Pencilfish sensitive to medication?

[dskidmore]

As suggested on another thread I dosed my display tank with parasite clear and melafix. (I choked at the $30 for a Maracyn 2 regimine.) I came home 4 hours after dosing, and one pencilfish is dead, and the other is missing. They had previously been the healtiest acting members of my tank. Are they sensitive to medication? Was it a mistake to combine those two treatments?

Edit: Second pencilfish also found dead. All other fish seem ok.

 

[dskidmore]

No-one has experince with this?

 

[Devilishturtles]

I have no experience with pencilfish, but understood that they are a species sensitive to water conditions. It could be possible that the antibiotics (which sometimes will mess with your cycle) harmed your water conditions and that that is what caused the deaths.

Did you test the water?

Regardless, very sorry to hear about your loss.

 

[dskidmore]

I had a very hurried weekend, did not have time to test the water. I moved the ammonia alert to the display tank, but I don't really trust it. I have had nitrite spikes in the past from maracyn 2 treatment, I thought melafix and parasite clear were supposed to be more gentle on the biofilter.

Cloudiness developed the day after the fish died, it is possible there was a nitrite spike that I did not detect. I have read about them being sensitve to nitrite and nitrate.

So, how would you medicate pencilfish if they became ill? Almost any antibiotic will mess with the water conditions. If you do too many water changes, you remove the medication.

 

[Devilishturtles]

Hope that you can treat with something other than an antibiotic? I suppose if not, you would just have to hope for the best. It's tougher to medicate in a small tank, because things can change to rapidly. (water conditions).

 

[dskidmore]

Well, I've proved that medicating in a large tank is not much simpler! Conditions are more stable, but not enough for the pencilfish.