We've all heard herbal remedies referred to as "useless" or "snake oil"; but recent events have caused me to reexamine my position on some of these products. To be clear: I still do not believe any of these products are capable of complete eradication! However, the examples cited below provide anecdotal evidence of their usefulness for disease management purposes:
- I regularly seek out fish with diseases to treat (thank you Petco! ) However, in 4+ years now I have never once found a specimen with visible physical symptoms of disease at my LFS. But I know people who buy from him and sometimes the fish develops symptoms of ich or velvet, even if placed in a QT by itself. So how is he keeping the diseases at bay in his shop? All incoming fish get a Paraguard (aldehydes, malachite green, and fish protective polymers) bath before entering his retail system, and then are treated with Herbtana (for parasites) & Artemiss (for bacterial diseases) on a daily basis.
- Two weeks ago I was invited over to someone's house to evaluate the health of their fish. Most of the fish looked badly diseased: some had ich, others had velvet, and I also saw evidence of secondary bacterial infections. To my surprise, I was told the fish had looked like this for weeks and all these fish are currently still alive (even the ones with velvet). While I have no doubt most of these fish will eventually succumb to disease, what has been keeping the ones with velvet alive for weeks? Fritz Aquatics Parashield (Active Ingredients: Capsaicin Oil, Chitosan, D-Limonene, Manuka and Neem Oil).
- Melafix: I first tried this Tea Tree (Melaleuca) Oil product 20+ years ago for treating bacterial infections in SW fish. It failed miserably on multiple occasions, so I went back to using antibiotics. However, a good friend of mine is a FW disease guru, and has documented several cases now where this product appeared to help (and heal) freshwater fish with bad bacterial infections (and even Hexamita.) I myself recently used Melafix to "fix" a very old betta who had developed a terrible bacterial infection and other issues. This after antibiotics and methylene blue had failed to remedy the situation. Further experimentation on just freshwater fish (for now) has yielded outstanding results, and I will soon be testing this stuff out again on saltwater fish with bacterial infections.
- I can't tell you how many times now just soaking fish food in Selcon & Zoecon has made ich "go away" for stubborn friends. Of course, the parasites are still in the tank but oftentimes visible symptoms will not resurface for months. Also, I have personally witnessed how soaking fish food in Selcon & Zoecon on a daily basis has reversed the effects of HLLE (mild to moderate cases), and also expedited the "going away" process for Lymphocystis.
