I have read this entire thread in the past but do not remember my question being addressed. If it was I apologize. I have been battling what I believe to be septicemia in my 150 African cichlid tank for quite some time. One of the fish that was the most drastically effected was my bucco with extremely red areas around the mouth, pectoral and dorsal fins. I have spent a good bit of $ on different meds to no avail on this fish. Several other fish in the tank seemed to recover after dosing the tank with an antibiotic but not this guy. About two weeks ago I dosed the tank with RidX after not treating the tank this way for a long time. Dosed again this week and just noticed that my bucco has zero redness. He has had the issue for a long time and seemingly cleared up in a weeks time.
Could there be a correlation between the RidX treatment and his improvement?
The theory behind Rid-X, or Bio-clean, or others of the ilk, is that the added bacterial populations, out compete opportunistic pathogens.
They don't actually treat (as in an antibiotic) but remove the conditions for, and/or overwhelm those that do harm.
Just wanted to add to the comments above, regarding our little yapper, and how successful the addition of gram positive non pathogenic bacteria can be for an animal under attack. The Nutrience formula that I linked to above, contains B. subtilis, which is also a common bacteria used in septic products. The link below is a good overview regarding this bacteria.
PRIMARY FUNCTION Robust, spore-forming probiotic supporting digestive health, immune modulation, and gut barrier integrity in pets. HOW IT SUPPORTS PET HEALTH Bacillus subtilis is a spore-forming, lactic acid-producing probiotic bacterium...
thornevet.com
One of the keys to the success of B. subtilis in animal feed is how heat resistant it is, especially some of the newer strains. Unlike many of the other bacteria, B. subtilis not only survives the manufacturing process, but this soil based, spore forming bacteria, also survives the harsh environment of its host animal, until it reaches its target, the intestines. And over the years its use in animals, along with fish, has overall been found to be very safe. Ditto to humans.
<p id="p1">Probiotics are defined as live microorganisms that confer health advantages to their hosts. Some probiotics exhibit limitations, including susceptibility to temperature fluctuations, gastric acidity, and harsh conditions. This has led to exploring probiotics with higher intrinsic...
www.intechopen.com
B. subtilis safety
Bacillus subtilis is classified as safe by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), indicating that it poses no harm to human health. Furthermore, the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has also deemed this species safe under its Qualified Presumption of Safety (QPS). Consequently,
B. subtilis strains can be considered non-pathogenic bacteria for human consumption. Research conducted by the European Scientific Committee on Animal Nutrition has revealed no evidence of toxicity associated with
B. subtilis. Both acute and chronic toxicity assessments in animal models have further corroborated the safety of these strains. Thus,
B. subtilis can be considered an ideal multifunctional probiotic bacterium for humans [
17].
The rest of this might be a bit too graphic for some folks, but provides a real world example of how incredible this strain of bacteria can be when an animals gastrointestinal system is under attack. Back to the yapper…..
His most recent gastro upset occurred after we had left him alone for a couple of afternoons, and returned home smelling like BBQ brisket. By the second day, little buddy got so upset that he got diarrhea, later that night followed by more diarrhea, with some blood in it. Not good. He was off his game the following day, nothing serious noted, but overall not his usual self. His next BM that evening was firmer, but covered in mucous, and more blood. My wife was freaking out at this point. Too late in the eve for a trip to the vet to have his BM checked for nasties etc, but not too late for some good bacteria in a bottle.
Enter Nutrience probiotic, that contains 2 billion CFU’s of B. subtilis in each chewy treat, along with prebiotic fibre to feed that bacteria. In approx. 12 hours and 3 treatments (the dog loved the taste), the little fella was back to eating some his regular food, and at the 16 hr mark, his BM was back to 80% normal. The majority was firm, and just a tiny trace of blood, and a small amount at the end soft. Incredible, compared to the night before. I had turned my wife the skeptic, into a believer. The following morning BM was closer to 90% normal, 100% firm, and just a bit of red discolouration at one end left now. By the afternoon it was though nothing had ever happened. In total, less than 48hrs and gastrointestinal issues completely resolved. Since then I have been adding this Nutrience product to his regular food, on a daily basis. Made sense to me, I eat some form or another of prebiotic and probiotic food every day, and have for years.
Obviously it’s always best to take your pet to DVM, but in this scenario I was fairly positive I could reverse the symptoms as it seemed like a classic case of gastrointestinal upset. I had seen this before in the past with other dogs of ours, and at that time treated with Purina FortiFlora. An old school bacteria that still works, but I liked the idea of using the Nutrience formula, with B. subtilis as the strain of bacteria, with the addition of a quality prebiotic.
Getting back to fish….
Obviously no way of knowing as to whether the septic bacteria played a role in
The Morning
fish getting better, but this manner of treatment in aquaculture is today as accepted as using antibiotics was in the past. I suspect that in the future using non-pathogenic bacteria in the vast majority of dog, cat, fish etc food formulas will become more of the norm, vs the exception.
