Understanding Potential Fish Diseases in Your Aquarium

Jim Karanikas: Hi, it's Jim from Tropical Fish World again. Now, I would like to talk to you a little bit about fish diseases and some of the common problems that fish might have. First of all, the best time to look for any problems in your tank is when you are feeding the fish, because when you are feeding the fish, you can actually observe their behavior and also you can see if they are eating or not and what kind of condition that their body is in. Some of the more common problems you might see on a fish are white spots that might get on the body of the fish, frayed fins, perhaps they are not eating properly or hiding in the corner of the tank. Also breathing heavy at the top is an indication that something is going wrong.

So, let's go over these again real quickly. First of all, make sure that all of fish in the tank are eating and not hiding. Make sure they are swimming around and acting like they are having a good time in there. If they are breathing heavy at the top, if their fins are clamped up against their body, if they have any white spots on them then you might have a problem in the tank. Usually, you get a problem in your aquarium when you add new fish to the tank. Unfortunately that's one of the funniest thing you do in a tank is to add fish but it's also when you put your tank at risk, because fish can carry diseases and may not show any signs. So, when they go into your aquarium, they can affect your otherwise healthy fish.

So, after you add new fish to your aquarium, at least that first week to ten days you want to keep a really close eye on what's going on. Now, there are many medications out there in the market and again it's quiet best to talk to an expert or your local aquarium store to ask them what's the appropriate medication for the problem that your fish are experiencing. Most of the medications require that you take the carbon or charcoal out of your filter while you are treating the fish, otherwise the charcoal or carbon is going to remove the medicine from the tank and then it won't be as useful.

You want to follow the directions carefully, you want to use the medicine for the duration that they recommend and then once your fish are looking good and happy and healthy again, you could do your water change on the aquarium. Remember again, just a small water change and you can clean out your filter and add new charcoal or carbon to the filter to get the residue medicine out of the tank. Try not to medicate your aquarium too often, so again seek expert advice from your local aquarium. I hope this video series has helped you in keeping a successful aquarium. So, good luck and happy fish keeping.