Treating Ill Fish

One of the most common mistakes which leads to the death of fish in an aquarium is improper care and treatment of diseased fish.

Disease causing bacteria is present in all tanks, but whether or not disease affects your fish depends on how strong the animal's resistance is to the disease. Poor living conditions can make a fish more susceptible to disease, and even if you do everything right, disease may still affect your fish.

Therefore, it is necessary to understand how to determine your fish is ill and what you will need to do in the situation where your fish is ill.

The first step is identifying and determining the problem. It is important to keep an eye on your fish for abnormal behavior and/or appearance. Abnormal behavior may include erratic swimming behavior, lack of movement, lack of desire to eat, gasping for air or rubbing of body or fins. Physically, some symptoms of disease may include discoloration, swelling, rotting fins, and abnormal growths.

After you have determined the symptoms and disease, treatment is the obvious next choice. What many fish owners do not do, however, is to set up a hospital tank for the fish.

It is highly recommended that you move the ill fish to its own environment, and this is done for three reasons: 1. It keeps the fish from spreading its disease to other fish in your community tank; 2. It keeps healthy fish from harassing the diseased fish; 3. It will keep the healthy fish from any adverse reactions to the treatment being given to the ill fish.

Hospital tanks do not need to be very large, as they will commonly hold only one ill fish at a time. It does need filtration and aeration, like a typical tank, though plants and gravel should not be included in the tank environment. Instead, use rocks or some type of structure as a cover for the fish.

Once you determine the disease, visit a pet retailer or pet store to find the proper treatment. Home remedies should be avoided.

An emergency cleaning of your tank may be used as a last resort, in the situation of three or more fish suffering from the same disease. In this case, remove all fish to the hospital tank, and then you must go through the process of setting up your aquarium from scratch. Wash all components with bleach and rinse thoroughly, throw out filter media, rocks, live plants and airstones. They will all need to be replaced.

The best advice to maintaining a healthy environment for your fish is to complete regular maintenance on your tank. Keep the environment clean and suitable for the fish, and keep an eye on the fish themselves. At first sign of abnormality, determine the disease and treat it immediately. Follow these simple steps and your fish should live longer, healthier lives.

This article has been submitted in affiliation with http://www.PetLovers.Com/ which is a site for Pets.

Tonia Jordan is an author on Writing.Com/ which is a site for Writers.