Can Maracyn and Maracyn 2 be dosed early
 

Hello,

I have a black molly in a hospital tank with fin and tail rot. I started treating him yesterday with Maracyn and Maracyn 2. I realize that they are supposed to be treated for 5 days. My problem is this. I am going out of town and will only be able to get 2 treatments in, unless I treat him early the day I leave. I don't have anyone that can continue treating him while I am away. I will be away for the weekend.

I do have feeders so he will be able to eat without any problem.

Thanks, Any help is greatly appreciated.

Yes, with antibiotics as long as you're not dosing every 4 hours or so, it should be fine to add a dose a few hours early. However, as it is an antibiotic, its important to do follow the dosage as close as possible. How long will you be out of town?

Unfortunately, I'll be out of town from some time Friday until Sunday night. Because I noticed the disease at night, he is getting dosed at 9 PM. How early do you think I could dose him?

Thanks for your help.

Hm..do you have an automatic feeder? What you can do is put in a packet or two worth of the antibiotic and have it set to dispense the 2 days you're gone. Haha.

Have you been dosing at 9 pm each day since the start? What time will you be planning on dosing on Friday morning? If you dose today at 9, then I'd say you can do it is 8 or 9 AM, if possible. 7 AM would be earliest, but the only problem that would be present is that the initial dose would still be there and wouldn't have the full amount of time to run its course, versus dosing at 8 or 9, which gives you a 12 hour window for the antibiotic to do its thing. But I'd say earliest is 7 AM, preferably 9 AM.

I do have an automatic feeder, but I can't see the entire dose getting delivered.

We will be leaving around noon. I'll dose it then.

Thank you so much for your help.

If your only going to be gone from friday till sunday ?I might not use auto feeder .Fish will be fine without food for such a short period.
My fear would be if the fish doesn't eat,then food will just lay, and perhaps contribute to possible deteriorating water condition's.

you cannot dose 2 days worth of antibiotics before-hand. If you are only doisng early for just day 3, it would be ok, but if you are dosing for day 3 and 4, that would be unwise. The purpose of dosing everyday is to slowly increase.maintain the concentration of antibiotics in the water to combat the infection, dosing for multiple days early will spike the concentration of the medication which could be harmful to your fish.

Also, +1 to 1077, I would not feed for the 3 days.

I only plan on giving one more dose before I go. I didn't feel that it would be safe to do more than that.

The purpose of dosing everyday is to slowly increase.maintain the concentration of antibiotics in the water to combat the infection, dosing for multiple days early will spike the concentration of the medication which could be harmful to your fish.

I have an automatic feeder I use in my 60 gallon tank. As for the hospital tank, I have this food (I get from PetSmart) that is held together in a Gel. It doesn't break down like the traditional time released feeders. The only way the fish get it is if they go eat it from the container that it's packaged in ( Tetra Slow Release Feeders for Tropical Fish - Automated Feeders - Fish - PetSmart ). Do you think this is OK?

Thanks for the advice.

Thanks everyone,

I appreciate all the help.

BTW I have been consistently checking the water quality of my hospital tank.

Amonia: 0.25 (same as tap water)
pH 7.4
Nitrate 0
Nitrite 0
GH 6
KH 10

I have used the gel kind as well, mine turned into a massive cup/tin of algae and my fish didnt really eat from it at all, is just decayed and polluted my water and made algae grow everywhere, but that was for a 2 week vacation. It might be ok for a couple of days.