What do you have in your (fish) First Aid Kit?

[bossteck]

Hi folks,

Care to share what you have in your 'first aid kit' for fishes?

I have the following on standby:

Activated carbon
Melafix
Interpet No 5 Liquisil
Interpet No 6 Anti White Spot
Interpet No 9 Anti Internal Bacteria
Salt

Note: Though I have the above, I have very limited success in treating ill fishes.

Cheers

[chin]

Haha... So do I.. But I've went back to keeping bettas so the only first aiders that I have are:

1. Aquarium Salt
2. Some kind of yellow powder - presumed to be sulphuric powder and the guy who sold me this sworn that this was the miracle medicine for bettas

[eyebm]

Me got the white spot on standby only.

[bossteck]

Message I get so far seemed to indicate 'don't bother trying to treat your fishes' over the years where I have kept fishes and lost them to diseases, I think this is what I learnt as well. Perhaps it is because the prices of fishes here is just too afforable.

[Freshman]

Hi,

I have bought n tried

• Melafix
• Pimafix
• Aquarium salt
• Interpet No 6 Anti White Spot
• Interpet No 9 Anti Internal Bacteria

the japanese yellow powder...bought but not yet used

[bossteck]

Hi Freshman,

So what's your verdict for those products which you have tried? Successful?

[madness]

The yellow powder is a general antibiotics that is normally used to kill germs in order to treat wounds sustained by the fish to prevent further infection only.. It is not encouraged to use often, but can be used to sterilize the live food like tubifex worms to prevent internal parasites from forming in fishes.

Methyl blue is normally used for fungi infections. All the medicines for diseases like white-spot, ick, all includes methyl blue or another medicine, used commonly by humans for wounds, commonly known as the purple medicine.

Discus people mostly use methyl blue and sometimes the purple medicine as a cure for fungi attacks/infections.. But the purple medicine must never be used by inexperienced people..

Note also that methyl blue smudges and treatment is to be done in another tank/container for planted tanks. Don't blame me if all shrimps die the next day.. Haha...

Salt is a must for me in aquariums. I've used them during water changes for over 10 years and doesn't have much problems with fish diseases. I only use kitchen salt and doesn't buy aquarium salts... Salt acts as a sterilizing agent and kills micro-virus by using a method call reverse osmosis.

Another one is more of a preventive "cure". I use Aquamedi Multi-vit. Extremely effective for a healthy fish and for destressing and better colouration on fish..

I also use charcoal in my filter. No need to waste money to buy those activated carbon. It is still effective for me.

The above medications and stuffs have been used by me for years with great success and also save money too.. Haha...

[gills]

wow,yr a pro.i tried purple medicine b4 too.but ended up killing all my fishes:X

[madness]

Purple medicine / Potassium Permanganate is too concentrated to use lah.. Haha.. Aquarium medicines are all diluted form of purple medicine / pp...

[bossteck]

Hi madness,

Charcoal and kitchen salt! Seemed like you're a DIY kinda guy. Thanks for sharing!

I am quite interested to know more about the use of charcoal, I suppose you rinse it first... but will it still cause your water to turn black?

[madness]

Definitely have to wash the charcoal first. Once thorougly washed, it'll not cause the water to turn black, but will help in clearer water without the use of other aquarium solutions that clears the water.

I'll been using it for discus bare tank and planted tanks for years.

One reason why I use it in planted tank instead of activated carbon:

We all know plants need nitrates to grow well. However, activated carbon removes most ammonias and nitrates, which might not be good for the plants though it is good for the fish.

Common household charcoal performance is much lower than activated carbon but is still effective enough to balance out the ecology of the tank by keeping the nitrates and ammonias low.

By combining with bio-bacterias, left-over ammonias are converted to nitrates, where it is used up by the plants.

Real life example from me. Initially, I added in the shrimps without the charcoal into the planted tank (cycled for a few days only). All died within hours.

On the same day, I added in the charcoal into my external filter and let it cycle for a day. Then I added in more shrimps to test my tank waters and all survived and none died even a few days later.

In this, charcoal also actually helps in cycling the tank and stablising the water much faster. I believe I am the first one to say this while others will advice cycling new tanks and filters and at least a few weeks.. Haha...

Oh yar. I used the bio-bacteria from Ocean-free also. Quite effective...

[winston77]

Curious... How do you "throughly" clean the charcoal before using it in a planted tank?

[celticfish]

bossteck,
you may want to add a heater to your kit.
i know its not viable for most planted tanks though.
but if you have a fish only or plants not important tank it helps with stuff like ICK.
just up the temparature and let time do the work.
dont forget to give good aeration at the higher temparature.

[bossteck]

Thanks for the tip!
I will get one on standby when there are good deals