Colloidal Silver?

[RandomWiktor]

Ok. For those of you who have been reading up, I'm having troubles with a stubborn bout of septicemia-like symptoms in my bettas Pulpul. He had it when I got him, and seems to be developing it again. He's losing fin as well; I think he is susceptible to disease just from being so weak. He also had a massive hematoma in one fin that seems to have stopped growing, but the tissue is necrotic now. In short, Pulpul is something of a mess.
He's in a filtered 5 gallon tank with a heater kept at about 80 degrees at all times. It has stress coat, bio coat, and salt added, and is dechlorinated. I was trying to treat it with more frequent water changes (100% 4x's a week) and have observed only a marginal improvement in fin condition. He is eating well and active, but I'm afriad if he stays sickly like this, he'll end up with dropsy.
Which brings me to my question. Does colloidal silver (sp?) help with other infections like septicemia, or only dropsy? If it would help, what is the dosage?
Any input would be very much appreciated.

edit: also, anyone know a good place to get indian almond leaves? Would someplace like G&C have it? I scoured the whole supermarket yesterday and came home empty handed...

 

[newfishies]

colloidal silver is an additive for water to replace some of the minerals, etc that we now filter out of our water supply!!

i believe that it is just a booster for the fishies immune system. i don't think that it has any effect on specific diseases, but is just good for general health.

i have used it on my guys who have chewed their tails and the guys who fought when my cat broke their divider, and had good results in growing their fins back quickly. i have never used it for any "disease".

i would say that it might be worth a shot to try. do you have it already? i would get the highest concentration you can get. it is measured in parts per million, and since you are about to put it in a tank full of water, it will get even more diluted. i got a 4 oz bottle of 1100 ppm from n-ergetics.com and put a few drops in with the boys with raggedy fins with their water changes.

hope that helps! i know there are people here who know more about this than me... so maybe they can offer some more insight!!

 

[Sorrell]

It is an absolute miracle

Here's a link where we discuss it at length

http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showto...l=silver+online

 

[RandomWiktor]

Hmmm. Interesting. I don't think I can buy it offline, being but a poor college kid who has to pretend like her purchases are on food and books (which is why I use cash, heh). I'll see what my local GNC has.

 

[BettaMomma]

Don't forget about the hospice supplies offer I gave you not so long ago.

 

[Sorrell]

I believe GNC only has 10ppm, I personally wouldn't go under 500ppm. It does get more expensive at that point, but you'll use less, have the best results, and it will last longer.

 

[SarahBravo]

Just as a side note, my betta had dropsy - very swollen body and pineconed scales, not eating, hardly moving. He was dosed for 8 days on Maracyn 1 and 2, had 120ml of 3ppm colloidal silver added to his 10g tank on day 8 and now on day 11 is wiggling his butt and being the arrogant little sob that he used to be, with a very good appetite, lots of movement, no swelling and completely flat scales. I've added about 75ml of 10ppm CS to his tank tonight, just to be on the safe side.

It could just be pure luck, it could be the maracyn, it could be the CS, or a combination of all 3. All I can say is at the moment it seems like he's 95% recovered. So I would certainly recommend using CS for dropsy and anything else where there's an infection or you want to prevent one.

 

[BettaMomma]

I'd have to bet the CS was what ended up doing the trick.
i'm definitely going to get me some of that stuff to have on hand!

Very glad to hear he's feeling better

 

[wuvmybetta]

Silver rawks I firmly believe in it for everything. I've never seen anything that it couldn't tackle. Well worth the investment.

 

[jacblades]

yeah-i went to gnc a few weeks ago to get some more and they have switched brands of cs. the new stuff was clear (bad) so i didnt get any.
i use that stuff for everything.

i never had any luck with using cs on dropsy fish, although i do believe it made them last a bit longer-not too sure if thats a good thing though.

 

[VickiPS]

colloidal silver is an additive for water to replace some of the minerals, etc that we now filter out of our water supply!!

Strange -- I thought it was supposed to purify water by taking additives out.

It's silver -- just silver. How can it replace minerals?