> On Chris's advice, I'm
> going to treat with Maracyn II, and hope it doesn't kill the water sprite,
That is probably the best advice, I would use nitrofurazone, but to each his
own. On the advice of someone on this list, I don't remember who, I started
using medications in the buckets I use to transport my fish from where they
were caught and my disease problems have disappeared almost completely. An
ounce of prevention is indeed worth a pound of cure. It has really been a
long time since I had a tank wide problem and I am the worlds worst water
changer. I almost never change water but I do keep a vigorous growth of
plants and or algae in all my permanent tanks. I think the plant growth keeps
fish healthy. I would be hard pressed to describe the exact mechanism but it
does seem to work. I agree that destruction of the bacteria population is
often worse than the disease so hospital tanks or quarantine tanks are
important but most of the denitrification in my tanks takes place with the
plants so I can be a bit more cavalier about the bacteria than someone who
only uses bacteria type filters.
Moon
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