Antibiotics?

[missgingersnap]

Hi all. I have a sick dwarf gourami. I have another thread going about him so some of you may know a bit of what's going on already.
He has a wound on his side. It was red and swollen and a few days later there was white stuff on it. His poop is long white and stringy. He hides most of the time and isn't eating much at all. Tuesday night I used jungle parasite clear. He seems a little better...not hiding as much and not darting away whenever I approach. His wound is no longer swollen and there is only a little white stuff there now. It's also sunken in a bit. There is only one wound. I have pimafix and melafix and was planning on using that tonight after a waterchange. I was also advised to use some sort of anantibiotic. Can anyone tell me what kind I should get and where they sell them. Or if anyone has any other ideas to help my poor fish. Thanks and sorry to be so long winded
A 0ppm
Nitrite 0ppm
nitrate 10ppm
ph 6.6ish

 

[joy13]

The thing about antibiotics they can kill your cycle or cause your tank to mini cycle. It is best to treat it separate from your main tank even a new bucket with a corner filter and a heater will work as a hospital tank.

 

[jsoong]

Best antibiotic to use in the water would be Kanamycin (Kanaplex). You might have trouble getting it in a typical PetSmart .... BigAl's has it (at least in Edmonton.)

Next best is Erythromycin. This is widely available as generic & also as Maracyn II in lfs. However, a lot of bacteria is now resistant to Erythro.

<If the fish is eating, feeding an antibiotic containing food is better than adding antibiotics to water.>

As Joy said, you risk killing your bio-filter with antibiotics, so it is best used in a hospital setup. Personally, I would not be mixing in so many meds (Parasite clear + Primafix + Malafix). It is generally better to give one treatment time to work & move to the next only if it is failing. The shotgun approach often do more harm than good & really should be reserved as a last resort.