Caring for an aquarium means you knowing what kinds of diseases can affect the fish living in it. Most diseases come from water conditions or from fish experiencing too much stress. Many times, the greatest stress on fish is the initial transport from the pet shop to your tank. However, once you have got your fish in the tank, learning to identify freshwater aquarium disease symptoms is an important part of the care you provide.
Acclimation is the process you use to safely transfer fish into the water you have ready in your tank. Once you have purchased fish, be sure to get them home as soon as possible to prevent ammonia poisoning from occurring in the bag from fish feces. A number of methods are available for safe acclimation, but the best is the bucket method. While many people have great success also using the floating bag way, the bucket method allows for fewer complications of tainted water from the bag getting into your tank water.
Place bag into a clean bucket. Take out about 25% of the water and replace it with water from your tank. Repeat this process every ten minutes for an hour until you have changed out all of the water the fish came in from the pet shop. Once this is done, you can safely place your new fish into the tank. Without this process, fish can become stressed and diseased quickly.
Ich or also Ick is a common problem many people see with their fish. The name comes from an abbreviation of Ichthyophtirius, a protozoan type parasite that has three life stages. You can identify it through the appearance of tiny white spots all over the fish. Each one of those spots is a parasite. Once it has fed enough of the fish, it will drop off and attach to other areas in the tank to start reproducing. An entire community of fish can become infected quickly. Your local pet shop most likely sells a zinc-free medication that is malachite green and formalin and is an excellent choice for treating this condition. Stress and unclean environment are common causes of this protozoan becoming a problem.
When you see one of your fish lying on the bottom of the tank, a closer inspection may reveal rotting fins. Fin rot is due to bacteria that attacks the fins. This mostly occurs when fish have been nipping at fins, thus leaving open a wound as a perfect environment for these bacteria to thrive. Separate sick fish from nippers in the tank and use tetracycline for treatment. However, you will want to remove the carbon in the filter because it will absorb the medication, rendering it ineffective.
Fish floating at the surface trying to gulp air is a sure sign they are oxygen starved. This can happen when the water becomes too warm. Treatment includes additional and quick aeration of water. Airstones work well while powerhead do as well. Many people use them together in addition to increasing flow rates with the filters. Make sure any sunlight reaching the tank is removed by closing shades and turn off tank lights or any other lights nearby. Allowing ice bags to float in water can help a lot in cooling temperatures quickly.
Velvet is a disease that is similar to Ick in that it attacks the skin of the fish and is also a common parasite. Velvet appears as dusty yellowish gray spots. Affected fish will exhibit rapid gill movement and may try scratching, also referred to as flashing, against surfaces inside the aquarium. You can use the same treatment medication for velvet you use for Ich. Stress and unclean water are also causes for this parasite to become troublesome.
Another disease that is caused from a bacterial infection is called Pop-Eye. One or both eyes will bulge, sometimes grotesquely, as a symptom of a bacterial infection. This can be caused from high oxygen saturation or from sustaining an injury. However, Pop-Eye is treatable when measures are taken to clean water and maintain levels of oxygen. The affected fish should be placed in a quarantine tank immediately. Epsom salts can be added to water for drawing fluid off the eye. In most cases, a fifty percent water change is best. Make sure to inspect any new items you may have placed in the tank for jutting objects or for scents of strong chemicals.
Staying on top of water changes and keeping your tank clean is an important way to prevent many common freshwater aquarium disease symptoms from happening to your fish.
