Total Wipeout

[akfox18]

hi all. not sure if this is the right section for this......
 
has anyone had any experience using 'Tetra Medica + General Tonic' ?? I bought some from my lfs and following the instructions, double checking, well triple checking, i dosed my tank with the appropriate amount. turned the water bright green but the bottle indicated that the cycle would take 5 days so i assumed the green would fade away. All fish are fine and swimming about as normal. That night i went to bed and about 12 hours later half of my fish are either dead or swimming upside down near the bottom of the tank. The ones not affected were my yellow labs and the plec. the affected fish were a mixture of malawi and cuckoo catfish I rescued the affect fish and placed them in a quarantine tank with fresh (treated) water and within about 20mins several had begun to perk up. they stayed in here for the day as i had to go to work. when i returned a few appeared fine. the dead ones were fry, juveniles and a malawi who had recently spat out her babies. i think they were just all too small to cope with what i can only describe as poison. after 2 massive water changes the remaining fish are all swimming around the main tank quiet happily and came begging for food this morning.
 
 
what are people's experiences - thoughts on this??
 
obviously my lfs wont do anything. he clarified the amount of dosage he would recommend and it was the same as i'd done. that was for the 'normal' treatment - goodness knows what would have happened if i had done the 'server infection' dose!!
I have emailed Tetra as the number they have on their brochures for the 'expert assistance hotline' is no longer available!

 

[star4]

Totally daft questions, but have you checked the use by date on the bottle? I got caught out once buying medication off Ebay, it was a year out of date! also was it stored at the shop correctly? if it was up on a shelf could it have been in direct sunlight ?

 

[akfox18]

yep it was well in date - checked when i picked it up in the shop. all stored ok the shop 

 

[Meeresstille]

I don't know this product but I am wondering, were you using this product to cure an illness in the tank? Could the illness have caused these deaths? 
 
It looks like there are 4 different types of active ingredients in there, maybe that was just too much for the fry/weak fish to be able to handle. http/www2.tetra.de/tet_internet_import/import_data/TetraMedica%20GeneralTonic%20UK.pdf

 

[akfox18]

It was one fish that was the issue. It appeared to have been attacked by the others and had developed very shredded looking fins and was very lethargic. The guy in the Lfs, who is knowledgable, suggested this and even phone another Lfs to check. All the other fish looked 100% healthy. Even after they had died having been in the "poisoned" water, they showed no symptoms.
But yeh, I agree with you on that fact that the little ones were just too small.
The information you shared indicates that it shouldn't be stored above 25degrees. The section in the Lfs does get remarkably hot in the summer. Perhaps it became too hot earlier in the year and has spoiled? Possible?? I guess it depends on how long it's been there?

 

[Meeresstille]

It's quite possible that the product could have been spoiled if the area gets very hot in the Summer. 
 
Also, it would probably have been better to treat only the affected fish in a quarantine/hospital tank. Medication can be stressful on fish, that's why it's better not to subject healthy fish to medication and treatments they don't need (unless it's something like ich, where if one fish has it the whole tank needs to be treated). Usually hospital tanks are smaller and therefor cheaper to medicate too, which is good for your wallet!
 
Still, I'm very sorry you've lost so many fish, it must have been such a shock after you've tried to do something good by getting that product.

 

[akfox18]

I know, thinking back, we considered treating the one fish separately. But as we weren't exactly sure what was wrong with it we treated the whole tank......as the bottle instructs you do......

Very optimistic about hearing back from tetra, I'm sure i am the least of their worries!

All the fish are swimming around quite happily as if nothing ever happened, begging for food and feed from my hand again I will waita little but to make sure and then think about getting some more, I miss my little catfish

 

[mark4785]

It sounds like the medication could have used up the oxygen in the tank water causing the fish to suffocate. This is a rare issue that usually only comes about in very warm water (that is not oxygenated through, for instance, water surface rippling) which in itself relinquishes a higher amount of oxygen than colder water.