carcinogen...

In humans, the side effects are numerous, depending on the individual's tolerance to the drug.

--garyroland.

I am actually using Seachem's Metronidazole right now. It was recommended to me by the LFS I always go to because it does not kill off all the good bacteria in the tank. I however am using it for an illness right now. Haven't exactly pin pointed said name of this problem but I have not had any bad effects on my fish as of yet. I've personally had good experience with the SeaChem products so far.

http://www.seachem.com/products/product_pages/Metronidazole.html

Edit: I also wanted to say, what will effect rats/humans in one way, will not be the same for all other species on the planet.
A good example is Ethoxyquin, outlawed in cat/dog/human foods, but abundant in fish food. It as well, is carcinogenic.

Last edited by AngelZoo at 06-Oct-2004 11:14

you can also find the metronidazole in metro-meds medicated food at goldfishconnection.com. Here's a link:

http://www.goldfishconnection.com/shop/details.php?productId=9&catId=5

I thank you all for your input. I had no idea seachem made metronidazole. I have never really kept alot of wild caught fish(at least not a whole tank population made up of them). As long as I can get them to breed once(as hard as that will be) then their parasite free young should not suffer form the side effects of the drugs. Oh well, I have to wait and see.

thanks again.

Why not use something less potent than metronitazole if you just want to flush them clean?

They sell fish wormers, they are less stressful and easier to get, and should do the job you require, however, fish are built to be able to handle a reasonable parasite burden for the most part. I dont know how well that translates to captivity/semiclosed systems.

For animals, the entire universe has been neatly divided into things to (a) mate with, (b) eat, (c) run away from, and (d) rocks. - Terry Pratchett