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Tetra 77326 Tetra LifeGuard Tablets, 32 tablets treats 32-gallons
Purchase options and add-ons
- BROAD SPECTRUM FORMULA: Non-antibiotic agent destroys a wide range of disease-causing microorganisms
- TREATS: Controls disease-causing organisms associated with white spot (ick), red streaks, milky or shedding slime, mouth and fin rot, clamped or torn fins and ulcers
- FIZZ TABS: Convenient, pre-measured tablets make caring for your aquarium easy – there’s no guesswork
- 5-DAY COURSE: Treat for 5 consecutive days at 24-hour intervals as instructed
- USAGE: Add one tablet per day to each 5 gallons of aquarium water
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Product Description
Tetra® Lifeguard® is a broad-spectrum, non-antibiotic agent treats the clinical signs of disease at their earliest stages in freshwater fish. You don’t have to be a fish expert to use Lifeguard! With this all-in-one treatment, there’s no need for time-consuming guesswork. Each pre-measured Fizz Tab dose treats for disease-causing organisms associated with fungus, ick, red streaks, milky or shedding slime, flukes, bacterial gill disease, mouth and fin rot, clamped or torn fins, and ulcers. Tetra Lifeguard can also be used as a preventive when adding new fish. To treat, leave filter system operating normally; remove filter carbon for the duration of treatment. Turn off UV sterilizer if present. Add one tablet per day to each 5 gallons (19 L) of aquarium water. Treat for five consecutive days, at 24-hour intervals. For best results, after five-day treatment, wait another 24 hours (day 6) before returning activated carbon and turning on UV sterilizer. See product label for complete directions for use. Since 1951, Tetra has developed the world’s most comprehensive body of fish food knowledge, and fishkeeping enthusiasts have looked to the brand for products and solutions that add ease and beauty to their home. Whether you're an experienced hobbyist or just starting out, Tetra has everything you need – from a large variety of quality fish food and innovative equipment to test kits and decor.
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Product details
- Is Discontinued By Manufacturer : No
- Product Dimensions : 0.88 x 4.13 x 6.88 inches; 1.6 ounces
- Item model number : 77326
- Department : Medication
- Date First Available : August 19, 2004
- Manufacturer : Tetra
- ASIN : B001XD6RH8
- Country of Origin : USA
- Best Sellers Rank: #10,657 in Pet Supplies (See Top 100 in Pet Supplies)
- #96 in Aquarium Water Treatments
- Customer Reviews:
Top Brand: Tetra
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Customer reviews
Customer Reviews, including Product Star Ratings help customers to learn more about the product and decide whether it is the right product for them.
To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. Instead, our system considers things like how recent a review is and if the reviewer bought the item on Amazon. It also analyzed reviews to verify trustworthiness.
Learn more how customers reviews work on AmazonCustomers say
Customers like the performance, effect and value of the pet supplies. They mention that it works great, is easy to use and that it completely clears up everything. They also appreciate the quality and value for money.
AI-generated from the text of customer reviews
Customers like the performance of the pet supplies. They mention that it works great, is effective at curing anything that's going on in their fish, and is easy to use. Some customers say that it worked wonders on healing their pleco's cloud eye, and cleared up their fishes illness right up. They also say that the product is an effective natural treatment for ick and that it clears up Ick quickly.
"...helps with the fish health but apparently can be an effective natural treatment for ick at high enough doses though I didn’t go super high in..." Read more
"Good brand. Shipped fast." Read more
"...Unbeknownst to me... These new fishies were not well...." Read more
"Thease work great on fish that are sick and not noticing right away saved my whole tank and sick fish best price everywhere else is crazy expensive..." Read more
Customers are satisfied with the effect of the salt on fish. They mention that the tablets work well and have a positive effect on fish health. Some customers also say that the salt has a huge effect on the fish's behavior.
"...2. Added aquarium salt to the fish tank. Salt not only helps with the fish health but apparently can be an effective natural treatment for ick at..." Read more
"...relatively inexpensive, I didn't dye anything blue, and most of my fish ended up living. My aquarium is back to healthy and I have happy fish again...." Read more
"...I followed the instructions and it worked great. I didn't loose any fish." Read more
"...Within 24 hours of dosing Lifeguard, there was a noticeable improvement in the goldfish...." Read more
Customers appreciate the value of the pet supplies. They mention that it is a good price.
