Fish Immunity

[Fish Fantasy]

Hi Guys! How do I go about increasing my fishies immune systems?

[SauRoN]

Bioplus ? :)

[Fish Fantasy]

Thanks that's alot of help!!!! lol!!!!

[butcherman]

Hi Guys! How do I go about increasing my fishies immunity?
have a challenge where by half your fish get immunity and the other half have to go to tribal council :p

[Fish Fantasy]

Nooooooooooo!!!!! Then they might get voted off & have to leave the island.

[butcherman]

Nooooooooooo!!!!! Then they might get voted off & have to leave the island.
not if they have found the hidden immunity idol :blink1:

[Fish Fantasy]

Now that's the thing they need to know what the immunity idol looks like and where it's hidden. Other wise they will be voted off permanently :)

[butcherman]

lol give them visual clues? .... i dont think they can read ;)

[veegal]

LoL - You guys/gals are just too much :D

The only way for fish to build up resistance to diseases is if they are subjected to them. Just like humans, their bodies need to first come into contact with the disease in order to build 'antibodies'. So short of chucking in sick fish with your healthy ones, this is no easy order.

What you can do is ensure that they have a balanced diet which will in turn make sure that they get the correct amounts of vitamins etc which will aid them in the fighting off of disease.

[Fish Fantasy]

So if i have a sick fish should i leave it for a while and turn up the heat and let them build up immunity?

[butcherman]

give them a flu injection ;)

[veegal]

No, don't leave the fish, treat it immediately. The other fish would have come into contact with the cause of the disease as well and will build resistance to it. They may become infected as well and depending on their health, and of course the nature of the disease, they may fight it off without actually getting ill. The healthier your fish are the quicker and easier it is for them to fight off the illness and thereby build a small immunity to the disease.

[Fish Fantasy]

Ok thanks a million! Will treat the illness how well does water life work?

[veegal]

I find Waterlife products to be amongst the best medications for fish, if not the best, in my opinion. What disease are you treating???

[butcherman]

I find Waterlife products to be amongst the best medications for fish, if not the best, in my opinion. What disease are you treating???
I concur doctor..... water life products are great:idea:

[Fish Fantasy]

Well!! over 3 days i've been loosing my guppies they get all lethargic then sink to the bottom, I take them out and put them into the quarantine tank with Tetra meds but they die a day later. So i'm scared there is a disease in my tank. I used water life two weeks before the dieing started but it doesn't seem to have helped.

[veegal]

Which Waterlife product did you use???

[butcherman]

did you test the nitrates in your tank?

maybe you need to do a big water change like over 25%

[Fish Fantasy]

They started dieing after my water change which was 30%, i do a regular water change once a week of 25%-30%

[butcherman]

do you use tape water?

[Fish Fantasy]

PROTOZIN (Protozoacide/Fungicide) (Details (http://www.waterlife.co.uk/waterlife/protozin.htm)) For the treatment of Whitespot, Fungus, Velvet and Costia in tropical freshwater and coldwater aquaria only. Do not use when mormyrids (i.e. Elephant Nose, Dolphin Fish), Sturgeon and Sterlets are present.298




Yes i do use tap water but i dechloronate before I put it in the tank.

[veegal]

I'm not sure how relevant this may be but a few weeks ago I had one or two fish die after doing water changes in about three different tanks. No signs or symptoms prior to that. It got me thinking that perhaps I did the water change just after the municipality dosed their water and perhaps they added a little more 'chemicals' than usual due to the storms we had been having. I never did establish whether this was a possibility but apparently there is supposed to be a website somewhere which tells you on what day your local municipality treats the water and what they treat with. A colleague told me about it. Perhaps someone with more knowledge on this could comment. ???

[Fish Fantasy]

Hmmm!! when i think about it i did find one dead guppy before the water change and one after the water change, so i'm not sure if the water treatments by the municipality is the problem.

[butcherman]

i had a few fish die on me but thats cause we had a power outage that lasted 30 hours. but they only passed away about a week and a half later. i guess the prolongers drop in temp weakended their imune systems

[Slojo]

Friend of mine had a few fish die on him after a water change.
He actually put in sme hot water from the tap.

I think it has to do with the sudden temp change.

[Fish Fantasy]

I'm stumped, totally stumped i don't think it's the water temp because in the wild they they have currents in the water and the temperature fluctuates all the time. well looks like i'm going to have to re-medicate again and watch for any more deaths. If it carries on then I have a problem!!!

[butcherman]

maybe its over medication?

[Fish Fantasy]

So now what do i do?:bawling:

[veegal]

FF - What exactly are you medicating FOR? Which of the Waterlife medications have you given and what made you decide to use it? ie What did you think was wrong with them?

[Fish Fantasy]

PROTOZIN (Protozoacide/Fungicide) (Details (http://www.waterlife.co.uk/waterlife/protozin.htm)) For the treatment of Whitespot, Fungus, Velvet and Costia in tropical freshwater and coldwater aquaria only.


My babies where scratching on the gravel and the new guys even after a three week quarantine started getting a small case of fin rot and ick so i put in Protozin for a week and turned the temp up to 28-29 but now once the charcoal has gone in and 2 water changes have been done the guppies started pegging off one by one.

