Medicating during fish in cycle

[mikey5290]

New to the site and looking for some help

Current set up:
40gallon mbuna tank
Marineland 350 HOB as well as sponge filter.
Up and running for 3 weeks (fish in cycle), started with Tetra safe start. Yes I am aware this was not the best way to begin my cichlid obsession, bad LFS advice....add safe start and add the fish.....
1 red zebra
3 Yellow lab
1 yellow top jalo

water as of today:
temp-79.8
ammonia-0
nitrites-.25
nitrates-20
(performed 30% pwc) immediately after testing
Using Prime with all pwc and as needed.


Current issue
My red zebra has had long white poops for the last 3 days; it seems like thats all he does. As soon as one falls he's producing another.
And tonight one of the yellow labs appears to have the same issue.
All fish are eating and appear to be behaving normal.

How do I treat this?
Do I medicate the whole tank?
Isolate the 2 fish and use medicated food?

From what I have read and been told, I believe I would be better off treating the whole tank with medication and or medicated food.
Will this affect the cycling in the tank?

Lots of questions and hopefully I have given enough detail that someone can point me in the right direction.

Thanks
Mike

 

[mikey5290]

No opinions at all?

Well just to update then..

Went to Big Als today and got some Seachem Polygard and Focus. Soaked some pellets and fed the whole tank.
All fish including the red zebra did try the soaked pellets but apparently the taste is awful because they all spit them out over and over. Tried soaking some crisp style food and had some better success but still a lot of spitting of the food.
I left the house for a couple hours and when I came back 99 percent of the blue pellets were no longer on the substrate. So they either dissolved or the fish finally decided they were hungry enough to eat them. Hopefully some of the medication ended up in their bellies.

Any advice on how to make the soaked food more palatable? I thought I read about garlic somewhere (wife thinks I am crazy).

Mike

 

[howdyheidi]

I consider myself a beginner, but I thought the white stringy poo was an overall sign of stress and not something specific? Hopefully someone will help you.

 

[Delapool]

How are they getting on?

 

[mikey5290]

How are they getting on?

First off, thanks for reminding me to update.. Hopefully someone else can find this helpful.

So, I did try adding some homemade garlic water (just minced garlic in some tank water left overnight) to the medicated food but with no luck. I am not 100% any of it got eaten but a lot of tasting and spitting it out. I stuck with the advice I was given and fed this medicated food for 3 days, nothing else.
Didn't really see too much improvement, but nobody got any worse either.

So I read about another recommended treatment involving soaking the food in a 3% concentration of epsom salts. It apparantly acts as a mild laxative and diuritic to help to help the fish pass the parasite, with no real side effects.
Wish I could remember whos post it was so I could give them credit.
Fed this to my fish monday morning and it was devoured. By monday evening both my red zebra and yellow lab were passing more normal looking stools (not white and thread like). My red zebra has suddenly found new energy and is more active than ever, even challenging my jellowtop jalo which is usually the tank boss.

And the great part is it did not impact the tanks cycle, in fact water parameters were
Monday--0/0/5 (amm/nit/nitrate)
Tuesday--0/0/20 (30%PWC)
I think cycle is almost complete...

Also purchased a 75gallon today to rehome them all into once I know the BB has established a solid base. I now know the tank they are in will very soon (if not already) be too small. I will just switch over the filters, media and substrate.

Thanks
Mike

 

[Delapool]

Yes, I've seen that on Epsom salts and wondered how effective it would be.

The Seachem Polyguard looked good for bacterial and external parasites, not sure on internal - still researching quinacrine dihydrochloride.

Have they lost much weight?

I did wonder if anything had changed in the tank three days ago. It seemed odd - anything for parasites or feeding that didn't agree I had assumed would show up three weeks ago when you got them. Just curious as most problems I have tend to bacterial or fungal related.