National Fish Pharmaceuticals
Tips & Prevention.
Here you will find many ways to improve the quality of the
environment for your tropical fish. And have a better understanding
of fish keeping in general. We want to help make your hobby or
business fun, not frustrating!
Below are links to few topics that make for a good foundation.
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Medicating Your Fish
Why do fish get sick? Simple, fish are living organisms.
When you are trying to keep live creatures, pathogens are always
present. Humans get sick, dogs and cats get sick... and so do
fish. Pathogens can be present in the water, or the pathogens
can reside inside the fish's protective slime coat. Sometimes,
especially with an outdoor pond, pathogens may be introduced to the
pond by wild birds, snails, frogs or crawdad's. Fish are
natural carriers of diseases. When a fish becomes stressed, or
there is a water quality problem, i.e. drop in temperature, improper
pH, stress from being kept in the wrong type of environment,
nutritional deficiency, humans handling the fish or tapping on the
glass...or another aggressive species in the tank picking on it, the
fish will eventually become ill.
When you medicate your fish, it is always important to follow the directions on the container
before medicating. It is also important not
to mix any medications together before contacting a professional.
Some medications cannot be mixed together and the results could
be fatal to your fish. We have found that many people can be
hypochondriacal when medicating their tanks, and either think that
if they use more medication than is required, or that if they mix several medications together, it will cure the fish. This is not the best way to handle the
problem obviously.
And one final word: There is no such thing as an overnight cure
for fish diseases. These things take time. When using antibiotics
the minimum treatment time is 10 days. If you medicate for less
time, you have a chance of creating a resistant strain of pathogen
and must switch to a stronger (and more expensive) medication to
solve the problem.
For a quick reference on fish disease diagnosis, visit our
Online Fish
Disease Diagnosis pages
and follow the flow charts.
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