danios dropping like flies!!!help

[millym]

hi there,
we just lost another zebra danio this morning. we noticed that it had a cotton wool fungally thing on its tail & wasnt behaving like himself. we have a med for finrot/fungus but as we have been treating our tank for velvet/slime we didnt know if we could just bung this med in to try & save the little fella/fellaess.
so rushed off to lfs & bought a tiny tank as thought it was time we needed a hospital tank set it up put in the some stress coat stuff, the fungus medication & the danio & he died anyway.
ive 3 main questions
1. can you mix medications in a tank??? or is this a bad idea. is there any medications that treat all the fungus/velvet/finrot/ich type problems???
2. we know our hospital tank has not cycled or got any good bacteria but we were desperate to try & save our little friend & didnt know what else to try.
how can you have a hospital tank ready to go at all times??? sorry if this is a dumb question. we dont have a lot of room & dont want to put any of our little fish in the hosp tank permanently to get it going as it is v small( 5.5X8X12 inches)
3.did we do the right thing or would it have been better to leave him in the main tank??? we didnt want him to start getting nipped by the other cannibals in there while he was sick.
any help comments etc greatly appreciated.
thanks

 

[Fishboy-from-NY]

Yes you can have a hospital tank ready at all times, what I do is have an extra filter that runs al the time on my display tank. so when I am acclimating my new arrivals or teating sick fish, the hospital tank would be 100% ready to go. Also, make sure that when you treat them, the water parameters are exactlly the same as the display. As fo a medication which treats all those deceases, yes their is a product called Aquarsol.

 

[TankGirl]

Because generally when you are treating with meds you do daily partial water changes and re-dose, I don't keep a hospital tank cycled, necessarily. If you have a bare tank ready to go, just plop the fish in there, treat with meds, do daily small water changes that will override any need for cycling, and re-dose the meds. Do not run carbon in that tank, since that will interfere with meds. I generally do not mix medications, since you can often kill the fish that way, but usually there is a primary cause for illness that you can treat. The trick is to snag the ill fish at the very first sign of trouble, then the treatment is shorter and stress to the fish is reduced. If you see something that is not quite right but are not sure if it is illness or not, post here and someone will probably have a good idea what it might be.

 

[Allivymar]

*nods and agrees with TankGirl*

Its nice to have a cycled tank up and running, but that takes up space, and needs an ammonia source to feed the bacteria. If one does that with fish, then you need to find somewhere to keep em while you are treating the sick fish. You could do as fishboy suggested and keep an extra filter or filter media in the mature tank and use it in the QT tank.

Personally I think tearing it down and setting it up is a better way to go. Then again LOL I don't have a lot of space here so I don't need to look at an empty tank if I don't have to. Plus, if you are treating with meds, most anitbiotics and ich meds will kill off the bacterial colony anyway, defeating the purpose of having a cycled QT tank. Better to do as TankGirl suggests and just keep on top of nitrogenous waste; you will have to anyway.

Secondly, your danios. Urk. You have a double whammy going on there. Not only do you have a parasitical infection, but you either have a fungal or bacterial infection in there as well. Some meds can be mixed; not all tho. I *think* Maracide is made to be compatible with Maracyn and Maracyn2, but I may be wrong. Since there are different causes, different meds are needed. I don't think there is anything that treats everything; would probably not be safe.

And I would have moved him out as well. I happen to think you did the right thing.

 

[millym]

thanks everyone!!!!