# Medicating with inverts (RCS)



## mfgann (Nov 10, 2010)

Hi all, afraid my first post is a little crisis, but this seemed a knowable group to ask. I recently got some plants and red cherry shrimp to add to my tanks. Now, a few days later, I notice that the mollie seems to have a couple of white spots. Being an invert newbie as well I googled for malachite green and didn't immediately see a problem with it and rcs. Being paranoid I gave a half dose to both my tanks (1 drop/2 gallons). A few hours later I got paranoid and googled more finding it is supposed to be toxic to inverts. Joy.

I immediately put new charcoal in the filters and left the lights on overnight going to break down the compound. This morning I don't see any little corpses, so I'm going I'm in the clear.

First question is, how long till the malachite green dissipates out of the tanks? Would it still dissipate without charcoal? Both tanks (30g and 10g) are planted, though mostly with the young sprigs I just got. I am thinking in the long run the 10g would be a great little rcs tank, making it a little safer to treat fish in the 30g, do I hate to use it as a hospital tank right now if the medicine would not dissipate. Should I move the rcs, our move the mollie to treat in the 10? Lastly, is there something safe to treat fish that won't hurt inverts or plants? Is the half dose of green safe for rcs, or is a low dose of salt safe for plants in general? No salt right now.

Plants involved are red ludwigia, water wisteria, najas, hortwort, pennywort, hygrrophilia, cabomba, java moss.. If anything kills the duckweed, I'm okay with that 

Thanks!
Matthew


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## vicky (Feb 18, 2010)

A UV sterilizer is safe for the shrimp, as long as you have a sponge over the intake. I am a big fan of having one for the quarantine tank, as well as for the other tanks when I get too anxious to do a proper quarantine.

I also _think_ the problem with malachite green is with filter feeding shrimp, like bamboo shrimp. I don't think it is such a problem for RCS. I'm pretty sure I treated a tank with ghost shrimp in it with Ich-X, and they survived, as did the plants. I believe copper is the worst for shrimp and you have to be very careful to avoid that.

Your mollie *needs* salt, so you have to find a balance between that and your plants. I suspect you will find plants that are tolerant of the amount of salt you need. I have no idea how salt affects rcs, but someone will chime in who does.

Welcome to the forum. We're a friendly bunch with some strong opinions sometimes, but we love our tank residents, both animal and vegetable. Let us know how you do with these tanks.


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## mfgann (Nov 10, 2010)

vicky said:


> A UV sterilizer is safe for the shrimp, as long as you have a sponge over the intake. I am a big fan of having one for the quarantine tank, as well as for the other tanks when I get too anxious to do a proper quarantine.


I have a HOB type filter, so I didn't think the UV sterilizers would work with it. I'll definitely look into it. I do have a sponge intake on the big tank, as I was losing some ghosts to it (plant was too close). The little 10G had been planned as a leiden style tank with no filter. I'd planned on heavy planting and some fish to keep the cycle up. Now I'm rethinking it as a shrimp breeder tank.. but I think that means filtration, light or no fertilizers, etc.. so it'll take a little rethinking.



vicky said:


> I also _think_ the problem with malachite green is with filter feeding shrimp, like bamboo shrimp. I don't think it is such a problem for RCS. I'm pretty sure I treated a tank with ghost shrimp in it with Ich-X, and they survived, as did the plants. I believe copper is the worst for shrimp and you have to be very careful to avoid that.


This morning the mollie was looking really inactive and sitting on the substrate. I decided I wasn't going to let it suffer any more, so I moved as many of the shrimp as I could finf into the 10G (which isnt really done cycling) and dosed the 30G with the malachite green/formaline (20 drops instead of the prescribed 30, since I know I couldn't find all the shrimp). So far the shrimp in the 10G are doing well as far as I can tell, and I found another in the 30G that seemed to be happy, so maybe the MG is okay with them after all. The internet info on it, even from manufacturers, seemed inconsistant. I think one problem is that malachite, the mineral, contains copper. I know malachite green is NOT malachite, so this is not an issue. Another issue seems to be that the marine inverts don't seem to respond as well, perhaps they are filter feeders, as you mentioned.


vicky said:


> Your mollie *needs* salt, so you have to find a balance between that and your plants. I suspect you will find plants that are tolerant of the amount of salt you need. I have no idea how salt affects rcs, but someone will chime in who does.


I'll definitely get some Aquarium salt and start upping it a bit to see if everything does well. If my RCS make it okay, perhaps I'll keep two colonies going so if I oversalt I don't kill them all.


vicky said:


> Welcome to the forum. We're a friendly bunch with some strong opinions sometimes, but we love our tank residents, both animal and vegetable. Let us know how you do with these tanks.


Strong opinions are fine. It is good to find strong opinions with experience and thought behind it. I find that you get strong opinions almost everywhere, but many times it is more aquarium lore than experience, which CAN be misleading. I'm really new to the plants and inverts, so I don't know how much I'll be able to contribute, but I sure appreciate the help.

Thank you for the welcome! 
Matthew


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