This is not the “Adventures in Fatherhood in the Age of YouTube “news”; or, What? How the Hell Did You Hear About That?” that I mentioned to a few friends today. This is instead a post about the Seachem medication Metronidazole.

Product Description: Metronidazole™ is an effective and safe treatment for several protozoan and anaerobic bacterial diseases of fish (Cryptocaryon, Hexamita, and Ichthyophthirius). It does not adversely affect the filter bed and is easily removed with carbon. There is little danger of overdosing. Usual dose is 125 mg/10 gallons.

Sizes: 5 g, 100 g

Types of Infection Treated: Parasitic, and Bacterial

Directions: Use 1–2 measures (each about 100 mg) for every 40 L (10 gallons). Measurer included. Repeat every 2 days until symptoms disappear. Turn off UV, ozone, and chemical filtration. To feed, blend one measure with about 1 tablespoon of frozen food paste. To minimize loss during feeding use with Focus™. Food may be refrozen.

Active ingredient: metronidazole (100%)

We are still not sure just what got into our Molly and Platy tank. Two different ick treatments failed, two different fungus treatments failed, Tetracycline failed, and so did Erythromycin for body slime; mouth fungus, Furunculosis, bacterial gill disease, and hemorrhagic septicemia. All total fails. I’ve never seen anything like it before in the twelve years I’ve been keeping and caring for fish. Over the course of six weeks, we lost about forty fish, including some of our most beautiful and mature lyretail sailfin Mollies. Our rather large population of Sunset Platies took the infection the worst, and we only have about 8 left, with three in isolation, and that from a population that we couldn’t count.

On the plus side, the fish responded almost immediately to the Metronidazole medication. The fry in particular have become very active, leaving their lava rock caves for the wide open weeks before they would have normally otherwise done. And I think that we are otherwise over the worst of it now.

But in the future for my scaly friends, I’ll be starting with Seachem Metronidazole, rather then working my way to it by process of elimination. And any new arrivals that come in bags, rather then birthed on site at it were, will be treated for at least a week with the Seachem Metronidazole prior to going into general population.