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What do you do when you think something is not quite right?

Jafooli

Member
Joined
21 May 2013
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231
Location
Kent
Hey

I was just wondering what do you do when you think something is not quite right with your fish?

I know most people probably quarantine there new fish / plants.
I have never quarantined as I only have the one tank, I do rinse my plants, and I try to make sure the fish are healthy before I make the purchase.

But my question is, if you start to think your fish are not acting as normal, or one fish looks a bit sorry for its self, in general you think something is out of balance, what's your choice of action?

I've luckily never witnessed/had many fish diseases so I have no clue really, but have seen ick many times in fish shops, but most problems I have come across with my fish, either in the pond or tank, they seem to be one's with out obvious symptoms so I guess more internal. In the past I have used salt baths, but mostly I just up my water changes and try to keep the tank clean as possible which seems to work a treat most the time, and other times I feel like quite a few fish now days are just generally poor health, genetically I guess, so in the end some fish just die. I know acclimatising also plays a role when introducing new fish, but many staff at fish shops tend to tell me how they don't like buying these fish as there very poor health and hard to look after now days.

Lately I feel like the balance in my tank is not right, most the times my fish are fine, then other times I see them alone with there fins down, and yeah I just feel like generally there is more bad in my tank than good. Hope that make's sense, apart from that there all healthy and there is no specific problem I am asking help on, but just curious what other people do?

I don't like using products/medicines as it seems they can do more harm than good, especially if your not 100% sure what's actually wrong with a fish....

So I would be interested to know what other people do, when there are no obvious symptoms.
Sorry if the question seems a bit strange, I'm not asking about the obvious such as ick etc, but just when you feel or think something is not right? do you add anything to your tanks? increase water changes?

I would be interested to know. :D
 
I know what you mean, sometimes something just feels a little off.
I have never needed meds either but when im a little concerned i increase water changes, dose melafix (tea tree oil mostly) and give regular feeding of live food and add some veg to the fish diet.
Normally much better after a few days. Like you say sometimes i think its just genetic and there is no saving a fish but i wont buy really small imported fish anymore, would rather wait for some i can trust.
 
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Hey Iain,

I had a look at melafix and it seems to be for wounds & abrasions, is there any other reasoning behind why you use it such as the tea tree oil benefits? do you find it perks your fish up etc?
I guess you can't go wrong with water changes, I currently have no medicine in my cabinet and it would be good to find something harmless that I could use as a precaution.
I have seen interpret general tonic, but like I say I don't want to use any products as its like dosing blind, but would be great if there was something out there that balances the tank organisms.
I suppose that's what large and frequent water changes do anyway. :D
 
I usually try twice weekly water changes for a few week's,throw out any outdated food's and purchase new food suitable for species being kept,check temp, Keep fishes that enjoy my moderately hard water, and cut same with R/O or distilled water for those species who like softer more acidic water.
Consider likely age of fishes not just how long I have had them.
 
melafix was recommended to me by a breeder a while back, a lot of the time when you have one upset fish it can be from bullying (look at your tank with a red light at night and you will be surprised) Melafix can help with fin nips and as a general tonic to any injury that may not be apparent by looking.
Im not suggesting to use it all the time, i think in 2 years ive dosed maybe 4 or 5 times but it seems to help, albeit hard to tell with increased maintenance at the same time etc...
 
Thanks for all the replies!

I guess I will just stick to good old water changes, I just got the feeling a couple of my fish were not 100%, and have already increased water changes and they seem more active already.
I was curious to see what other members do as there have been other times when I feel the fish are not 100% as what they normally are then a few days later there as happy as can be, and like I say its nothing to serious as they don't die or show any symptoms, but you can tell there not swimming and exploring as actively and sometimes there fins are down looking a bit sorry for them self's.

It don't happen often but was just curious to see how others balance there tanks out or just give there fish that bit of a boost.

Cheers.
 
Hi all,
Same as the others, a few more water changes and a bit of a filter clean.

The other thing to try is some live food. If they really aren't 100% they will either ignore it or snap at it in fairly desultory manner.

Something small like Daphnia, Mosquito larvae (or Grindal worms released in the filter flow) that spread all around the tank are a good option.

cheers Darrel
 
Where does everyone get there live food from? my LFS sells some and I've bought some before and it was like a massacre when I fed the fish lol.

I always worry about buying things like that from shops as I'm not sure what's in the water, I don't want to introduce anything bad... its the same when I purchase new fish etc, I try to avoid putting any shop water in my tank.
Is all of that pointless? after all we just do water changes but still, I don't want to introduce any nasty organisms etc.

