Preventative Medication

[slowcountry]

Is it recommended to use maintenance medications, IE for disease / parasite preventative measures? If so, what should one use?

I never have had an ICK outbreak, but I do go through periods of wasting, especially on juvenile live bearers and tail and fin rot. I have yet to understand why the tail and fin rot shows up. The strange thing is that I get it in multiple tanks around the same time. It does not correlate with water changes or anything else that I can come up with. I somewhat sterilize my water containers with 170 deg F water before filling them for use. I let the water age for a couple of days before use.

Does anyone else experience this?

pH 8.2
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate <=40
Temp 77 to 80 deg F

1 TBSP salt per 10 gallons of water. I have mollies, swords, guppies in 6 community tanks.

 

[yvez9]

I don't add anything to my water other than conditionner to remove chlorine and metals.
I wouldn't recommend you add anything either as it isn't required, same as if you were taking "preventive" meds. It will probably do more harm than good in the long run.

I know alot of people add aquarium salt to their livebearer tanks but I've never done it, and am not sure why it would be necessary

 

[OldMan47]

It is specifically not suggested to maintain a tank with constant medication levels. That would be a great way to develop strains of bacteria or other disease organisms that are resistant to the medication. If you keep on top of your regular maintenance and don't bring home any fish that are in poor health, the fish seem to just stay healthy.

 

[shelaghfishface]

your better off sticking to regular maintenece routine like old man says, after all,poor water quality is the cause of most illnesses.yours is fine.just keep it like that and
dont waste your money