Keeping Your Aquarium Fish Happy and Healthy

You take care of your fish, check the water chemistry, clean the tank, and do everything you can. Then one day, you get up and one of your favorite fish has died. For some people this can be devastating. This is why it is so important to learn to recognize and treat illnesses in fish. These are just a few tips and ideas to hopefully help you keep your fish healthy for a long time.

Animals aren't like people. If our friend is sick, he can tell us that he's ill and needs to go to a doctor. Fish can't talk to us or tell us what is wrong, so you must always keep your eyes open for signs of illness. The first step is to observe healthy fish. You cannot recognize abnormal behavior if you don't know what normal behavior for your fish is. Watch them for a little while every day and get used to what they do and how they act. This way behavior indicating illness can be spotted more quickly, helping you gain precious time in the treatment of your pet.

To determine if your fish is sick, you should look for abnormalities in two categories: appearance and behavior. Warning signs in behavior include rapid respiration (you will see the fish's body moving quickly in and out), changes in activity (less movement and swimming, immobility, hiding more than normal, erratic swimming, rubbing against objects) changes in swimming (swimming tilted, holding fins up to body), and little or no eating (water may become cloudy if the food is not all eaten). Warning signs in appearance include changes in skin appearance and texture (loss of scales, protruding scales, lesions, growths, or excessive mucous), changes in color (spots, getting darker or lighter), changes in body shape (bloated or retracted abdomen, upper half of body sunken in), changes in eyes (cloudy or sunken). While these are some of the signs to watch for, you should also pay attention for any changes not listed here in case your fish has a less common problem.

It is helpful for anyone with fish to also have a hospital (quarantine) tank. This is a tank separate from your main tank that allows you to treat sick fish. This is helpful because it keeps diseases from spreading to the other fish. It also makes it easier to observe a fish to see if its condition is improving or worsening and makes it easier to treat the sick fish without worrying about the other fish. Even if you don't have a sick fish now, it is helpful to have this extra tank in case of an emergency. It is also good to have a separate tank in case there is a disaster in the home tank and all the fish must be removed. The tank should be free of gravel (and under gravel filters) for easy cleaning and sterilization. It should also have a way of oxygenating the water and filtering the tank.

Moving a fish to a different tank can be stressful. If a fish has any symptoms of illness, you should take a couple steps to attempt to fix the problem before transferring the fish. First, test the water conditions in the tank including: temperature, salinity (if you have a saltwater tank), Ph, ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate levels. If conditions are normal, try doing a 20-30% water change. If the fish is still acting abnormally, you must decide whether to transfer it to the hospital tank or not.

Everyone who has fish should invest in a book about fish diseases and keep it on hand in case of abnormal behavior. This way, instead of having to research online or call a vet for every question, you can simply check the symptoms in a manual. It may also be helpful to keep treatments for common illness on hand. This way you can treat the fish immediately if need be. If you cannot figure out from a book how to treat your pet, or the fish isn't getting better, you can then consult a vet who deals with fish.

The number one tip for treating fish is to help them not get sick in the first place. You should research how to best take care of the fish you have, test chemical levels, and clean the tank on a regular basis to help keep your fish happy and healthy.