Question about Malachite Green dosage...

[parker002]

So, the actual cause of my daughter's tank stress finally surfaced yesterday - it's Ich. It's in the very early stages, only a couple of the fish have visible parasites. She introduced a new Molly recently and I'm guessing it came from there.

I had some Kordon Malachite Green on hand (not Rid Ich, no formalin or other ingredients, just pure Malachite Green) and after reading through the various AAP articles, I decided it would be safe in a partial dose for her snails and bamboo shrimp. I also decided to combine it with sulfa, since that also seemed to be recommended and safe for invertebrates.

Here's where things get confusing.

It's an 8G hex tank with about 7G of water in it. To be very safe, I followed the first set of dosing instructions - 10 drops per G of water. I added 70 drops, which equated to about 1ml of MG.

The other dosing instruction is 1 teaspoon of MG for 10G of water. 1 teaspoon is just under FIVE milliliters.

What am I missing here? The two doses provided don't appear to be even remotely close to being the same.

Because of the invertebrates, I decided to cut the dose from a full dose and used 2.5ml. The problem is that it's almost 2.5 times the dosage I added yesterday or at least it seems.

[parker002]

And the dosage I'm adding doesn't really seem to be helping. In fact, the disease appears to be progressing rather than regressing.

[devonjohnsgard]

I haven't used this brand. I see 1 tsp per 10 gal.

This may help:
www.kordon.com/kordon/products/chemical-preventatives-and-treatments-2/malachite-green#directions-for-use!

[Carl]

Often MG is not enough by itself. As well, Kordon's version while one of the safest versions, is also a weaker version.

Also, pH, KH, & GH have a direct bearing upon effectiveness.

For shimmying, often a Medicated Wonder Shell is quite effective, but it is not always safe for inverts.

If you have the time to wait, I recommend AAP Super Ich Plus or at least SeaChem ParaGuard over Kordons MG products (although I have had some success with their Herbal Ich)

Resources:
www.americanaquariumproducts.com/Aquatronics.html#super-ich
www.americanaquariumproducts.com/FritzMardelKordon.html#herbal

Reference:
www.americanaquariumproducts.com/Aquarium_Ich.html

Carl

[parker002]

All of this is complicated by the fact that we're leaving tomorrow for a week-long vacation. I can't do anything else right now, nor will I be able to continue MG treatment after tomorrow.

So I guess I'll see where the fish are (if they're not dead) after we get back and we'll go from there.

[parker002]

Back from vacation and all of the fish are still alive. The ich infestation appears to have subsided but the mollies still appear stressed. The other fish, snails, and shrimp appear to be fine. I forgot how much I dislike livebearers. LOL

[Carl]

You might try SeaChem StressGuard or at most Medicated Wonder Shells

americanaquariumproducts.com/MedicatedWonderShell.html

americanaquariumproducts.com/Seachem.html#stressguard

Carl

[parker002]

With shrimp and snails, wouldn't the medicated wonder shell be harmful? I might order some StressGuard.

[Carl]

Jan 7, 2020 23:21:32 GMT -5 parker002 said:

With shrimp and snails, wouldn't the medicated wonder shell be harmful? I might order some StressGuard.

With Shrimp yes, with snails generally no as snails are tough and the amount of copper is low

Carl

[parker002]

The mystery snails are actually breeding. Found a large clutch of eggs yesterday. I'm at a loss right now, I think I'm leaning towards removing the mollies and treating them separately in a quarantine tank. It's definitely driving me nuts, everything else is healthy and my other tank with the axolotls finally finished cycling.

[Carl]

Jan 8, 2020 15:30:48 GMT -5 parker002 said:

The mystery snails are actually breeding. Found a large clutch of eggs yesterday. I'm at a loss right now, I think I'm leaning towards removing the mollies and treating them separately in a quarantine tank. It's definitely driving me nuts, everything else is healthy and my other tank with the axolotls finally finished cycling.

I think this might be a good idea.

Although have you tried simply adding a regular AAP Wonder Shell along with StressGuard?

Carl

[parker002]

Don't have any StressGuard, we did add a new wonder shell, we use them in all of our tanks.