Fish Weight Calculator / Medicated Fish Food Mix Calculator

[threebuoys]

If you follow threads on the Fish Disease Treatment and Diagnosis forum, you know that whenever oral medication is the recommended treatment, @Jay Hemdal cautions that achieving the proper dosage is critical to success. He often refers to his article Proper Dosing of Medicated Foods. That article explains that the proper dose must be calculated based on the weight of the fish being treated and must be administered in a manner that ensures all of the medication is consumed.

Building from Jay’s article, I have developed two calculators which in tandem may aid in the preparation of properly medicated food as described in Jay's article.

The first calculator "FishWeightCalculator" is intended to help estimate the weight of the fish being treated. It utilizes a commonly accepted statistical model that correlates weight to length based on meaningful , species-specific sample sizes. When the species (or one of similar characteristics) of the fish and its length are entered, the calculator will apply the correct formula variables to estimate the weight.

The second calculator "MedicatedFishFoodMixCalculator", determines the amount of medication required based on the Formulary in Jays article and the weight of the fish which is either known or estimated by the fish weight calculator. Further, this calculator will estimate the amount of selected food and liquid necessary to combine with the medication to form a food paste which will result in the correct dosage when completely consumed by the fish.

These calculators were developed in Excel workbooks. No macros or links to external sources were used, so they are clean, stand-alone files which you may download. Each calculator includes instructions and comments for their use. I hope you will find them to be fairly intuitive. Each will print on 1 page landscape with no need to set any print ranges. I suggest you print a copy of the blank calculator before getting started to help you understand the layout.

I’ve included “beta” in the names because this is the first version to be made public. Jay has graciously looked over my shoulder as I developed the calculators to keep me on track and to avoid any unintentional deviation from the concepts he describes in his article and in his recommendations on R2R posts requesting help.

While Jay and I have reviewed the calculations, you must examine your results for reasonableness. If questions arise, I will do my best to answer them. You can PM me and I will try to help.

I sincerely thank Jay for the energy he has devoted to this effort and I hope you will find it useful.

David Scarborough
Threebuoys

 

[nezw0001]

This is really cool, Thank you!

 

[threebuoys]

This is really cool, Thank you!

You're welcome, as the name implies this is a beta version, so you are one of our guinea pigs! If you encounter any issues or have questions, please either post it or send me a pm.

 

[inktomi]

Are you using length-weight relationship formulas for these? I'm very curious, but don't have access to excel at the moment.

 

[threebuoys]

Are you using length-weight relationship formulas for these? I'm very curious, but don't have access to excel at the moment.

 

[EliasCR]

this is awesome! Do you know if something like this can also be used for fresh water fish?

 

[threebuoys]

this is awesome! Do you know if something like this can also be used for fresh water fish?

Yes, this same application could also be used for fresh water fish. The same source I used for statistical data for estimatiing weight for salt water species also has the data for many fresh water species. I would just need to add that information to the tables used by the model.

Do you have particular species you want to be included?

David

 

[reddogf5]

If you follow threads on the Fish Disease Treatment and Diagnosis forum, you know that whenever oral medication is the recommended treatment, @Jay Hemdal cautions that achieving the proper dosage is critical to success. He often refers to his article Proper Dosing of Medicated Foods. That article explains that the proper dose must be calculated based on the weight of the fish being treated and must be administered in a manner that ensures all of the medication is consumed.

Building from Jay’s article, I have developed two calculators which in tandem may aid in the preparation of properly medicated food as described in Jay's article.

The first calculator "FishWeightCalculator" is intended to help estimate the weight of the fish being treated. It utilizes a commonly accepted statistical model that correlates weight to length based on meaningful , species-specific sample sizes. When the species (or one of similar characteristics) of the fish and its length are entered, the calculator will apply the correct formula variables to estimate the weight.

The second calculator "MedicatedFishFoodMixCalculator", determines the amount of medication required based on the Formulary in Jays article and the weight of the fish which is either known or estimated by the fish weight calculator. Further, this calculator will estimate the amount of selected food and liquid necessary to combine with the medication to form a food paste which will result in the correct dosage when completely consumed by the fish.

These calculators were developed in Excel workbooks. No macros or links to external sources were used, so they are clean, stand-alone files which you may download. Each calculator includes instructions and comments for their use. I hope you will find them to be fairly intuitive. Each will print on 1 page landscape with no need to set any print ranges. I suggest you print a copy of the blank calculator before getting started to help you understand the layout.

I’ve included “beta” in the names because this is the first version to be made public. Jay has graciously looked over my shoulder as I developed the calculators to keep me on track and to avoid any unintentional deviation from the concepts he describes in his article and in his recommendations on R2R posts requesting help.

While Jay and I have reviewed the calculations, you must examine your results for reasonableness. If questions arise, I will do my best to answer them. You can PM me and I will try to help.

I sincerely thank Jay for the energy he has devoted to this effort and I hope you will find it useful.

David Scarborough
Threebuoys

Te weight spreadsheet shows up as "password protected" in office 365, is that intentional?

 

[threebuoys]

No, that's not intentional. I built it under an older version of Excel. Microsoft has added more security features, so perhaps that is what has happened. I'll review and fix it.

