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Question about General Cure

Discussion in 'Fish Diseases & Cures' started by light_urple, Aug 27, 2009.

  1. light_urple

    light_urple Thread Starter New Member

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    I picked up a box of General Cure yesterday after reading here it was a ready souce of Metronidazole. I was wondering 2 things though:

    1) I noticed it also contains Praziquantel. I was planning on trying it for an oscar with hole in the head, but I wondered if it would be better to just use the plain metronidazole tablets I already had? Will the Praziquantel complicate things? I don't seen it mentioned anywhere for HITH treatment, so I assume it's in there for the other things General Cure is supposed to be used for (flukes, etc).

    2) Does anyone know off the top of their head if General Cure will attack the biological filter? If so, I want to have a backup source of good bacteria standing by (from another established tank).
     
    light_urple, Aug 27, 2009
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  2. LemonDiscus

    LemonDiscus Active Member

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    1 - Dont worry about the Prazi... It wont hurt and may hit a few other issues you dont know about... Either would be fine though... your choice... But the Praziquantel treats flukes and other parasites... Parasites COULD be attacking the pits in your oscars head as a secondary infection (I believe Heximita is a secondary infection to HITH and that is why you use Metronidazole.)

    2 - No but TAKE ANY CARBON OUT! Carbon gets the medicine out and you DONT want to do that in treatement.

    Side note... General Cure Directions say to dose every 48 hours, change 20% water and redose.... NO DONT DO THAT

    Dose DAILY.... and 50%-90% Waterchange BEFORE redosing and elevate the heat within the range of 88-92.... Make sure there is water movement or the Oscar will suffocate (airstone or filter)... The first 2 doses treat with a 1.5x-2x dose of Metro (1 packet per 5 gallons of General Cure)... after the 2 heavy doses treat at recommended dose daily for another 4-6 days. By then the wounds should be healed for the most part.... After treatment.... continue DAILY 50% waterchanges for AT LEAST another week after.

    Note this thread with my experience with a Discus: <a class="postlink-local" href="http://www.theexoticfish.com/viewtopic.php?f=30&t=3474" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">viewtopic.php?f=30&t=3474</a>

    The lifespan of Metronidazole in water is approx 8 hours so the next day it actually is not treating your fish anymore!

    Water quality is most of the time the reason for HITH... Keep up your waterchanges at a above normal rate to grow HUGE HEALTHY Oscars... Oscars are very messy fish and require more care than many other fish out there.

    What size tank are you treating because each packet (there are 10) in the General Cure box treats 5-10 gallons.
     
    LemonDiscus, Aug 27, 2009
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  3. light_urple

    light_urple Thread Starter New Member

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    Keeping him has definitely been a learning experience. So much of the information I've found contradicts itself, and you definitely can't trust packaging. I've tried to read up a lot on HITH and HLLE, and I really wonder if he actually has HLLE...

    I think water conditions may have been to blame when it started, but I think that poor food choice and not feeding enough made it worse even after the water issues were fixed. He has been back on Hikari Cichlid Gold as a staple with an occasional dose of liquid multivitamin for a few months, and he seems so much better already.

    He's never had oozing or shown other symptoms of HITH (not eating, lethargy), but besides the pits, he did have what I though was a columnaris or other bacterial infection about 2 months ago which I treated with Myracin and Myracin 2. THAT took out my biological filter, but luckily, it was quickly remedied by seeding the tank with gravel and a used filter from another tank. That was the only water issue we've had in over a year. His HITH/HLLE did seem to improve after this treatment (it even looks like some of the pits are scarring over), but everything I've read about metro made me think I should give it a shot too because of its good track record. This was the first place I've seen a brand name associated with it (in your discus thread)

    He's currently in a well-filtered 55 with 20%+ waterchanges every 2-3 days. There's only one other resident (not my choice) - a small raphael catfish. I dosed the whole tank when I did the M and M2. If I'm going to do General Cure/Metro, I'd like to do the whole thing again, but DANG that's a lot of General Cure (comes in the 10 packet boxes, so I'd be using two whole boxes just to do the first two days??)

    Would I be better off mixing my own metro using the tablets I have?
     
    light_urple, Aug 27, 2009
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  4. LemonDiscus

    LemonDiscus Active Member

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    Yes you would IMO! And yes that is A LOT of General Cure! Wow... I try to treat a small tank if possible but I used to keep Oscars..

    If he/she has the pits... it HAS HITH! The not eating and lethargy comes IF you dont get control of the situation ASAP. If it is recovering you are already going back in the right direction.

    Metro will help heal the wounds... Look at my discus over a few days of treatment on the link I posted last post! You can see what a few days will do..

    Again, follow what I did and even with the Oscar you will be good... different fish but I used to TRY breeding Oscars before I got "hooked" on Discus... I have several years of experience with them!

    Hope it all works out! (BTW - the scars will NEVER go away but the holes will ;) )
     
    LemonDiscus, Aug 27, 2009
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