Metronidazole dosage

I've been researching the dosage for the Metronidazole as suggested and am now really confused. I've read conflicting dosages, this site (Delilah) says to use 100m per 40l whereas a book I have, Fishlopaedia says to use 50mg per 4.5l (I've read this dosage on a number of sites as well). Which is the correct dosage....???? I have also read that they should be medicated not only with the above dosage in the water but also via their food?

The symptoms are now as follows with the angel....

Not eating and hiding in a corner
One or two of them have pale stringy faeces
One of them are showing red streaks on the dorsal fin and at the base of the dorsal fin.

I will probably need to treat my entire tank as there are only angels in the tank and the symptoms seem to be spreading from the original angel to two others now.

 

Delilah has been banned due to her stupidness.... ignore what ever she says/said

 

Hi Veegal,

Some books recommend short baths with higher dosages, and this may be what your book may be referring to. However, for a long term in the tank treatment, a lower dosage is recommended but not as low as what Delilah has recommended.

In the Manual for Discus Health written by Dr Dieter Untergasser, a vet, he recommends 5 mg per liter. In the book called The Manual of Fish Health by Dr Chris Andrews and others (also vets) they recommend 7 mg per liter. As a result I use 7 mg per liter for treatment in the tank. Work out the volume of your tank and work out how many tablets you may need. Take two tablespoons and squash the tablets to a fine powder. Add this into a coffee mug and fill up with water, stir with a tablespoon and then add to the tank. All of the components of the tablets do not dissolve immediately and this will cause a milkiness of the water and powder will remain on the bottom of the tank, but this is not the active ingredient, in other words, the metranidazole, but a filler which is added to the tablets which is harmless. The metranidazole does dissolve completely.

Most books recommend a second treatment with the full dosage after three to five days. After three days therefore do a 30% water change and then add the full dosage again. The treatment does not harm plants or snails.

I would recommend that you try to get the fish to eat some bloodworm as they like this and the roughage in bw will be beneficial to get the gut going again.

Hope this works, but there is no reason why it should not.

Must rush as I will be in Joburg for the next two days.

Kind regards,

Dirk

 

Thanks! I'll start the treatment today

By the way, should we not edit Delilah's sticky post regarding this? If I had not done further research I would have underdosed??

 

Admins: I think it is a good idea to go and edit all sticky posts or at least ask if somebody like Prof Dirk would be kind enough to to post a reply to some of these sticky posts with updated/corrected information.

 

i keep on telling rory we need to remove her posts... but noooooo

 

Ok I will take a look at her posts. Probably remove all of them...

 

Pardon me for butting in here, but I don't know if removing the posts is the best thing to do. There are still some valid points. I was asking for updates/corrections to such posts.

 

Agreed

 

Fully agreed

Cheers
Dale

 

Does anyone know where you can find soluble Metronidazole (Powder) in South Africa?

I struggled with sick discus for months until I read a book on Malawi Cichlids by "Ad Konings" where he recommended that you use Nitrofurazone combined with Metronidazole mixed into food(Used beefheart). You have to raise the temp, I raised my water temprature to 35 degrees for 7 days.

 

Hi Vic,

Thanks for your question because it highlights some important issues in the treatment of fishes from different environments.

Malawis are cichlids that need a diet high in vegetables in other words algae in nature which are high in roughage, vitamin C and low in protein. In aquaria one of the most common problems in keeping Malawis is feeding them with diets high in animal proteins and low in vegetable matter and bulk/roughage and high in vitamin C. This results in a good absorption of these high protein diets and very fast growth of these fishes but at the same time it leads to imbalances in vitamin C intake which then brings about flagellate problems. The immune system of fishes needs vitamin C to effectively fight flagellate organisms. Then, in Malawis, the movement of the contents of the guts is speeded up by the roughage as this is not digestible, whilst high protein diets are poor in roughage, and slows down the movement of the contents of the gut. This is then an excellent place for bacteria to multiply that then cause an infection of the gut and then the whole thoracic cavity to multiply and this results in the classic "Malawi bloat" from which many Malawis die. Under these circumstances the treatment recommended by Konings is perfectly correct, the metranidazole for the flagellate organisms and the nitrofurazone for the bacteria.

When treating discus, you are dealing with a completely different fish in that they have a short gut, are used to a high protein diet, but are susceptible to flagellate organisms during periods of vitamin C shortage which is similar to the Malawis. However discus have very high protein and fat requirements in their diet and do not need so much roughage. As a result discus problems arise from flagellate organisms but not from internal bacteria that cause bloat, this is actually quite rare in discus. However, flagellate infections causing the symptoms of this disease in other words, hole-in-the-head are much more common and need to be treated with a combination of metranidozole and vitamin C in the diet, but not the nitrofurazone. The high temp treatment also helps them to overcome going off their food and not eating any more.

I hope this clarifies the issue and I would as a result not recommend the use of nitrofurazone for use in discus showing gut problems such as stringy faeces.

Kind regards,

Dirk