QTOFFER
Aquarium Advice Addict
I know the best way to treat fish disease is to try to avoid it in the first place! An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure...
So, suppose you do everything right for your fish - cycle the tank, provide a safe aquatic environment free of physical or chemical dangers, provide suitable substrate and hiding places, only mix compatible species, drip acclimate and quarrantine new acquisitions for a month, do weekly water changes and closely monitor water params, maintain filter and heater and check daily for proper operation, feed a varied, high quality diet.......and they still come down with something?
The only aquarium diseases I have had success treating are ich and finrot.
On the other hand, I have had no success whatsoever treating dropsy, columnaris, hemorrhagic septicemia, or swim bladder disease. All of my fish afflicted with these diseases finally succumbed after a long, often expensive course of antiotics. I have tried nearly every antibiotic on the market - Jungle fungus cure, EM, triple sulfa, kanacyn, bettamax, tetrocycline, spectrogram, and MelaFix.
The next time I have a fish with a bad case of anything that is not ich or finrot, I think I'll just euthanize. In my experience, the meds don't work, they're expensive, the fish just lingers and probably suffers, and I risk cross contaminating all my tanks while I'm doing treatment.
Is this a rash course of action that I'm considering?
Has anyone beeen able to beat bacterial infections long term?
So, suppose you do everything right for your fish - cycle the tank, provide a safe aquatic environment free of physical or chemical dangers, provide suitable substrate and hiding places, only mix compatible species, drip acclimate and quarrantine new acquisitions for a month, do weekly water changes and closely monitor water params, maintain filter and heater and check daily for proper operation, feed a varied, high quality diet.......and they still come down with something?
The only aquarium diseases I have had success treating are ich and finrot.
On the other hand, I have had no success whatsoever treating dropsy, columnaris, hemorrhagic septicemia, or swim bladder disease. All of my fish afflicted with these diseases finally succumbed after a long, often expensive course of antiotics. I have tried nearly every antibiotic on the market - Jungle fungus cure, EM, triple sulfa, kanacyn, bettamax, tetrocycline, spectrogram, and MelaFix.
The next time I have a fish with a bad case of anything that is not ich or finrot, I think I'll just euthanize. In my experience, the meds don't work, they're expensive, the fish just lingers and probably suffers, and I risk cross contaminating all my tanks while I'm doing treatment.
Is this a rash course of action that I'm considering?
Has anyone beeen able to beat bacterial infections long term?