[f-fish]

1) What is your normal water temp (not the 28 - 29 for treatment)?
2) The guppies that are dying - how old are they - male / female about to drop, just dropped?
3) Do you always have charcoal in the tank - was this the same charcoal you had in the tank before you added the meds?
4) Do you run an UV in the tank?

Reason for the questions (just what I have seen, no scientific proof so this could be way off.)
1) Guppies seem to do OK with upping the temperature (never pushed over 32 myself for a 36 hour burst) All survived. Dropping the temperature suddenly seems to be a different story. Under 13 degrees they seem to hit a comma and it looks like they drown - even seen this if it happened for a very short time period, but most recovered - females are more resilient than males.
2) Guppies have a short life span - higher temps make it even shorter - hard breeding, overfeeding takes its toll. I have seen "old" males lose colour, fins then peg - nothing happened to the other fish (40 guppies + SAE)
3) + 4) I think these remove / destroy most meds. (switch off / remove for medication) - discard the old charcoal.

Before I hit meds - I try doing water changes and some UV - with some more water changes. Depending on the problem.

[Fish Fantasy]

1) What is your normal water temp (not the 28 - 29 for treatment)?
2) The guppies that are dying - how old are they - male / female about to drop, just dropped?
3) Do you always have charcoal in the tank - was this the same charcoal you had in the tank before you added the meds?
4) Do you run an UV in the tank?

Reason for the questions (just what I have seen, no scientific proof so this could be way off.)
1) Guppies seem to do OK with upping the temperature (never pushed over 32 myself for a 36 hour burst) All survived. Dropping the temperature suddenly seems to be a different story. Under 13 degrees they seem to hit a comma and it looks like they drown - even seen this if it happened for a very short time period, but most recovered - females are more resilient than males.
2) Guppies have a short life span - higher temps make it even shorter - hard breeding, overfeeding takes its toll. I have seen "old" males lose colour, fins then peg - nothing happened to the other fish (40 guppies + SAE)
3) + 4) I think these remove / destroy most meds. (switch off / remove for medication) - discard the old charcoal.

Before I hit meds - I try doing water changes and some UV - with some more water changes. Depending on the problem.

Water temp is usually 26
Age ? Still youngish i think
All male
Yes always have charcoal in the tank & yes this was the charcoal before the meds (Sherbbert!!!!) i've transferred the sickness ag no!!!!
Nope no UV heard it destroys good bacteria with the bad.

[butcherman]

If you wanna use charcoal in your tank you need to change it atleast once a month if not more i think. otherwise once it reaches its maximum absorbtion capacity it starts leaching the poisions you have taken out back into the system.

[Fish Fantasy]

Then i'll change the activated charcoal every two weeks instead of once a month, i've also changed the substrate to Eihem Substrate Pro but i put that in after the guppies started dieing.

[Sean J]

Try feeding them Garlicguard. (I think that's how you spell it) Just drop it into some Freeze dried tubifex and boom. Has garlic and vitamin C. Should help with the immune systems.

(I'm only starting to use this method, but I have it on good advisement, that this works nicely.

[butcherman]

Try feeding them Garlicguard. (I think that's how you spell it) Just drop it into some Freeze dried tubifex and boom. Has garlic and vitamin C. Should help with the immune systems.

(I'm only starting to use this method, but I have it on good advisement, that this works nicely.
will also keep the mosquitoes away and the vampires ;) ... i hear it also increases their appitie as well as improve their immune systems

[Fish Fantasy]

I've had a look at the product and it sounds great! Has anyone else tried Garlicaurd? Any feed back would be great!

GARLIC GAURD
*For fresh and saltwater fish, planted and reef aquariums*Contains allicin, the active ingredient in garlic*Contains Vitamin C for enhanced health benefits
Whet your fishes' appetite with the natural healthful properties of garlic. Contains allicin, the active ingredient in garlic with powerful antioxidant properties that can lessen free radical damage to cells - plus Vitamin C for enhanced health benefits. For fresh and saltwater fish, planted and reef aquariums.

[Fish Fantasy]

My fish already make pigs of themselves and they get cucumber on top of that, i found my pleco and chinese algea eaters love cucumber.

[Sean J]

I've only ever heard good things about this product.

Cucumber is good for most plant eaters!! My Loaches even like it!!

[Fish Fantasy]

How often do you feed your fish cucumber?

[Sean J]

Once a week. Cucumber or baby marrow split down the middle. you have to weight it down though, so it doesn't float. But I supplement with catfish wafers and algae wafers the rest of the time.

[Fish Fantasy]

I feed then cucumber 3 times a week and the rest of the time it's veggie flakes.
I weigh the cucumber down with a small surgical steel fork and it works like a charm.

[Reafer]

I used my gluegun and just glued a toothpick to a stone and spike my cucumber :P

[Fish Fantasy]

Cool beans! Have you ever given your fish lettice leaves?

[solex69]

Best way to keep a fish's immune system strong is in their diet. If they are fed a variety of foods on a daily basis, they will be in gr8 shape. Basically, their colouration should also give you an idea of a strong fish vs a not-so-strong (and not necesarrily saying they are sick) fish.

[Fish Fantasy]

My fish are so spoilt with Brime shrimp and blood worms, cucumber, a variety of flakes, if i forget to give them their treats they stare a whole right through me and then ignore me like spoilt little brats. Kids i tell you!!!!!!!!!