Dear Lelia:
Okay, that’s good! It’s great that you had a suitable medication with you and could begin treatment immediately.
As long as you have Furan2 on hand and have begun treating with it, by all means go ahead and complete your treatment regimen. It’s an effective combination of antibiotics and there’s no reason to change the medication if the suspicious oblong spots seems to be receding and responding to the nitrofuran antibiotics you are using.
Furan2 is a good combo medication that consist of two nitrofuran antibiotics (nitrofurazone and furazolidone) plus good old methylene blue. That gives it both bacteriostatic and bactericidal properties, and makes it active against various gram-negative and gram-positive bacteria. Best of all, it can be safely combined with Aquarium Pharmaceuticals antiparasitic medications to increase its effectiveness and guard against secondary infections when you are treating for parasites.
Thus, when combined with a good antiparasitic medication, a good combination drug like Furan2 can be the ultimate weapon in your medicine cabinet. It is effective against a wide range of diseases, making it a versatile shotgun for restoring order when trouble breaks out in your tank. When you suspect an infection is at work, but don’t know whether you’re dealing with fungus, bacteria, protozoan parasites or a mixed infection, don’t hold back — break out the heavy artillery and give the bugs both barrels (Furan2 + Aquarium Pharmaceutical antiparasitics)! Furan2 is especially effective for treating mild skin infections, so it could be a good drug for this particular problem, Lelia.
However, you have to take special precautions when administering nitrofuran antibiotics such as this because they are photosensitive and can be deactivated by light. That means you’ll need to darken the hospital tank while you treat the seahorse. Do not use a light on your hospital tank, cover the sides of the tank with black construction paper or something similar, and keep an opaque lid or cover on the aquarium during the treatments. Remove this cover from the aquarium only long enough to feed your seahorses. That is one of the reasons they include some methylene blue with the Furan2 — the discoloration of the water it causes helps prevent light from impairing the antibiotics.
The methylene blue and Furan2 will result discoloration of the aquarium water, turning it a shade of blue-green. This is harmless and can be removed after the treatments using activated carbon filtration.
I would continue to drop the temperature in the hospital tank, keep feeding your stallion Vibrance-enriched frozen Mysis, and complete the regimen of Furan2 while you line up the Biobandage and alternative antibiotics we discussed in my previous post. They are good medications to have on hand whether or not you need them in this instance or not.
Best of luck resolving those suspicious spots on your male, Lelia!
Respectfully,
Pete Giwojna
Ocean Rider, Inc. is an Organic Hawaiian-Based Seahorse Aqua-Farm & Aquarium that Follows Strict Good Farming Practices in Raising Seahorses and Other Aquatic Life.
