Phenoxyethanol

[JamieTYV]

Hello!

Fingers crossed someone can help... I have a large, established tank with a variety of fish, my parameters have been good and stable for a long time...

6 x peppered corys
1 x Male Betta
6 x Female Bettas
6 x Glass Catfish
1 x Female BN Pleco

Recently I introduced a Male BN Pleco in the hopes of having baby Plecos! He has been in a short while but has developed some fungal issues around his gills. I visited my LFS and they agreed with my diagnosis, and sold me a single dose product “Interpet Anti Fungus & Finrot+” (active ingredient: phenoxyethanol)

I got home, calculated the required dose as per the instructions on the product and treat my tank.

Now all my fishes are sleeeeepy!!! I have since found out that the active ingredient is also an effective fish sedative and tranquilliser ?

How long will the sedative effect last? And how soon will I see the fungal infection start to clear (and thus maybe be able to do a water change?)

im pulling my hair out with worry now!

 

[JamieTYV]

Just a quick addition, removing the male BN and treating him alone, in a quarantine tank wasn’t an option as my quarantine tank is currently in use for another of my tanks!

 

[Sgooosh]

sorry, i have no experience. i am in us i hope i can help in some way?

 

[UnknownFishies]

No expirence... sorry. How big is your tank. I assume pretty big because of all those bettas. Sedatives usually don’t last longer than 12 hours i think but i could be wrong

 

[JamieTYV]

It’s 160litres, so fairly substantial!

 

[Colin_T]

It's not a sedative, it's a preservative that kills microscopic organisms.

You might have overdosed the tank.
To work out the volume of water in the tank:
measure length x width x height in cm.
divide by 1000.
= volume in litres.

If you have big rocks or driftwood in the tank, remove these so you get a more accurate water volume.

When you measure the height, measure from the top of the substrate to the top of the water level.

You can use a permanent marker to draw a line on the tank at the water level and put down how many litres are in the tank at that level.

There is a calculator/ converter in the "FishForum.net Calculator" under "Useful Links" at the bottom of this page that will let you convert litres to gallons if you need it.

----------------------
Before you treat a tank with anything you should do the following.
Remove carbon from the filter before treating or it will adsorb the medication and stop it working.

Wipe the inside of the glass down with a clean fish sponge.

Do a 75% water change and gravel clean the substrate. The water changes and gravel cleaning will reduce the number of disease organisms in the water and provide a cleaner environment for the fish to recover in. It also removes a lot of the gunk and this means any medication can work on treating the fish instead of being wasted killing the pathogens in the gunk.
Make sure any new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it is added to the tank.

Clean the filter if it hasn't been done in the last 2 weeks. However, if the filter is less than 6 weeks old, do not clean it. Wash the filter materials/ media in a bucket of tank water and re-use them. Tip the bucket of dirty water on the garden/ lawn. Cleaning the filter means less gunk and cleaner water with fewer pathogens.

Increase surface turbulence/ aeration when using salt or medications because they reduce the dissolved oxygen in the water.

 

[JamieTYV]

It's not a sedative, it's a preservative that kills microscopic organisms.

You might have overdosed the tank.
To work out the volume of water in the tank:
measure length x width x height in cm.
divide by 1000.
= volume in litres.

If you have big rocks or driftwood in the tank, remove these so you get a more accurate water volume.

When you measure the height, measure from the top of the substrate to the top of the water level.

You can use a permanent marker to draw a line on the tank at the water level and put down how many litres are in the tank at that level.

There is a calculator/ converter in the "FishForum.net Calculator" under "Useful Links" at the bottom of this page that will let you convert litres to gallons if you need it.

----------------------
Before you treat a tank with anything you should do the following.
Remove carbon from the filter before treating or it will adsorb the medication and stop it working.

Wipe the inside of the glass down with a clean fish sponge.

Do a 75% water change and gravel clean the substrate. The water changes and gravel cleaning will reduce the number of disease organisms in the water and provide a cleaner environment for the fish to recover in. It also removes a lot of the gunk and this means any medication can work on treating the fish instead of being wasted killing the pathogens in the gunk.
Make sure any new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it is added to the tank.

Clean the filter if it hasn't been done in the last 2 weeks. However, if the filter is less than 6 weeks old, do not clean it. Wash the filter materials/ media in a bucket of tank water and re-use them. Tip the bucket of dirty water on the garden/ lawn. Cleaning the filter means less gunk and cleaner water with fewer pathogens.

Increase surface turbulence/ aeration when using salt or medications because they reduce the dissolved oxygen in the water.

Thankyou for the detailed post - i have also posted elsewhere on the forum as I am now not sure it actually is just fungus, but perhaps something more sinister. I think another forum member has tagged you in my other post.

Just FYI (I am a firm believer that knowledge should be shared) - The active ingredient is Phenoxyethanol, which is used as a sedative AND anti-microbial for fish - see theaquariumwiki article here: http://www.theaquariumwiki.com/wiki/Fungus_treatment

Phenoxyethanol​

Phenoxyethanol is often used as a fish sedative or anaesthetic but also has antibacterial and fungicide properties. This chemical is used as a 1% solution (typically use 100mg of powder dissolved in 1000ml of distilled water) and dosage is 10ml per litre of quarantine tank water. Repeat every 2-3 days up to a maximum of 3 times if the animal shows no signs of recovery before performing a 50-60% water change.

So it seems that sedation can often become an unwanted side-effect for people using this medication. This could be very scary for the un-initiated when they treat their tank and their aquarium inhabitants quickly appear to go down-hill fast! Im assured that it is known to happen and shouldnt really last much longer than 12-24 hours - but as I said, it isnt mentioned anywhere on the packaging, and could easily scare someone less in-the-know than myself (and I dont consider myself to be all that clued up on my fishy friends!)

Jamie

 

[lynhagan]

Thankyou for the detailed post - i have also posted elsewhere on the forum as I am now not sure it actually is just fungus, but perhaps something more sinister. I think another forum member has tagged you in my other post.

Just FYI (I am a firm believer that knowledge should be shared) - The active ingredient is Phenoxyethanol, which is used as a sedative AND anti-microbial for fish - see theaquariumwiki article here: http://www.theaquariumwiki.com/wiki/Fungus_treatment

Phenoxyethanol​

Phenoxyethanol is often used as a fish sedative or anaesthetic but also has antibacterial and fungicide properties. This chemical is used as a 1% solution (typically use 100mg of powder dissolved in 1000ml of distilled water) and dosage is 10ml per litre of quarantine tank water. Repeat every 2-3 days up to a maximum of 3 times if the animal shows no signs of recovery before performing a 50-60% water change.

So it seems that sedation can often become an unwanted side-effect for people using this medication. This could be very scary for the un-initiated when they treat their tank and their aquarium inhabitants quickly appear to go down-hill fast! Im assured that it is known to happen and shouldnt really last much longer than 12-24 hours - but as I said, it isnt mentioned anywhere on the packaging, and could easily scare someone less in-the-know than myself (and I dont consider myself to be all that clued up on my fishy friends!)

Jamie

How are we supposed to know if the fish has recovered after 2-3 days?!

 

[Colin_T]

How are we supposed to know if the fish has recovered after 2-3 days?!

If you are treating bacterial infections, in particular a possible drug resistant bacterial infection, you will need to continue treatment for at least 1 week and 2 weeks would be better.

Normally you continue treatment for a few days to a week after the wound has healed or started to heal. This allows the damaged tissue to seal up and prevent further infection.

If you stop treatment too soon, some of the bacteria might survive and the problem reappears a month or so later.