Maracyn useless for freshwater fish?

[fearlessfisch]

I was just visiting one of the links from the top of this forum, fishpalace.org, and noticed that they mention that gram-positive external bacterial infections are exceedingly rare in freshwater fish.

Maracyn is a gram positive medication. Does this explain why it has never worked when I have used it? Although I actually have had very little success with Maracyn-2, either, and it supposedly works on both gram-positive and negative infections.

I have heard people here praise Kanacyn as a medication for bacterial illnesses. Is this a widespread sentiment? Any other highly recommended meds? I am still fighting something in my tank and am getting really tired of fish illness and death.

 

[Zagz]

What are the symptoms of your fish? It's hard to recommend meds when you don't know what is wrong with the fish. I have had success with Maracyn II but have not used Maracyn personally.

 

[Devilishturtles]

My understanding was that they are both broad spectrums but Maracyn is moreso positive and Maracyn-Two is moreso negative. Basically, it is worthless unless you think you may have an odd strain of gram positive bacteria, then treat wth Maracyn.

 

[fearlessfisch]

Thanks, Zagz and Devilishturtles.

I lost all my rainbows recently to what I thought was parasites. The last one died over a week or two ago. None of the other fish ever had any visible symptoms.

Now I have a dwarf flame gourami with a small hole in his dorsal fin and two small pale spots on his body.

 

[BillD]

My personal experience is that Erthromyacin is next to useless, and Maracyn II is not great. Kanamyacin has been far and away the best antibiotic I have used. However, the dosage on the package I had was only about 1/3 of what it should have been. According to the Manual of Fish health, from Tetra books, the dosage for Kanamyacin, is 12 or 12mg per liter. Maracyn II is minocyline, which is a tetracycline type drug, which means it efficacy is affected by calcium in the water. If your water is hard, the dosage needs to be increased. I don't know by how much, but I have read, as much as 5 times, in really hard water.
Maracyn, is actually good for one thing, and that is for killing cynobacteria (blue green algae), at half dose.
In my opinion, if the fish are eating, a food containg antibiotics would be preferable, as direct ingestion is far better than a drug bath. Tetra and Jungle both make an antibiotic food.

 

[fearlessfisch]

Thanks, all. I finally found and ordered some Kanamycin today. I will let you know how it goes.