Thanks for bringing it to my attention.

 

[EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal]

No, that's not intentional. I built it under an older version of Excel. Microsoft has added more security features, so perhaps that is what has happened. I'll review and fix it.

Thanks for bringing it to my attention.

It's still showing as password protected...

 

[threebuoys]

Hmm

I'll look at it tonight. Are you using office365?

 

[EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal]

Hmm

I'll look at it tonight. Are you using office365?

I'm on a Google phone (pixel)

 

[threebuoys]

The application is written in Excel. I doubt it will port to other spreadsheet programs because of some of the controls and formulas that might only exist in Excel. I'll try to check it out.

 

[KrisReef]

No, that's not intentional. I built it under an older version of Excel. Microsoft has added more security features, so perhaps that is what has happened. I'll review and fix it.

Thanks for bringing it to my attention.

@Jay Hemdal
Thank you guys for putting this together and sharing it with us to promote fish health and medical treatment safety. You guys are the best, and I wanted to say this.

The utility of the table and medical guidelines reminded me of a sad story about a medical investigation into the use of LSD as a treatment for a behavioral disorder in male elephants. The researchers used body weight to calculate the dosage needed comparing human dosages by body weight and extrapolating this to an adult elephant that was probably 20x larger than an adult human. One of the reasons I recall this study was because it was critical of using human body weight to estimate the dosage needed for an elephant. The researchers reported that after administering the LSD the elephant “Trumpeted, defecated and died.” The review went on to suggest that the correct way to dose a drug that impacts the brain would have been to compare brain weights vs body weight and that calculation would have provided perhaps a survivable dose of acid for the now dead elephant.

I’m not saying that the body weight tables and dosages are wrong, quite the contrary. Providing this information is likely to help folks properly treat their fishes and prevent over and under medication and may also prevent another “elephant” from entering the room.

This site and the participants are beautiful!

 

[Jay Hemdal]

@Jay Hemdal
Thank you guys for putting this together and sharing it with us to promote fish health and medical treatment safety. You guys are the best, and I wanted to say this.

The utility of the table and medical guidelines reminded me of a sad story about a medical investigation into the use of LSD as a treatment for a behavioral disorder in male elephants. The researchers used body weight to calculate the dosage needed comparing human dosages by body weight and extrapolating this to an adult elephant that was probably 20x larger than an adult human. One of the reasons I recall this study was because it was critical of using human body weight to estimate the dosage needed for an elephant. The researchers reported that after administering the LSD the elephant “Trumpeted, defecated and died.” The review went on to suggest that the correct way to dose a drug that impacts the brain would have been to compare brain weights vs body weight and that calculation would have provided perhaps a survivable dose of acid for the now dead elephant.

I’m not saying that the body weight tables and dosages are wrong, quite the contrary. Providing this information is likely to help folks properly treat their fishes and prevent over and under medication and may also prevent another “elephant” from entering the room.

This site and the participants are beautiful!

The example is use of this is when people say, “you can add one inch of fish per gallon”. Indeed, 20, 1” tetras are fine in a 20 gallon aquarium, but 1, 20” grouper, not so much (grin).
Jay

 

[threebuoys]

Te weight spreadsheet shows up as "password protected" in office 365, is that intentional?

I'm on a Google phone (pixel)

I downloaded both files and opened them in Office 365. Both had the following message at the top of the page:

This is a standard message Office 365 shows when downloaded files are opened. When I click "Enable Editing", the files appear to function as intended. Are either of you, or anyone else, not able to get to this point with the files? If not, please attach a screen shot of what you see and, if the problem is not obvious in the picture, describe what happens when you click on either of the files to download.

The files do not contain any VBA or macros. R2R does not permit files with either of those features to be uploaded to the forum.

David

 

[Jay Hemdal]

I downloaded both files and opened them in Office 365. Both had the following message at the top of the page:

This is a standard message Office 365 shows when downloaded files are opened. When I click "Enable Editing", the files appear to function as intended. Are either of you, or anyone else, not able to get to this point with the files? If not, please attach a screen shot of what you see and, if the problem is not obvious in the picture, describe what happens when you click on either of the files to download.

The files do not contain any VBA or macros. R2R does not permit files with either of those features to be uploaded to the forum.

David

The files download and work for me. One thing I noticed is that the download icon, instead of being an XLS icon, has an X through it - not sure that matters.

Jay

 

[threebuoys]

The files download and work for me. One thing I noticed is that the download icon, instead of being an XLS icon, has an X through it - not sure that matters.

Jay

Not sure why the icon shows an X unless its because an official icon was not found on the R2R site and the file extension with an X through it was used systematically.

The XLSX format has the same functionality as the XLS format, but is more efficient technically in terms of space required and consistency with XML standards. It is the default format for Excel since about 2007.

 

[exnisstech]

I installed office 365 just to test these files since @EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal is having trouble opening them. I'm on a galaxy s21 ultra android version 13 and they both open fine

 

[EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal]

I installed office 365 just to test these files since @EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal is having trouble opening them. I'm on a galaxy s21 ultra android version 13 and they both open fine

I will look at my phone/apps later and see what I can figure out. Thanks!!