Medicated fish food is used when sick fish refuse to consume normal foods. By adding medications directly to their food, this problem is resolved. Most pathogen-specific medications do not pose any threat at any dose level.
Our COOL MED Medicated Brine Shrimp Flake features 2% metronidazole for effective relief from hexamitosis, octomita, hole in the head disease and many causes of bloat; in addition it includes garlic as a powerful parasite killer.
Contents
Antibiotics
There are three methods of administering antibiotics to sick fish; either in the water, via injections, or through medicated food. With medicated food, antibiotics enter their digestive systems directly thereby minimising stress and handling issues.
On the Internet are many recipes for homemade medicated fish food with gelatin bases. However, Southern Regional Agricultural Center advises against this approach due to its difficulty in accurately measuring medication concentration levels; medications must be evenly spread throughout food mixture and this is often impossible due to drying heat affecting dosage levels.
Antibiotics should be seen as tools to control bacterial population growth until its immune system can eliminate them. Consult a fish health expert when choosing and prescribing antibiotics; the appropriate dosage and interval may differ based on disease type; withdrawal time could also vary, among other specifics that vary with each disease condition.
Anti-parasitic
Fish are susceptible to numerous parasites that cause disease, with some even being dangerous enough to pose threats to wild populations and habitats. Controlling such diseases is often an intractable task due to various rearing systems’ peculiarities, legislation for biocides/medication use and parasite adaptation to environmental changes.
Dietary treatments for parasites include garlic-based methods that encourage fish to consume the medicated food while others use medications to destroy parasites such as Praziquantel (a wormer) and Metronidazole; both can be found in API General Cure and Tetra/Jungle Parasite Clear products, among others.
Ideal therapies against parasitic diseases should focus on providing consumers, animals and environments with safe substances that promote consumer, animal and environmental welfare. Furthermore, antiparasitic agents with minimal environmental impacts and high efficacy should be prioritized in therapy plans.
Hormones
Medicated fish food contains hormones used for artificial reproduction and sex reversal. While artificial reproduction helps sustain seed production chains, reversal occurs when one gender of a species shows faster growth rates or weight gains than expected (Pandian & Sheela 1995). Hormonal treatments may be administered via systemic transfer methods (direct injection or silastic implant), immersion or even as part of diet supplements containing hormones.
Environmental and biological safety must always come first with any chemical usage. High doses of hormones may pollute the environment and alter endocrine systems; however, over 99% are quickly converted to water-soluble compounds after being released into the environment. Improper or illegal disposal of waste containing these compounds pollutes the environment while also being an ongoing source of contamination through medicated feed that remains uneaten by fish; continuous medication can lead to antibiotic resistant diseases as well as toxicity in fish populations. It’s best to limit medicated food only as prolonged usage could result in antibiotic resistant diseases and toxicities within fish populations as continual dosing can result in antibiotic resistant diseases as well as toxicities within them that if used frequently enough can lead to antibiotic resistant diseases and toxicities within their populations resulting in diseases or toxicities within fish populations resulting in their fish populations.
Other Ingredients
Many medicated fish foods also include non-pharmaceutical ingredients to add nutritional value or to help bind the medication together with their food, often known as “binders”. Binders include ingredients like agar, various gums, or calcium bentonite that serve as slow release mechanisms for medication into aquarium water and lessen leaching of nutrients into aquatic environments.
Other ingredients commonly found in commercially produced medicated fish foods include high-protein fish hydrolysate, mysis or brine shrimp (wet weight), wheat gluten, egg, brewers yeast, krill meal, spirulina, lecithin, Arctic copepod powder, vitamin C and choline chloride; additional vitamins, minerals and amino acids may also be added for enhanced nutritional content.
Medicated flake and pellet foods are easily accessible at pet stores or online vendors, while aquarists can create their own medicated fish food using gelatin as an anchor point – recipes can often be found online by fish enthusiasts websites. Unfortunately, such homemade remedies are seldom utilized due to two reasons: concentrations of pharmaceutical ingredients must be precise, and most sick fish refuse to eat the medicated food.
