My solution to a lot of diseases

Hi guys and dolls,

I have been following a lot of threads with regards to diseases, and listened to a lot of the remedies and solutions. A lot of them given by the Prof himself. Particularly for the newbies, I'd like to share what I have learnt and read here. When I started I never thought I wold ever get hit with a disease outbreak... but that seems to have become a belief of the past. I have been through fungus, bacterial infection, and Anchor Worm.

As a keen aquarist, I suppose a lot of us sit staring at our fish, and slowly learn the behaviour of each fish, even down to knowing which food each fish prefers. So we are all very worried when we see our fishes acting "out of character" and hence, try find a problem.

Firstly, let's cover prevention...

We've all heard prevention is better than cure, and the saying goes very well with keeping fish. From what I understand, fish are sometimes carrying a lot of varying pathogens and bacteria etc. Our fish have a slimy protective covering on them, and this basically protects them these little nigglies.

Obviously this protective slimy coat (which I am sure has a more biological term than "slimy coat") can loose it's ability to protect through (1) stress (2) damage from other fish (3) and poor water perameters.

So what I have learnt is that if my water perameters is kepts in check through regular testing, as well as water changes, I can prevent diseases that way. I also ensure that the fish I keep together in my community tank are compatible, and that no excess aggression towards each other leads to damage. I also try, as a habit, to use a product called "anti-stress" whenever I am doing major scaping, heavy vacuuming or any major work to the tank environment.

Another way fish get diseases is through introduction of new fish. Sometimes fish from our lps have diseases that will run amock in our tanks, and as a precaution, fish that arrive from a LPS should be put into a quarantine tank for a period of 7 days. (If after 7 days there are no visible signs of diseases, then they can be introduced.)

Obviously there are diseases out there that can't be remedies purely by having top quality water, stress free fish, and no fighting. For example I introduced anchor worm into my tank, and the only way I could get rid of it was through medication.

From what I understand by reading Prof Bellsted's responses to a lot of diseases is that often medication is not the remedy, and could do more damage than cure. Some meds can damage your bio-filter, and some even have adverse effects on your plants, as well as other more sensitive fish, and fry.

I recently had an angel with a bacterial infection. I diagnosed this through a glassy eye that appeared to be a fungus on the eye, but did not look exactly like an eye. After internet research, I was 75% sure that it was an internal bacterial infection, but because I was medicating for anchorworm at the time, I couldn't medicate for internal bacteria at the same time. I therefore just left him.

My water perameters were terrible at the time cause of previous meds knocking out my entire bio-filter. Over the past 2 weeks, my tank has cycled back to 100% good perameters, and the angel is back to normal.

(To sound impressive): In summary- meds can never be avoided all the time, BUT they should be used only in extreme cases, or where meds is the only solution.

It would be very interesting to hear your opinion...

 

Interesting read and very true, i think water quality is the most important thing as well as were you buy from, use to always through in salt after a water change.

 

donny
Salt is not good for all fish


My Quarantine routine
Sera has a general tonic covering the basic diseases.
1 drop Med : ½ litre (the packet from the LFS), leave for 5 minutes
Drain into net and place into QT for a week or two.
½ dosage for the 1st 3 days with daily water changes

My tanks are disease free for the past 4 years using this method

 

oops forgot. plants get a 1-5 min bath in potassium permanganate
and also QT for a week or two


Never had a snail problem -touch wood