# ammonia burn



## tinyteeth (Mar 12, 2003)

should i leave it alone? i dont have any meds, nor do i have time to buy any (LFS close when i get off work)


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## DonH (Jan 25, 2003)

You don't need meds. You need to find the reason why your ammonia spiked to the point where your fish can get ammonia burn. Increasing your water changes to improve water quality and adding salt will help them heal.


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## tinyteeth (Mar 12, 2003)

my water is fine, i just bought the caribe last nite

it was from shipping


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## piranha45 (Apr 8, 2003)

yeah you don't need to do anything about it, just takes a bit for it to heal


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## tinyteeth (Mar 12, 2003)

thanks for the info and replies


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## Show_Me_The_Teeth (Dec 4, 2002)

Actually you can do a couple of things. I have always used salt and kanacyen (sp?). I used salt to prevent infections and to ensure the the health of the fish. I use kanacyen as a antibiotic. Together I have ensure every fish that I have had shipped live. Kanacyen is the only medicine I use for piranhas and I always half dose it as well.

SMTT


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## DonH (Jan 25, 2003)

Show_Me_The_Teeth said:


> Actually you can do a couple of things. I have always used salt and kanacyen (sp?). I used salt to prevent infections and to ensure the the health of the fish. I use kanacyen as a antibiotic. Together I have ensure every fish that I have had shipped live. Kanacyen is the only medicine I use for piranhas and I always half dose it as well.
> 
> SMTT


 Kanacyn is a wide spectrum antibiotic that will kill both gram+ and gram- bacteria. Nitrifiers are a gram negative species of bacteria. Antibiotics will not discriminate between killing good bacteria or bad... it will happily kill both. So if your fish are suffering from ammonia burn and you put them in a tank with antibiotics, what happens after the treatment and the tank needs to cycle itself again? Also, antibiotics have been designed and tested to perform at the recommended dosage at the recommended schedule. Administering at half dosage and/or not completing the cycle will not only render the treatment useless but can produce strains of bacteria that are resistant to the antibiotic.

Just keep your fish in a clean, cycled tank, add salt to prevent infection, and let the fish's immune system take over to heal themselves.


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## Show_Me_The_Teeth (Dec 4, 2002)

Don,

What would be your course of action when recieving fish from the mail and they have burns then. I have had fish that lost both sides of skin due to burning. I used kanacyn to clean them up. I treated my 200g which also had 2 wet/drys. I never had a problem with lossing my benficial bacteria. My tank did not even spike. Half dosing is highly recommened with pitranhs becuase I have seen so many of them die form people giving out full dosages of meds.

Not to mention they are scaleless fish and the meds say to half dose on all tetra and scaleless fish.

SMTT


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## DonH (Jan 25, 2003)

I have received fish in pretty bad condition also. In fact, I recently received a large rhom that came in with ammonia burn, fin rot (to the point where the pectoral fins were just shortened rays), and cuts that are starting to show cottony growth. I used salt at 0.3% (3 tsp/gallon) administered in 3 equal parts spread through 3 days. I also did 20% water changes every few days and replaced the salt to keep it at 0.3%. No antibiotics were used. I reserve the use of antibiotics or stronger parasiticides for times when I am not seeing any improvements with salt. Results? Two weeks later, both eyes were clear, fins have completely regenerated, and body wounds were healed. There's a thread in the pic gallery if you need proof. Click here

Also, I think you are confusing antibiotics with most other meds that are designed to kill parasites (Clout, QuickCure, formalin, malachite green, etc.) which even say on the box to use at half dosage for tetras and scaleless fish. Antibiotics are designed to be used at full strength and throughout the treatment period. Having said that, I would follow the directions on the box.

There are many types of antibiotics out there. Some are derived from penicillin, some are sulfur based, some treat gram negative, gram positive, and some treat both. Gram positive antibiotics will not kill your nitrifiers. It will even say that it's safe for your biological bed on the box. Gram negative antibiotics and wide spectrum antibiotics will kill your nitrifiers because that's what they are designed to do _when used as directed_. If you have tested your water parameters and you didn't see a glitch, it might be due to the fact that you used it at half dosage.


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## Show_Me_The_Teeth (Dec 4, 2002)

Great info for all.


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