Fish first aid: how to care for sick fish?

How to Tell If Your Fish is Sick?

Here are some tell-tale signs that your fish has a problem and you might want to take it to a vet:

• Clamped fins: Your fish is holding their fins in close contact with their body rather than opening and closing the fins. The fins may also appear torn or frayed. This is often the first sign that your fish has a health problem.
• Flashing: You fish is swimming erratically and bumping into things. This means your fish is attempting to scratch itself and may be due to parasites in the water.
• The shimmies: Your fish appears to be swimming, but it is not moving forward. The fins may also be clamped. This condition is common in Swordtails and Mollies and can occur if the water temperature is too cold.
•  Schooling: Many species of aquarium fish prefer to swim in a group of their own kind. It’s easy to see their schooling behavior if you have a large aquarium with plenty of space for fish to swim. If one of the fish is not swimming with the rest of the school, it may be a sign of a health problem.
  
•  Irregular swimming: Different species of aquarium fish have different preferences when it comes to which level of water they prefer to swim. For example, Danios prefer to swim close to the surface of the tank whereas Rainbowfish prefer to swim at mid-level. If you notice one of your fish has changed its swimming behavior, this could be a sign of illness.
• Loss of appetite: If your fish is showing a decreased interest in food, this can have one of several causes including high water temperature, insufficient dissolved oxygen, and wrong pH.
• Hiding in the tank: If a fish that is not normally a loner, is tending to hide or spend time in a different part of the tank, this could be a sign of illness.
• Rapid gill movements: Difficult breathing and gasping for air at the surface of the water can be caused by the wrong pH or a low oxygen level in the water.
• White spots on the body or fins: This is a common disease for aquarium fish and is caused by ciliate protozoan Ichthyophthirius multifiliis, known as ich.
• Discolored gills: This may be a sign of ammonia or chlorine poisoning resulting from poor water quality.
• Bulging eye(s): This occurs when tissue fluid leaks into the area behind the eyeball causing a build-up of pressure.
• Warts or sores on the body: This could be a sign of fish pox, which is a form of fish herpes virus.

Treating sick aquarium fish can be difficult, especially if you’re new to the hobby or have never seen this disease before. Based on years of experience helping customers at our fish store and online, here are the step-by-step guidelines and medications we personally use to get our fish back to health as quickly as possible.

This guide will assist you in achieving optimal health for your fish friend.

Fish Care and Maintenance

Having a Quarantine Tank

A quarantine tank is simply a small aquarium that is set up for the purpose of isolating a fish, or fish, from your display aquarium. Quarantine tanks are inexpensive and easy to set up and are an investment in protection for your aquarium.

Parasites, injury, and infectious disease are unfortunate and unavoidable aspects of the aquarium hobby. One of the main purposes of a quarantine tank is to hold new fish purchases in an isolated tank that allows for easy observation. If the fish should show signs of parasites or other infections you can medicate with no risk of infecting the fish in your main tank.

A quarantine tank also gives new fish an opportunity to get used to processed food without having to compete with your established fishes that most likely are aggressive eaters. Another benefit of a quarantine tank is that it also gives you somewhere to put injured or aggressive fish that you may need to remove from your display. For a suitable quarantine tank, all you need are the following:

• Tank - ten to twenty gallons is usually sufficient, depending on fish size
• Filter - anything from a simple sponge filter to a small power filter depending on the type of quarantine system you wish to use
• Heater - essential to tropical and saltwater systems but unnecessary for goldfish
• Hideout, Plastic Plants, Aquarium Ornament - not completely necessary, but will reduce stress by giving the fish a place to hide and feel more secure

Creating & maintaining a quarantine system has a number of advantages.

