# What fish meds do you rely on?



## GuppyGuppyGuppyGuppyGuppy (Feb 11, 2012)

None... If the fish are sick, they die. IME meds cost more than replacing the fish and they usually don't make much of a difference.


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## greaser84 (Feb 2, 2014)

Tetra lifeguard all in one is my go to med. No blue water and only one water change after 6 days. Plants and invertebrates aren't bothered by it( at least the one's I have).


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## greaser84 (Feb 2, 2014)

GuppyGuppyGuppyGuppyGuppy said:


> None... If the fish are sick, they die. IME meds cost more than replacing the fish and they usually don't make much of a difference.


If the fish dies from a disease how do you prevent the spread of it?


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## QuoVadis (Feb 5, 2012)

greaser84 said:


> Tetra lifeguard all in one is my go to med. No blue water and only one water change after 6 days. Plants and invertebrates aren't bothered by it( at least the one's I have).


What have you seen this successfully treat? I'm curious because I (like Guppy) have not had the best luck even when I do use meds. Ick is fairly easy the treat, but it seems that most other things the fish just dies too quickly to make a difference. But I'm starting to get into fish that are more valuable to me, so I'd really like to have a couple go-to's that I know work for the most common problems other than ick. I would especially like to know a good anti-parasitic, and one broad spectrum anti-bacterial. Is that what LifeGuard is?


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## PlantedRich (Jul 21, 2010)

I have a long history of never knowing for sure what the disease was. I have thrown twice as much money into wasted medicine than I have into losing fish. I now do the ich treatment when needed and keep only two meds on the shelf. I have also found it much easier to keep fish alive when I changed type of fish. I cannot tolerate fish that die suddenly and often. When I deal with cichlids, they may get sick and mope for a week but that gives me plenty of time to get the water straight and let them recover. When there is real damage showing like torn fins, I use both Melafix and Pimafix to head off all the unknown fuzzy things that come with wounds. Occasionally I do lose a fish to unknown causes but it is far cheaper than medicines that never worked anyway. My main cause of lost fish is heaters that stick and meds don't help there.


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## GuppyGuppyGuppyGuppyGuppy (Feb 11, 2012)

greaser84 said:


> If the fish dies from a disease how do you prevent the spread of it?


Never has really happened to me, even with parasites. I've had lots of fish die from parasites in my community tank. My two rams from petsmart had worms when I bought them that I had no idea about. After laying eggs the day after I bought them, the male got worse and worse and eventually turned red and was eaten alive by parasites. The female then died I guess from sadness, she just stopped eating and died within a couple days.

None of my other fish were affected... Never has disease been as issue when I get healthy fish.



QuoVadis said:


> I (like Guppy)


Thx I like you too


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## lauraleellbp (Feb 3, 2008)

Since most medications have a shelf life, I don't buy any until/unless I need them. Other than Melafix and Pimafix, which I consider kind of like Neosporin- only good for minor issues that are caught early on.

If I'm purchasing new wild-caught fish, I do worm them using the medicated flakes from Angels Plus, though. I keep these in my freezer to prolong shelf life.

The very best way to prevent spread of a disease is to practice very strict quarantine on all new fish. Minimum of 4 weeks.


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## iamtechno (Sep 23, 2013)

Medications can come in quite handy depending on what a) you are trying to battle and b) as long as you can properly identify what you are trying to take on. I see someone had issues with fish from Petsmart. I would never buy fish from Petsmart as they don't properly quarantine or quarantine at all and all of their tanks are connected so if one fish is sick, they all very well could be. Same with Petco. I avoid them all together but thats me. As for the meds, say for instance you have a little white growth on one of your fish's heads, you think it is just a fungus so you buy medication for that, something with maybe Malachite Green and some Formalin in it, and you treat your fish to no avail and it/they die. Maybe the whole time your fish had Columnaris which requires a totally different course of action including Kanaplex (Kanamycin) and Nitrofuran but you had no idea and you were treating for the wrong sickness. As for medications to have on hand, I always have Kanaplex, BiFuran, Ich X (Malachite Green) and Metronidazole. I've not used the Malachite Green or Metronidazole but after a little issue I had with Columnaris and successfully beating it, I figured I'd like to have something to cover all the major stuff.


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## QuoVadis (Feb 5, 2012)

iamtechno said:


> Medications can come in quite handy depending on what a) you are trying to battle and b) as long as you can properly identify what you are trying to take on. I see someone had issues with fish from Petsmart. I would never buy fish from Petsmart as they don't properly quarantine or quarantine at all and all of their tanks are connected so if one fish is sick, they all very well could be. Same with Petco. I avoid them all together but thats me. As for the meds, say for instance you have a little white growth on one of your fish's heads, you think it is just a fungus so you buy medication for that, something with maybe Malachite Green and some Formalin in it, and you treat your fish to no avail and it/they die. Maybe the whole time your fish had Columnaris which requires a totally different course of action including Kanaplex (Kanamycin) and Nitrofuran but you had no idea and you were treating for the wrong sickness. As for medications to have on hand, I always have Kanaplex, BiFuran, Ich X (Malachite Green) and Metronidazole. I've not used the Malachite Green or Metronidazole but after a little issue I had with Columnaris and successfully beating it, I figured I'd like to have something to cover all the major stuff.


Well most fish "fungus" is bacterial, and most "anti-fungal" meds are actually antibiotics. I got "Fungus Guard" by Tetra, but it's and mostly antibiotics. We will see if any of the other fish survive. One Oranda (the only one showing no outward signs) is upside down at the top. The one with the "whiteheads" is acting almost normal, but is not hungry. Who knows. I'm going to do a peroxide dip (2t hydrogen peroxide in a gallon of water) tomorrow, which is something that worked well for me with SW fish velvet. It is supposed to work well for FW fish too.


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## iamtechno (Sep 23, 2013)

I was just making the point of how difficult it can be to identify what it is you're battling. And I've used HP for a number of things. It is my favorite go to for a lot of things in the aquarium as it is H2O2 and after roughly 12 hours depending on temperature and a few other variables it has turned in to H2O. Not sure if the HP will help in your situation.


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## Monster Fish (Mar 15, 2011)

Malachite green + formalin for most external parasites, methylene blue for fungus and dips, salt for dips. I only buy dewormers when buying wild caught fish. The only antibiotics I use nowadays are nitrofuran and kanamycin. A lot of the bacterial infections you commonly encounter resist tetracyclin, sulfas, etc. Stuff that used to be the go to antibiotics for finrot and such a decade ago. Though, clean water and proper quarantine will help prevent over 99% of issues.


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## ADJAquariums (Jul 5, 2012)

All i keep on hand is a container of Epsom salt, my tank is more or less Darwin's rules. I don't treat with meds unless i have to. I find it to be a large waste of money for the most part.


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## wicca27 (May 3, 2009)

i only have salt and melafix. never needed anything else. but then again its been ages since i have had a sick fish


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## MiSo (Oct 26, 2005)

kordon's rid ich plus. never lost a fish to ich since i've started using it.


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