"...I highly recommend this product. More so, the price is cheap for 32 tablets." Read more
"...It was relatively inexpensive, I didn't dye anything blue, and most of my fish ended up living...." Read more
"I love this product. It works for me every time I use it. It's cheaper on amazon then at the big box stores...." Read more
"great price. this is a good general medication that doesnt harm or stress the fish...." Read more
Customers find the pet supplies easy to use. They mention that it works great and is easy to set up.
"Lifeguard is a very good product. It works fast, is easy to use and you can't find a better deal." Read more
"...Just drop tablets in the tank. No fuss, no mess. This is so great." Read more
"Easy to use. Works great." Read more
"Price beats any pet store. Cleared up Ick quickly and very easy to use...." Read more
Customers are satisfied with the quality of the pet supplies. They say that it completely cleared their fishes of a variety of issues, including white spots, bit marks, and fungus.
"...weeks later now and my original fish are very happy, with not a single white spot back on them...." Read more
"I used it to treat ich and in just five days all of the white spots disappeared. I highly recommend this product...." Read more
"...his fins have begun the long process of growing back and the bit marks are almost gone...." Read more
"...It arrived in 2 days and my fish made it. The fungus cleared within a few days...." Read more
Customers have mixed opinions about the staining of the product. Some mention that it works well and does not stain the water, while others say that it makes the water cloudy.
"...a broad spectrum of fish diseases including parasites, is harmless to aquatic life includinglive plants, and really works...." Read more
"...This stuff worked but it made the water cloudy, which I figure is a pretty fair trade off." Read more
"...Other then that it works great! Oh and it doesn't stain!" Read more
"...when, after about two weeks of using it, I noticed a white cloudy fluff covering it. I looked closer and saw this stuff elsewhere as well...." Read more
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So I made the big mistake of putting a newly bought black moor into my tank and not quarantining him for a couple weeks. Had always been lucky in the past with new fish but this time my luck ran out, lesson learned and next time I will be sure to quarantine...
Anyhow a week after bringing the fish home, the black moor along with the 4 original goldfish in my 55 gallon tank all had ick. This was my first ever experience with ick after having had goldfish for 12 years so I spent hours online reading everything I could about treatment options. I had read about the standard treatments of Malachite Green or Methylene Blue, etc but these lifeguard tablets caught my eye since they didn’t have anything that would stain the fish tank green or blue and I wanted to avoid that since my tank is acrylic with sand substrate and lots of ornaments all of which would be stained. So after hours of reading everything I could find online about how ick (a parasite) works, here is a summary of what I learned and exactly what I did in my tank…
First, its critical to understand there are three life cycle stages that the ick parasite goes through, and THEY ARE ONLY VULNERABLE TO ERADICATION IN ONE OF THEM! The first stage is when they are actually on your fish and they form a protective, round, white, cyst-like structure around them (hence the term ‘white spot’ disease). While they are inside this cyst feeding on your fish they are impossible to kill. No medication, including lifeguard or malachite green, etc. can kill them while they are actually on your fish/in these cysts. After they finish feeding for a period of time (influenced by the water temperature, more on that very important point soon), the cyst falls off and sits on the bottom of the tank, which is the second stage where a single cyst will then hatch 100+ more parasites. This brings us to the third stage of the ick parasites life cycle, when the newly hatched ick are swimming freely around your tank with the sole purpose of finding a fish to attach to and starting the entire process over again at stage 1. This period in their lifecycle where they are swimming freely around the tank looking for fish to attack is the ONLY stage where any treatment will actually kill ick. The turnaround time for the entire 3 stage lifecycle process can take 4+ weeks in colder water, to less than a day in 80+ degree water. So it’s extremely important to raise the temperature of the tank high enough to speed up the ick lifecycle so that it completely cycles at least a few times while you are actively medicating the tank. If just one cyst is still on your fish or laying on the substrate and hasn’t hatched yet due to cooler water temperatures and it outlasts your treatment window, your ick will soon be back all over again because there will be no medication left in the water to kill it during stage 3.
That said, here are the exact steps I took to treat my ick including the use of these lifeguard tablets. My tank had 5 goldfish (one being the newly bought black moor that introduced the ick), 10 nerite snails, artificial plants, sand substrate, and two big air-stones.
1. Removed my Nerite snails from the tank, as most ick treatments/medications can harm invertebrates including lifeguard. They went into a temporary 5 gallon bucket I use only for fish related stuff (so no soap/chemical residue), along with a small air stone I setup to agitate the water in the bucket. Snails stayed in the bucket during the entire 10 day treatment window. I changed the water in the bucket every 3ish days just to be on the safe side. Fed them algae wafers and zucchini. Snails can't get ick btw.
