[boo470]

I have a 55-gallon tank with black ghost knifefish, angle fish, zebra danios, platies, cory cats, and pleco.

My danios have red gills. My LFS said that as long as the meds do not include copper they would be safe with the black ghosts. Since the black ghosts are my favorite, I wanted to double-check that information before I do anything. My LFS gave me tetracycline. He said that if I was super worried I should do half doses for a longer period.

I do have a 10-gallon tank that I could use as a quarantine tank for the danios but I did not know if this is something that I should treat the entire tank for. The platies are bright red so I cannot tell if there is anything wrong with their gills. The angle, cory cats and the pleco look good. My largest black ghost is 7 inches and I would not want to put it in a 10-gallon tank.

pH is 8
Ammonia nondetectible
Nitrites nondetectible

Thanks

[Frank M. Greco]

In this case, your dealer is correct. NEVER use copper medications in freshwater tanks. While there are some safe formulations out there, most can cause more problems than the disease.
Tetracycline may help with the inflammed gills of the danios, but it may also harm your biological filter so monitor both ammonia and nitrite levels for several days after the treatment. The addition of some aquarium salt (teaspoon per gallon) may also help.

Frank M. Greco
Professional Aquarist
http://www.frankmgreco.com
http://www.franksaquarium.com

[boo470]

I am more worried about the black ghost knife fish being harmed by the Tetracycline.

Do you have any additional information on black ghosts?

All the research I read, said

"Since this is a scaleless fish standard fish treatments for illness may not work and cause death of the Black Ghost Knife Fish"

Thank you for your help.
Bonnie

[Frank M. Greco]

Bonnie, tetracycline will not harm your fish (this is true of any antibiotic).

As to "Since this is a scaleless fish standard fish treatments for illness may not work and cause death of the Black Ghost Knife Fish" I would say that this statement is based upon inaccurate information. Early on in the hobby, we had little knowledge of medications and doses, and so fishes did die from improper dosing. Unfourtunately, this information still pervaids the hobby today, and is given new life in statements like the one above.

As to information on the knifefish, check out:

soma.npa.uiuc.edu/~mmaciver/pubs/Nels99a.pdf and

http://www.fishbase.org/Summary/Spec...name=albifrons

You can also go to google.com and type in black ghost knifefish. You should get plenty of references that way.

Frank M. Greco
Professional Aquarist
http://www.frankmgreco.com
http://www.franksaquarium.com