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Old 02-28-2009, 07:33 AM
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Originally Posted by my2rotties View Post
Another link on treating cyanide poisoning with Methylene blue. Don't know if it will work in the long run or if treating new fish with it befre putting in display works or not... any insight on this?

http://www.novalek.com/kordon/methylene_blue/index.htm
May help but I doubt its going to do much long term. Most of the damage done is permanent. The survival really depends on the extent of the damage to internal organs and gills. Methylene blue will most likely just help a weak fish fight off pathogens and bacterial disease which it may not have been able to fight off on its own. So yes its doing good but not necessarily going to help a fish live a nice long life.

Think of it like humans getting a common cold. Antibiotic resistance is the result of the overuse of antibiotics, mostly for respiratory tract infections. Doctors have been prescribing antibiotics for years to people with viral infections--essentially just kind of treating "everything" when someone claims to be sick. The problem is antibiotics do not work against viral infections like the flu. So now after years of being pumped with antibiotics, bacteria have become quite resistant to those antibiotics.

IMO its the same problem with treating fish with such wide range meds unless there is a specific reason such as an open wound or clear problem. A healthy fish should fight off disease on its own and start to gain a resistance. Many people see this happen with ich. I have yet to loose a fish to ich (and its in my tank) after they have fought off an initial infection--in fact I rarely see ich anymore except on new arrivals to the tank.

Kind of off topic now but treating for cyanide is not possible really, IMO. I think whats happening is that you end up treating for secondary infections and pathogens which eventually will overcome a fish with a low immune system or internal damage from cyanide.
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