Metroplex - a treatment for Brooklynella?

[Fisker]

Hello! So, today, I was at my LFS ogling some coral and buying myself an urchin that I didn't really need, and I noticed the owner mixing up some frozen mysis shrimp with Focus and metroplex to feed to a tank of very sick true percula clowns. I asked him about it, and he said that they had diagnosed them with Brook (which seemed accurate - discolored splotches on the front half of the body, some had increased breathing rates, and a few had started to have their "skin" fall off). That was kind of the end of our interaction on that, but I'm curious. Is Metro a cure for Brook?

I had thought that the only true cure for Brook for Fermaldehyde, and even then, the Fermaldehyde can cause damage/cancer later in the fish's life. Upon further reading, apparentaly some people do the Fermaldehyde dip and dose the QT tank with Metroplex later, but I haven't read about many people just treating with Metro. Does it work? Or does is just weaken the Brook so that the clowns can fight it off until they're stressed out? This guy has a pretty good reputation and a lot of (at least seemingly) healthy fish, so I think it must be doing something for him.

Thoughts?

 

[Frtdrmrose7]

Yes you can metro. You would dose 2 scoops per 10G in the water and use metro laced food in combination for 14 days

Ruby Reef Rally is good also as an initial 90 min bath or even a FW dip can help.

 

[rkpetersen]

Humblefish's recommendation is a formalin or acriflavine bath, which will eradicate the parasite, followed by metro in qt for 14 days as insurance.
I'd probably go with this, and specifically give all sick fish a Ruby Reef Rally bath first.
Unless it were just for prophylaxis, without signs of actual disease, then just metro since I'd be using GC anyway for possible flukes and intestinal parasites.

 

[Fisker]

Any other opinions?

While I'm sure the formalin bath does work very well, it's thought to have caused issues later on with the fish - is there any real merit to that? If so, then why wouldn't we just use metro or a safer medication?

 

[Frtdrmrose7]

Any other opinions?

While I'm sure the formalin bath does work very well, it's thought to have caused issues later on with the fish - is there any real merit to that? If so, then why wouldn't we just use metro or a safer medication?

If I had a fish with an active brook infection I’d do the RRR bath then 14 days of metro in food and water.

 

[rkpetersen]

Any other opinions?

While I'm sure the formalin bath does work very well, it's thought to have caused issues later on with the fish - is there any real merit to that? If so, then why wouldn't we just use metro or a safer medication?

That's why we're suggesting Ruby Reef Rally, which contains much less formaldehyde (but still some.)

 

[Fisker]

If I had a fish with an active brook infection I’d do the RRR bath then 14 days of metro in food and water.

Gotcha.

That's why we're suggesting Ruby Reef Rally, which contains much less formaldehyde (but still some.)

That's fair! I guess I was just hoping that Metro would clear it up on it's own if I was to ever come across it. So far, the worst I've had was ich, flukes, and internal parasites. I've been lucky.