blue betta

Richard Sexton wrote:
Whether or not you finish the treatment of antibiotics is sort of up to
you. Antibiotics should be followed through because under-medicating or
shortening the course may lead to antibiotic-resistant bacteria. On the
other hand, unnecessary treatment may be harmful to your betta.
I completely agree with you about antibiotics. With only one dose, I'd
discontinue treatment. The worst thing for resistance seems to be
stopping after three or four days instead of going for a full course of
seven to ten days. Even a full course of antibiotics can leave some
resistant bacteria, which is why they should be a last resort if you
choose to use them at all.

No. Untergasser says antibiotics should only be used as a last
resort with an irreplacable fish (think $25K koi) in a glass
only tank. You absolutley must finish the course of treatment
if started. These days it's very strongly recommended a test
be done on the cultured big to see if the antibiotic has
resistance to the bug. If it does not they WILL be dead at
the end of the treatment.

Non antibiotic bacteriocides can be fond at:

http://aquaria.net/articles/meds/ant.../alternatives/

Not quite. Even if a test is done on cultured bacteria and a good
antibiotic identified, there is no guarantee of 100% death. In fact,
it's wildly improbable. That's the whole underlying problem with
antibiotics. A culture is only a statistical sample. The hope is that
the host immune system will kill the few resistant bacteria that remain
after the drug kills 99.999% (or whatever proportion) of the bacteria.
Fortunately, it usually works.

One dose of antibiotics almost never causes resistance, which is why I
told Nikki to stop using the meds. Resistant bacteria tend to grow more
slowly than normal ones. They have extra DNA to replicate and more
proteins to manufacture as they grow. When many non-resistant bacteria
are left after a single dose of antibiotic, they rapidly outgrow the
resistant ones and the population stays non-resistant. This has been
well-documented in the bacteriological and cell biology literature.

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