Best Medicine for Monster Fish? (and it's natural/herbal based)

[islandguy11]

Good points RD, and yes OF is best known by many for their line of Flowerhorn foods, of which there has been debate about whether they contain hormones -- which also any lab could determine (but has not to my knowledge). On all of their current labels OF clearly states the product does not contain hormones.

That said I also don't use their Flowerhorn foods, in part because I don't know what those special growth/color/pearling enhancers actually are. So why do I use a med with a similar uncertainty in ingredients? Good question, maybe I'm being a naive consumer and lulled by the words 'natural remedy'. But I'm also using it because it worked exceedingly well in the limited capacity I've used it for so far.

It's a topic for another thread I was planning to make some day, but I'd also be keen to hear your take on OF's 'Hydra-pure' filtration concept (hailing it as 'break-through technology', which I frankly am skeptical about but don't have enough bio-science background to prove/disprove myself).

But one thing is for sure about 'O' medicine -- while it may or may not act as a good broad spectrum treatment, it doesn't cure cancer. In fact I strongly suspect my Kamfa has a tumor slowly growing below one of his eyes, which is one reason I first tried this medicine (not knowing at the time what the problem was), but unsurprisingly it hasn't helped with that particular issue in any noticeable way.

 

[RD.]

Sorry to hear about the growth, hopefully it turns out to be nothing serious.

 

[islandguy11]

Sorry to hear about the growth, hopefully it turns out to be nothing serious.

Thx buddy, I was planning to make a post about that soon (and don't want to distract from this thread as they're totally separate issues/topics), and really hope to get your feedback then as it'll get a teensy scientific. For now though I'll say the suspected tumor is really slow-growing, if at all over the last couple of months and not affecting his behavior, appetite etc. at this time. But for sure it fully confirms what you've said many times about weak genetics in FH's nowadays.

 

[islandguy11]

As a follow-up to this post, I recently had an online chat with an Ocean Free rep.

I asked them which of their Arowana line of meds -- which note all state they are "...specially formulated for Arowana & other quality fishes." so we're not only talking Arowana here) -- 'O' Arowana Disease' (topic of this post), 'Disease Away' or another, was best to help heal a lost scale on an Arowana while of course preventing secondary infection?



Their response was that it depended on the severity of the wound: if not so bad then 'O' Arowana Disease or Disease Away would be good, though "...the treatment will be over a longer period due to the herbal nature, whereas No.4 specifically targets the area (especially if there are wounds)."

No.4 refers to their 'Slime, White Spot & Velvet Away' med pictured above. If you go to their website it'll advise that if a more serious wound, then supplement this treatment with their No. 3 med, 'External Bacteria & Fungus Away'.

From these comments (and see below) my takeaway is that 'O' Arowana herbal remedy itself might be best utilized as (a more gentle) preventive measure or perhaps for quarantining new, stressed out fish. But if a fish was more seriously sick/wounded, it would be probably be better to go with other stronger meds that more quickly target the problem. (Note that all of their meds, even these 'stronger' ones, state on the boxes that they are harmless to all fishes, plants and beneficial bacteria).

But a couple of other comments they made also struck me as interesting:
"Yeah 'O' Arowana and Disease Away are formulated more for general use and prevention. Its really up to individual preference and different severity. At the end of the day with good water conditions, healing will just happen naturally like you mentioned... which I personally prefer over chemicals. Natural, minimal tinkering and constant water parameter is the way to go!"

Personally I can respect a product rep (and by some extension, company) that's honest enough to say like that, even though they're also selling me related products.

 

[RD.]

Interesting, thanks for the additional info. Here's to hoping that you never have to deal with anything more serious than the herbal formula can resolve.

 

[Galantspeedz]

i hardly use their product though they are a local company

 

[islandguy11]

i hardly use their product though they are a local company

Any particular reason why my friend? Is there another brand you prefer, or is it that you just don't often use such products jn general, and take a more natural, 'let time and clean water heal' approach?

 

[Galantspeedz]

I usually go for time, clean water and salt for healing

But I do dose with eiho parzipro once awhile. The other medication I used before was eiho metro

I guess their packaging does not appeal to me and it's not very cheap too.... So I just go for tried and tested way

Eg: for black water, can use indian almond leaves instead

 

[islandguy11]

I usually go for time, clean water and salt for healing

But I do dose with eiho parzipro once awhile. The other medication I used before was eiho metro

I guess their packaging does not appeal to me and it's not very cheap too.... So I just go for tried and tested way

Eg: for black water, can use indian almond leaves instead

Thx for input! And yeah esp. if you've got a decent sized tank you can go through those 150ml bottles pretty quick, so not super cheap esp. longer run.

By the way, with the Indian Almond leaves do you worry about PH fluctuations or are they negligible?

I recently have got some 'Wish Arowana Spa' (by Medifish) but haven't tried it yet. Ingredients are "wild almond leaf extract, sodium chloride (salt), calcium chloride and preservatives." I was worried it might affect PH -- as on the box in Thai it says it "lowers hardness of water to help neutralize PH."

But last night I did a test with a pail of water, and it didn't seem to noticeably affect the PH at all according to Tetra test kit (even when I purposely overdosed the water).



But again curious if you get any PH swings when using regular Indian almond leaves.

 

[Galantspeedz]

I have not used it before so I can't really comment

But I read that tannins itself will lower PH

On a personal basis, Indian almond leaves is popular with betta fishkeepers that rears betta for the primary purpose of fighting