Fish: Health & Disease
Prevention Verses Cure
The best way to cure any disease or illness in your fish is to prevent it from occurring in the first place. A good fish keeper will rarely get any disease in his or her tank.
Your undertaking of weekly water changes and resisting the temptation to over feed your tank will ensure that very little will go wrong. It is the overfeeding of your fish, the overcrowding of fish, and the lack of water changes that cause, in many instances, the beginning of the end.
Early Detection of Problems
If things go wrong try to deduce the cause of the problem before any fish die. You usually have 24 hours in which to treat fish for a simple illness before death occurs. If you don’t notice any abnormality and the first thing you see is a dead fish, you’ll probably lose more fish before stopping the spread of disease.
Unfortunately, your aquarium is the perfect medium for bacteria. If you have a bad bug present (they are always there in small numbers) and you over feed, over crowd, or don’t do regular water changes, these bad bugs quickly take over.
In addition to the aforementioned Waste Control, another product called Cycle is also excellent when starting up a new aquarium.
The Common Cures for Fish Diseases
The cures or medications used for treating sick fish depend on the disease to be treated. At Wet Pets we only use a few basic treatments to fix any problems.
For bacterial diseases the first-up treatment we use is Malachite Green and Formalin mixed in equal amounts at the rate of one drop per litre. This treatment will kill both the good and bad bacteria and any parasites that may be causing your fish stress. It’s important to do a third of a tank water change every day for three consecutive days after using this treatment. The chemicals used are very severe, and the water changes slowly dilute chemical build-up from the water, making the fish feel more comfortable. Adding some Stress Coat to your tank on the third day is also a good idea.
For fungus problems, including ripped fins or scales missing when goldfish breed, we use Acriflavine.