Treating Multiple Sick Fish in 1 tank

[ddereckl]

Hi everyone. So this is just a question for future knowledge. If you were to have many fishes, but only have 1 hospital tank, and you have multiple sick fishes with different illnesses, how would you treat them in just 1 hospital tank? would you add different medications? Just a question. I have a 30 gallon tank cycling and would like to know what i need to get to treat fishes.

 

[absolutangel04]

Unfortunately, there is not an easy to answer to that. I have to tell tell you that it depends on the fish and the diseases. Often times, you need to treat the whole tank anyways.
In a pinch, you can always use a rubbermaid tub as a qt. I have used buckets as well. I keep a couple of spare filters on hand in case I ever need to separate out more than 1 fish at a time. It has not happened to me much, but it has happened.

 

[_skyla_]

i have always used multicure if its more than one illness and for treating the whole tank and water changes every three days with extra aeration. i also have shrimp in my tank and this contains no copper so is fine to use with them in it.

 

[_skyla_]

thats more of a preventative measure i take to stop the others from catching what the affected fish has. if that seems to help start clearing up the sick fish i leave it in and continue what ive been doing. if its not helping id move the fish into a seperate tank or container ive used a large vase before and an old betta bowl with an air stone in it. Then added a mire specific med to treat exactly what it is. Sometimes epsom salts can help when appropriate but yeah it really depends on the sickness and the fish.

 

[jlk]

I have to agree with what has been posted. It really depends on what disease you may be dealing with. Many fish diseases such as parasite issues or a serious bacterial infection require that the whole tank be treated, not just a single fish. For example, if you have a fish with ich, you dont remove it to a hospital tank. This will result in two tanks now infested with ich that now have to be treated instead of just one. In a few situations, a single fish may need to be isolated for treatment/recovery/prevent disease from spreading. In cases of multiple disease issues at once (not common, btw), the most serious issue needs to be addressed first. Do not ever dump multiple meds into a tank- many meds can have very serious or even fatal interactions.

Its important to note that the largest part of the battle against disease is prevention. Purchase healthy fish, quarantine them before adding to your main tank and stick to a good cleaning/water change schedule & diet. Unhealthy water is responsible either directly or indirectly, for the largest portion of fish disease. Fish meds are also ineffective if the water is unhealthy. Hope this helps!

 

[BBradbury]

Treating Fish Illnesses

Hi everyone. So this is just a question for future knowledge. If you were to have many fishes, but only have 1 hospital tank, and you have multiple sick fishes with different illnesses, how would you treat them in just 1 hospital tank? would you add different medications? Just a question. I have a 30 gallon tank cycling and would like to know what i need to get to treat fishes.

Hello d...

Everyone will likely have a different answer, so here's mine: Most tank keepers have no idea what, if anything is wrong with their fish. So, never put medications or other chemicals in the tank water. This stuff can stress your fish or damage your plants.

If the fish appear sickly, then gradually raise the tank temp to a little more than 80 degrees. Start an aggressive water change routine by removing and replacing half the tank water every 3 to 4 days. Make the replacment water slightly warmer than that in a normal change and do a good job of vacuuming the bottom. Take care vacuuming around any plants.

Add a teaspoon of standard aquarium salt, no table salt, to every 5 gallons of the new, treated water. Follow these steps for a couple of weeks and see how the fish do.

These are natural means of dealing with your fish when you think they have a problem. The combination of a lot of pure, treated tap water flushed through the tank and a little salt and added warmth will often help.

B