I currently feed flakes, pellets, algae wafers and have about 6 different variety's of frozen foods which I also feed a couple times a week.
 
water change, then next day or so a filter check
 
Hi all,
Where does everyone get there live food from? my LFS sells some and I've bought some before and it was like a massacre when I fed the fish
Mosquito larvae and Blood-worms (also a type of Gnat) are free, you just need to put a bucket of water with some grass cuttings etc in it, (and floating cork, cork is important) in shade/semi-shade and wait. The mosquitoes will find it and lay their eggs. Daphnia you can buy from the LFS, but after that you use a similar technique for "ranching" them to Mosquito larvae, you don't need a cork, but you do need some Pond Snails, and an oyster shell.

Grindal/Banana worms and Vinegar Eels you can buy via Ebay.

cheers Darrel
 
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Cheers Darrel,

I will have a look at Grindal/Banana worms etc on Ebay.

I also have a pond in the garden and we are over run with gnats, on the right day the whole garden is full of gnats, its not nice at all. I've done a lot of research on how to kill them, and just cant.
I read bats seem to be the best thing, but we don't get them. We also recently had the whole pond covered in toads, then came the tadpoles, they eat all my blanket weed, but they don't do nothing to the gnat population lol, I hate toads also :mad:

I find all types of larvae and worms in my pond filter, I've always thought if my tropical fish would eat any of this stuff, but didn't want to put something bad in the tank. We get water lice and all sorts of weird stuff, mostly big fat leech like things. I also have a water feature in the garden, and its now covered in tiny swimming worm things, they have little heads a bit like a caterpillar so not sure what these are.
We also get lots of damselflies laying there eggs etc, so yeah, I guess if I knew my insects I would be ok lol.
 
Try not to panic especially if it is just one or two fish out of many.
If all fishes seem a bit off or distressed,then it's time to panic .
Don't share net's, bucket's used in quarantine across other tank's.
Be sure insect's,worm's,aren't collected from area's where pesticides have been used.
Be mindful of where your hand's may have been before placing them in the tank (soap,perfumes,cologne,gas,oil,etc)
 
I find the topic about REDOX(oxidation reduction potential) very interesting and it's effect on fish and even plants long term. One should have a balanced one so the tank has to have reducers and oxidizers for fish health and full life span.

Reducers are things such as Ca, Mg, organics as well, and in case of too many reducers compared to oxidizers one can have a tank low on oxygen with toxic hydrogen sulphide for example.
Extreme oxidizer example is potassium permanganate and hydrogen peroxide. In such scenarios long term such water just eats at living tissue.
So one needs a balance between them. I am still grasping at the topic as it's complicated but it does makes sense.

Seems some of the things I've been doing aren't exactly following the right logic. For example Ca and Mg are reducers along other things, meaning they can give an electron to oxidizers. The older a fish tank gets, it's quite possible to have a lot of oxidizers so one needs to replenish the reducers. The problem is that a Gh test gives a reading for total Ca and Mg, including the ones that have already been oxidized. So one may think they've plenty of Ca and Mg but in fact they could have been already been oxidized and not acting as reducers anymore which the test doesn't know. Or at least so literature I read says. So apparently the value of Gh itself or Ph doesn't matter one bit to fish or plants and leads people to wrong conclusitons.
So one should not be afraid to have a bit of rock leaching Ca and Mg as at least they know those are useful reducers and not being afraid of their water reading a bit "hard" on a Gh test as not all of it is available to anything. One can have a Gh of 14 and still have disintegrating snail shells as all the Ca when the tank runs out of reducers, the abundance of oxidizers in the tank steal the Ca electron from the snail shells. Fish will suffer too without useful Ca and Mg, so will plants.
 
Hi all,
I also have a pond in the garden and we are over run with gnats, on the right day the whole garden is full of gnats, its not nice at all. I've done a lot of research on how to kill them, and just cant.
Maybe a mosquito bucket isn't quite right or you. Have a look at this for ranching Daphnia <http://www.caudata.org/forum/f1173-...tion-daphnia-cultures-alternate-feeding.html>
I find the topic about REDOX(oxidation reduction potential) very interesting and it's effect on fish and even plants long term. One should have a balanced one so the tank has to have reducers and oxidizers for fish health and full life span.
Don't worry about REDOX/ORP values, in a planted tank they are always going to be positive (oxygen will be available) in the water column, and in the substrate you will have zones where reduction reactions will occur. Have a look here for a pretty good explanation: <http://microbewiki.kenyon.edu/index.php/Flooded_soils#Oxidation.2FReduction_.28Redox.29_Reaction> (the ID of the "common house plant", looks quite interesting). If you search for REDOX on the forum you should get some bits as well: <http://www.ukaps.org/foru:m/threads/advice-needed-external-filter-media.32170/page-2#post-341395>.

cheers Darrel
 
Thanks Darrel. I am still learning anyway, not sure what to think as it encompasses too much.
One website says one thing, the other another. I am for prevention anyway as once a tank goes bad then it's too late.

You wouldn't know what role do Ca and Mg play in fish's health directly or indirectly? And why do we test for Gh if we don't know how much of it is available to the system? Why can one have eroding snail shells in a 14 dGh?
 
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