| Fish
Medications Important
note about treating pond fish:
If you have a fish that is sick, it is best to remove them as soon as possible from the
other fish in the tank. First you should set up a "hospital" tank which
could be a 5 gallon bucket to anything of your choosing. As long as it holds water
and the fish has enough room to swim at least a few inches or so. Get a seperate
aerator and put in the tank. Make sure it's not too powerful that it blows the fish
around in the tank but ample enough that it provides him (or her) plenty of oxygen.
BEFORE adding the fish to the tank, make sure the chemical or pond salt is completely
dissolved and dispersed in the tank and the water is well aerated. The water
temperature should be approx. the same temperature as the water where the fish was at in
the pond. Most of the time, it is best to change the water in the hospital tank
every day which requires new medication every day or every other day. This is easily
achieved by having two 5 gallon buckets as hospital tanks. Put the fish in one tank
and then fill the other one up with fresh water and let it sit overnight (to dechlorinate)
and transfer the fish to the new tank the next day and clean out the tank the fish was in
with a tablespoon or so of bleach. Make sure you rinse it really well.
By daily or every other day changing the water in the hospital tanks and adding fresh
medication, this will help the chances of your fish recovering. Some diseases and
parasites or bacterial infections are tough to treat especially if you don't have a
microscope and cannot properly diagnose what is ailing the fish, however, the above
suggestions will improve your fish's chance of recovery.
So, be sure to remove the ailing fish as soon as
possible, have 2 hospital tanks set up for treatment and make sure the fish has proper
aeration. This way you won't have to treat the whole pond but just a small amount of
water. Many medications to treat fish also destroy the beneficial bacteria that
is in the pond which combat algae and breaks down toxic ammonia from fish wastes.
You don't want to destroy the beneficial bacteria in the pond if you don't have to.
The end result could be harmful to all of your fish instead of just one that may be
sick.
Oh yeah, one other tip... put a net over the
hospital tank or the fish may very well jump out of the tank! :o)
Good luck!
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