Tyler777
Fish Fanatic
Maybe a stupid question ....
Would it be silly to add ich medicine in the tank everytime you add new fish ?
Would it be silly to add ich medicine in the tank everytime you add new fish ?
Ich treatment for new fish
- Thread starter Tyler777
- Start date
I would set up a 5 g quarantine tank instead of over using meds.
If I were going to treat prophylactically I would do it in the quarantine tank. Why expose healthy fish to meds.
Most fish medications are poisonous and contain things that cause cancer (Malachite Green) or act as preservatives (formalin, formaldehyde). The more you expose the fish to these chemicals, the more you shorten their lives. The medications draw a fine line between treating the disease and killing the fish. Hopefully if it's done right, you treat the disease without wiping out the tank.
If your tropical fish have white spot you can treat it with heat. Just raise the water temperature to 30C (86F) and keep it there for at least 1 week after all the spots have gone. If you have goldfish or coldwater fishes with white spot, you need to use a chemical medication that contains copper or Malachite Green. You can use copper or Malachite Green on tropical fish too but they are pretty toxic chemicals so heat is a safer alternative.
A quarantine tank (as mentioned above) is a good way to prevent diseases getting into the main display aquarium. Any new fish, plant, shrimp or snail goes into the quarantine tank for a month and if they are free of disease after that time, you add those fish to the main display tank.
About the only diseases you treat prophylactically are intestinal worms and gill flukes. The medications used to treat intestinal worms are quite safe and some of the medications treat worms and gill flukes. Intestinal worms and gill flukes are extremely common in aquarium fish and generally don't show any symptoms until the parasites are well established. Treating all new fish for worms and gill flukes while the fish are in quarantine is something I did and is recommended even if the fish appear healthy. Treating for other diseases should only occur if you see other types of diseases on the fish.
If your tropical fish have white spot you can treat it with heat. Just raise the water temperature to 30C (86F) and keep it there for at least 1 week after all the spots have gone. If you have goldfish or coldwater fishes with white spot, you need to use a chemical medication that contains copper or Malachite Green. You can use copper or Malachite Green on tropical fish too but they are pretty toxic chemicals so heat is a safer alternative.
A quarantine tank (as mentioned above) is a good way to prevent diseases getting into the main display aquarium. Any new fish, plant, shrimp or snail goes into the quarantine tank for a month and if they are free of disease after that time, you add those fish to the main display tank.
About the only diseases you treat prophylactically are intestinal worms and gill flukes. The medications used to treat intestinal worms are quite safe and some of the medications treat worms and gill flukes. Intestinal worms and gill flukes are extremely common in aquarium fish and generally don't show any symptoms until the parasites are well established. Treating all new fish for worms and gill flukes while the fish are in quarantine is something I did and is recommended even if the fish appear healthy. Treating for other diseases should only occur if you see other types of diseases on the fish.
TwoTankAmin
Fish Connoisseur
Well let's not forget columnaris, one of the more common and potentially deadly bacterial diseases that can come in with fish. So why not treat for that. And there there are a few worms we often see, so maybe you better treat for them too. And if the parasite is not ich, it could be oodinium aka velvet. But the ich med should get that. Those ragged fins may be due to handling or fighting, but it could be a fungal issue developing, so add that to the list. And does a fish look skinnier than the others, maybe wasting disease. And does that one look fatter than the others, maybe bloat?
Or, you could start by assuming a new fish has no issues and by putting into Q and watching it for a while you may discover it is perfectly healthy. Or it may develop symptoms that you can see and which should give a good clue as to what the problem might be. That lets you treat for something known as opposed to guessing.
Most fish meds stress fish to some degree. Some are very mild and safe to use even in excess while others are nasty but are worth it because they deal with something that might be able to wipe out an entire tank. So if you stock a tank over time and do not Q new fish, you would have to treat new fish in a tank with your other fish. So if you pick a med, it will be affecting all the fish in the tank. Now, if the new fish actually has something not yet showing any symptom and you guessed the wrong med, you may end up with a tank full of sick fish.
More importantly, one of the knownn causes of fish being more susceptible to becoming sick or infected by something is stress. It works to lower the effectiveness of their immune system. So while you prophylatic medicating may be intended to help a new fish, it could be doing some harm to your existing healthy fish.
The fish that might need prophylactic treatment are the imported wild fish when they first arrive in country. And they come on together and can be treated together.
Basically, from the above, I hope I have given you a few more reasons not to treat for something you do not know, with reasonably certainty, is present. Even moreso, I hope it has given you good reasons to consider using a Q tank.container for new fish if you can possibly do so. The more fish you have and the longer you have them, the more important it is to use a Q tank. I have a few of my fish for close to 20 years. I would hate to lose them because I did not Q a new fish or fishes to go into their tank.
Or, you could start by assuming a new fish has no issues and by putting into Q and watching it for a while you may discover it is perfectly healthy. Or it may develop symptoms that you can see and which should give a good clue as to what the problem might be. That lets you treat for something known as opposed to guessing.
Most fish meds stress fish to some degree. Some are very mild and safe to use even in excess while others are nasty but are worth it because they deal with something that might be able to wipe out an entire tank. So if you stock a tank over time and do not Q new fish, you would have to treat new fish in a tank with your other fish. So if you pick a med, it will be affecting all the fish in the tank. Now, if the new fish actually has something not yet showing any symptom and you guessed the wrong med, you may end up with a tank full of sick fish.
More importantly, one of the knownn causes of fish being more susceptible to becoming sick or infected by something is stress. It works to lower the effectiveness of their immune system. So while you prophylatic medicating may be intended to help a new fish, it could be doing some harm to your existing healthy fish.
The fish that might need prophylactic treatment are the imported wild fish when they first arrive in country. And they come on together and can be treated together.
Basically, from the above, I hope I have given you a few more reasons not to treat for something you do not know, with reasonably certainty, is present. Even moreso, I hope it has given you good reasons to consider using a Q tank.container for new fish if you can possibly do so. The more fish you have and the longer you have them, the more important it is to use a Q tank. I have a few of my fish for close to 20 years. I would hate to lose them because I did not Q a new fish or fishes to go into their tank.
A QT tank is a must for me. You will blow yourself up soon enough if you don't, and it will likely be sooner rather than later. One of my LFS QTs new stock for 3 weeks. I still QT but I feel less need to keep them there until they die of old age when I buy from him. Probably why he has been in business for 40yrs instead of 40 weeks.
I like to keep a lot of live-bearers and I have pretty much accepted I better be ready to treat them all for internal parasite because it's very likely to happen. I miss the 80's when I don't remember it being anywhere this bad.
What do you use to pretreat columnaris?
Would ich-x pretreat for parasites? Most of the parasites I encountered could not be seen with the naked eye. If any species of fish would flash, then I always ended up treating them with Cupramine. Cupramine always took care of the problem. where the other medications before would not cure.
Cupramine is a copper based medication that will kill external protozoa. Copper also kills invertebrates like shrimp and snails so they have to be moved out of the tank if you use copper.
Columnaris is a bacterial infection and needs antibiotics.
Columnaris is a bacterial infection and needs antibiotics.
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