2. Added aquarium salt to the fish tank. Salt not only helps with the fish health but apparently can be an effective natural treatment for ick at high enough doses though I didn’t go super high in concentration. I put in 1 tablespoon for every 5 gallons, so 11 tablespoons total in my 55 gallon tank. I took maybe half a gallon of water out of the tank, dissolved the 11 tbsp of salt completely into that half gallon, and then slowly introduced that water a small portion at a time back into my main tank, pouring maybe a cup every 15min or so. If you have live plants you would need to remove them since salt will harm them, but since mine are fake I didn’t have to deal with that additional headache.
3. Removed all carbon from my tank. This is VERY important since the carbon will absorb the medication out of the water. If you use ammocarb chips, or have filter floss cartridges with carbon inside like I did you’ll need to remove all of it. I bought some standalone filter floss to perform debris pickup since the floss/carbon cartridge was gone. This stuff worked great- http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0002AT7GG?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o02_s00
4. You must increase the rate of oxygen exchange in the water, since warmer water doesn’t hold oxygen as well. I already had a very strong air pump (whisper AP300 http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0002563QI?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s02 ) so I cranked it up to full blast and had a ton of bubbles coming out of my two 14inch air stones and creating increased surface agitation.
5. With all invertebrates removed, and carbon gone, it’s now time to medicate. I put in one tablet of lifeguard for every 5 gallons of water, every 24 hours. So that means 11 tablets each day in my 55gal tank for 10 days. I just dropped all eleven of them right into the water each evening and they sank to the bottom and would fully dissolve after a couple hours.
6. And finally, raising the temperature… I gradually raised the water temperature to at least 80 degrees over the course of a few hours on the first day of treatment, and over the next couple days of treatment I was able to slowly bump my temperature all the way to 86 degrees. I got this heater off of amazon which worked great - http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B006QI8304?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o09_s00. I’ve read that at 86 degrees most ick will actually die off naturally, but as goldfish prefer cooler water you’ll need to monitor the health/stress level of the fish and adjust temperature accordingly by observing the fish and backing off if they show increased signed of distressed beyond what the ick is already causing. Get a separate thermometer and place it in the water on opposite end of the tank from the heater to verify what temperature the heater is achieving. I got this one and it seemed to work okay http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0002AQITK?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o08_s00 . You will keep your water at or above 80 degrees for the entire duration of the treatment, to ensure all the ick fully cycles through all 3 stages and is killed off by the medication. The next few days will also be the hardest for your fish because the ick will spread crazy fast since it’s cycling so quickly in the warmer water. One day after I raised the temperature the amount of spots on my fish tripled and they were obviously very unhappy. Sitting on the bottom, fins tucked most of the time, with periods of darting around the tank frantically and rubbing against everything. Three days in is where I lost the black moor that introduced the ick problem *sigh*. I suspect he was already too weak/sick from already having had ick for a while to handle the temperature change, medication, and stress of it all…. R.I.P. ObieBlack Goldfishie, may the force be with you…
7. After 4-5 days of treatment the spots on my original 4 fish started going away dramatically, after 7 days no spots were visible at all on the fish. I completed the full 10 days of treatment to ensure any/all ick was hatched and killed in the water.
8. I did feed the fish during treatment but only half the flakes each day they normally would get.
After the 10 day treatment was complete, I then->
1. Turned off the heater to let the water temperature gradually cool off over the next 24 hours, and put carbon back into the tank filter to absorb all the remaining medication as the water cycled through over the next couple days
2. Performed 30% water changes the next two days to lower the salinity back down some
3. After 3 days with the carbon filtering any medication out and the two water changes, I re-introduced my nerite snails back into the tank.
A few weeks later now and my original fish are very happy, with not a single white spot back on them. I know the salt/temperature steps I took alone would have helped in treating ick so maybe lifeguard had nothing to do with it, maybe it did. All I know is the ick is gone, I’m super happy my original fish survived and I didn’t end up with a green or blue stained tank by using the other standard medications.
Your process and results may of course vary depending on how quickly you start treatment (the sooner the better if you want as many fish to survive as possible!), your type of fish/tank setup, their baseline health, etc.
Goodluck!
Top reviews from other countries
Very costly without any effect.
Tried in my aquarium when my gold fish started feeling low. 4 fishes have died, but the medicine could not save any.
Very poor......Not worth at all.