• A quarantine tank allows your fish to "come down" from that initial home stress, making it healthier to cope with life in the main aquarium
• Infected fish spread diseases to your other fish. In addition, an isolated sick fish is much more economical, quicker, and easier to medicate than one in a large display tank.
• Controlled feeding is another important function of a quarantine tank.
• Without competition new fish get a chance to adjust at their own pace

Identifying the Sickness

Most of the time fish keepers (especially beginners) do not know what ailment has affected their fish, but doing nothing is also not productive. Ideally, we want to treat the issue as soon as possible to give the fish the best chance of surviving. Therefore, we advise covering all your bases by using broad-spectrum medications for bacterial, fungal, and parasitic infections. However, there are hundreds of medications available all over the world. Which ones will not only offer effective protection against most conditions, but are also safe to use with plants, shrimp, snails, baby fish, and even sensitive, scale-less fish.

Some Medications are:

Treating a Fish

• If you are fairly certain of which disease your fish has, treat for that specific sickness first with the appropriate medication, and follow the instructions on the packaging or manufacturer’s website. For example, if you see fish fungus consider using Maracyn and Ich-X. If you suspect tapeworms or other internal parasites, use ParaCleanse and make sure to treat the fish again in two to three weeks to kill any remaining eggs that have hatched.

• On the other hand, if you are quarantining new fish or you are not certain which ailment you’re dealing with, use all three medications at the same time. Oftentimes, a fish may start off with one type of illness, such as a fungal infection. This can create an open wound that leaves itself vulnerable to a secondary bacterial infection. Thus, it’s best to treat all three types of infection to give the fish the greatest chance of recovery.

• If you are treating new fish, make sure the quarantine tank is far away from your normal display tank, and do not let the tanks share any nets, siphons, buckets, or other equipment. Since droplets of water can travel on your hands to another aquarium, make sure to thoroughly wash your hands and arms with soap and hot water between tanks.

• If you are treating the entire display aquarium, do a thorough cleaning of the tank to make sure the fish’s environment is optimal and free of any stress factors before starting treatment. Wipe the aquarium walls so that you can easily observe the fish’s condition, clean out the waste in your filter, and use a siphon to vacuum the substrate and change the water.

• Remove any chemical filtration (such as activated carbon or Purigen), and turn off any UV sterilizers you may be using. Consider adding extra surface agitation (such as with a simple air stone and air pump), since some medications can change the water’s viscosity and hamper with the fish’s breathing ability.

• Do not dose according to the box instructions. Instead, add 1 packet of Maracyn, 1 packet of ParaCleanse, and 1 U.S. teaspoon of Ich-X for every 10 gallons of aquarium water. (Ich-X does not stain aquarium decorations in our experience, but be careful not to spill it because it can stain your skin or clothing.)

• Let the fish soak in the medication, and do not feed them or change any water for 1 week. (If you feel you must feed your fish, wait until Day 4 or 5, and only feed them very lightly.) You should keep the aquarium filter and heater on during this time. Also, aquarium lighting will not deactivate the medication.

• After 1 week has passed, change out 30% of the water in the aquarium. Resume feeding the fish, keep the water quality high, and watch for any change in symptoms.

• If you have very weakfish, it may be easier on their bodies to space out the treatment. Bacterial infections are the most common, so use Maracyn first for a week. Ich and external parasites are the second most common, so next treat the fish with Ich-X for a week. Internal worms and gill flukes are slower-acting pathogens, so dose ParaCleanse in the third week.

• When you start the quarantine medication treatment, a few days later you may see obvious signs of an outbreak like ich (or white spot disease). Change 30% of the water, and follow the manufacturer’s instructions for the medication you need to use (e.g., Ich-X in this case). Once the ich is beaten, wait a couple of weeks with no medication to give the fish a break, and then follow up by treating with the other two quarantine medications (e.g., Maracyn and ParaCleanse) for 1 week as originally suggested.

• If you have never treated any of your fish before, consider treating all of them and starting with a clean slate. Then proactively treat all new fish that enter your home so that nothing slips through. Yes, medication can be expensive, but pathogens can lie dormant for a long time, waiting for the chance to take over your fish’s immune system if they get stressed or we lapse on tank maintenance. Based on personal experience, we recommend always having these medications on hand in case of an emergency. Chances are that you won’t be able to find the last minute at your local pet store and will have to either wait several days to receive an online shipment or settle for an untested brand that may not work at all.

Thus, take the proper precautions to ensure your own fish can lead long and healthy lives.