Fish Antibiotics

Since you will need a prescription for antibiotics it will cost whatever private vet's prescriptions cost. Then you need to add the vet's consultation fees as well. It won't be cheap. And he/she probably will want to see the fish to be able to diagnose what is wrong in case it needs something other than antibiotics.

Americans can get antibiotics over the counter. I'm not sure if they come as powders or liquids, but whichever it is they are added to the tank water.

And certain antibotics will also kill your filter bacteria. Something about gram positive and gram negative, one of them kills the filter bacteria. I'm not well up in fish antibiotics.

Oh no
It's about a 45-1hr drive I think so taking the fish is not very practical . Also if it the vet consultation fee and antibiotics then it's going to be too expensive. The consultation fees in London are £35 up !
Let's hope this new treatment does the job . It's early days yet .
So people must set up a hospital tank to treat them as destroying the filter bacteria is not going to help !
Ally

That consultation fee sounds incredibly reasonable to me in comparison with the several hundred pounds I was quoted back in 2010 albeit on a bank holiday weekend. Ultimately, primarily because I didn't think my fish was up to the stress of travelling to a vet's, I actually opted to use a specialist fish vet in the USA via justanswer.com - in fact, I used them on and off over several years while goldfish-keeping, and found them very helpful; the cost was ~£25 per query. I hadn't discovered forums such as this but the problems were quite complex, unique to goldfish and probably did require the specialist vet input.

I have read elsewhere of people sending off for the medications Kanaplex and Metroplex from the USA - they take several weeks to arrive to the UK. Perhaps that is an alternative option?

Epsom salt baths are for fish with dropsy. The salts are supposed to draw the fluid out of the fish's body, though by the time a fish gets to this stage there is usually nothing that can be done.

Methylene blue is an old fashioned remedy - old fashioned in the sense that it has been around for years - which is commonly used for preventing fungus developing on fish eggs. It's not used much in tanks because not only does it dye everything blue, it also harms the bacteria colonies. But used as a bath, yes that could be done, though after the bath I'd transfer him to a second, plain dechlorinated water bath to remove the methylene blue before returning him to his tank.
Methylene blue is also much easier to find than antibiotics and doesn't have the risks associated with over use of antibiotics (antibiotic resistant 'superbugs')

If you are prescribed antibiotics it depends on what they are. If they are the kind that kill filter bacteria you have the choice of putting the filter somewhere safe and treating the tank, or putting the fish somewhere else to treat him. Either way he'll be in a filterless container so you will need to do water changes. For meds that need dosing every day, do the water change first, then add the med. For meds that are not dosed every day, on non-dose days add enough med after the water change to replace the amount you just took out.

The filter will also need feeding if it is not in with the betta for more than 3 or 4 days.

Waterlife don't give a the ingredients on their site so I didn't know that Octozin contains dimetronidazole.

But I do know that metronidazole treats anaerobic bacteria. I was prescribed an antibiotic that didn't clear things up so a swab was taken which showed that the infection was anaerobic rather than the usual aerobic bacteria you get in skin infections. I was then prescribed metronidazole and that worked a treat 


And metronidazole can also be used to treat internal protozoan infections in fish.

My mind is going to explode . Ok I took apart the aquarium used baby bottle steriliser to clean it . Rinsed and rinsed it in the bath . Put back new sand bogwood , pebbles and some new plants . Kept the old sponge filter and ceramic beads in the old tank water , put them back . Why because I read my tropical fish book and I quote ...under other bacterial infections visible signs such as ulcers, blood streaks in fins , loss of scales , sluggish behaviour loss of colour , or swollen body with pine coning are only treatable with antibiotics and not guaranteed success !
The blood streaks in fins and loss of colour are the only two symptoms he has .

Thanks to all
Can I just say my water nitrite test has always been 0 . My ph 7.5-7.6 .
I do water changes weekly and Hoover the gravel . If the water looked oily on top possibly because I put too much food in . I would do a midweek water change . I'm now thinking that doing once a week water/ Hoover is not enough for my small tank . And from now on should do twice weekly . What do you think ?
As for stress moonbeam is the most chilled betta . He had a variety of 4 different types of food but still prefers the flaked crushed small of course !
If anything he would like consent one to one attention as he's very interactive and loves you sitting at the tank . He's thoroughly enjoying his new set up and has shown off coming through the hole in the wood a few times now !
Maybe he got bored with the old set up which he had for 6 months and will now be a renewed betta !
The only thing I know he doesn't like is the I phone and I pad , maybe an aversion to apple products 😩

He said he might be having pigmentation change . Funnily enough I'm on a betta site and put photos of him on their and several people have said the same thing calling it marbling .

I said that too here

The outline of his fins looks fine. They are not disintegrating in the way I'd expect with finrot. It's just the colour that looks a bit odd.
I would watch and wait for now. It might turn out that the pink is just his colouring. Bettas can and do change colour, particularly those that carry the marbling gene.

Hi
 :afroYes you did both say it could be colour changing . But as I'd had him 5 months I would have thought it would have done it by now . I will be interested to see what happens to kv1977 betta who has posted on here about his betta which looks like he's doing the same as mine .
Moonbeam is still swimming and eating ok so I will just keep an eyes on him . 
Ally

Glad you got an answer from the definitive source ie the company themselves.
Pedantry is clearly crucial re medications.