Signs and Pictures of Infection and Cures

[Nitrofish]

Things to do and watch for daily

Check the temperature:

With tropical fish it is very important to keep the environment in the tank at the proper temperature. This is 76-80 degrees F. Make sure that your heater is working every day and always check your thermometer no and then to make sure the temp is right.

Watch for signs of disease and stress

Fish will exhibit several signs when they are sick.

1. Clamping. Sick fish often clamp their fins to their sides. Here is a great example of this:


2. Ich spots and other colored sores on the body.

    a. Ich spots are tiny white spots that show up on a fishes fins or body.  You can see them in this picture:


    b. Other types of sores might look red or white and be on various parts of a fish's body. The can be from a disease or just from other fish and contact with something in the tank. Like this:


    c. Velvet Parasite. This is a common parasite. If your fish isn't moving about normally it may have some sort of parasite. Spots may be hard to see. Use a flashlight and shine it on their skin to look for small flickering spots that look like gold dust. Here's a fish infected with Velvet:

3. Popeye Popeye is a very rare disease where fluid build-up behind the eye causes it to protrude out from the fish. Generally it is caused by infection. It can be treated by anti-biotics or the methods listed below. Here are a couple examples:

3. Shimmy shimmying is when a fish appears to be moving its fins but is just shimmying back and forth in a single spot.

4. Gasping for air at the surface. If all of your fish are doing this then there is not enough oxygen in the water. If only one or two are doing this and the others are normal then the water is probably fine and there is simply something wrong with just that or those particular fish.

5. Tanking or Crashing Another sign of disease or stress is a fish laying on the bottom of the tank that is not supposed to be.

6. Scratching. Fish scratching their bodies against the gravel or ornaments in the tank.

How to fix these problems and save your fish
 
Curing these problems is generally just a matter of taking a few steps

 1. Clean the water, gravel and ornaments in the tank.

2. Make sure the water temperature is between 76-80 degrees.

Buy a bottle of Quick Cure and follow instructions.