Scuba Guy
01-20-2007, 01:37 PM
Has anyone used Gentamycin?
Back in November, I broke the rules and introduced some angels to my established tank without quarantining them. Sure enough, my angels started dying within days ... everyone of them. I was horrified. I could tell it was some sort of bacterial infection since the fins were quickly rotting away on all of my fish, fins were clamping, fish were listless and stopped eating. All within 48 hours.
I didn't want to treat the whole tank believing water changes and increasing temps would take care of it.....wrong. With a bacterial infection, the last thing you want to do is increase the temperature. It just speeds up the infection.
I bought more angels from a reliable shop in town to start over (grow juveniles into breeders) and sure enough, they started to show the same symptoms....this time I had to act fast.
I put Gentamycin in the entire tank according to the dosage level.
This stuff is a miracle drug. Within hours, my fish started to recover, first the fins unclamped, breathing became less labored and most important, they started to attack their food again. The fin rot after several months is now almost healed - especially on veils.
My question is : are there any lingering affects of the Gentamycin. I have done many water changes since then, so the residual Gentamycin must be near zero....but my tank has this milky hazy look to it. It is not crystal clear like it used to be. Use of a diatom filter helps, but only for a short while (the haze comes back within hours).
My thinking is that the Gentamycin wiped out the natural bacteria in the tank and that I may be having a bloom as the tank repopulates (w/ good bacteria?). The bio filter seems fine since all of my chemical readings are zero (including Nitrate because of the plants), NH3/NO2, etc.
Is this normal? I would think after a few months, the tank would return to normal - but maybe it takes longer....
Back in November, I broke the rules and introduced some angels to my established tank without quarantining them. Sure enough, my angels started dying within days ... everyone of them. I was horrified. I could tell it was some sort of bacterial infection since the fins were quickly rotting away on all of my fish, fins were clamping, fish were listless and stopped eating. All within 48 hours.
I didn't want to treat the whole tank believing water changes and increasing temps would take care of it.....wrong. With a bacterial infection, the last thing you want to do is increase the temperature. It just speeds up the infection.
I bought more angels from a reliable shop in town to start over (grow juveniles into breeders) and sure enough, they started to show the same symptoms....this time I had to act fast.
I put Gentamycin in the entire tank according to the dosage level.
This stuff is a miracle drug. Within hours, my fish started to recover, first the fins unclamped, breathing became less labored and most important, they started to attack their food again. The fin rot after several months is now almost healed - especially on veils.
My question is : are there any lingering affects of the Gentamycin. I have done many water changes since then, so the residual Gentamycin must be near zero....but my tank has this milky hazy look to it. It is not crystal clear like it used to be. Use of a diatom filter helps, but only for a short while (the haze comes back within hours).
My thinking is that the Gentamycin wiped out the natural bacteria in the tank and that I may be having a bloom as the tank repopulates (w/ good bacteria?). The bio filter seems fine since all of my chemical readings are zero (including Nitrate because of the plants), NH3/NO2, etc.
Is this normal? I would think after a few months, the tank would return to normal - but maybe it takes longer....