Aquariums

[TxCat]

According to my local fish store guy and a friend at the veterinary college at Gainesville, this incorrect. You do have to remember to shake it each time and to store it at room temperature in a dark place, though. Exposure to light and temperature changes are what makes the medicine less potent.

[MistyoC]

An easy way to portion medicines that come in tablet form is to dissolve them in a jar of water and use a portion of that water. For example, if the tablet is for a 10 gallon tank and you're using a 1-gallon bowl to quarantine, dissolve the tablet in 10 oz water and add 1 oz to the bowl. I have a special set of measuring utensils only used for fish meds.

I always understood that the meds lost potency once they'd been sitting in water- hence additional doses every day or every few days, depending on the medication.

According to my local fish store guy and a friend at the veterinary college at Gainesville, this incorrect. You do have to remember to shake it each time and to store it at room temperature in a dark place, though. Exposure to light and temperature changes are what makes the medicine less potent.

I would use it twice, then throw out the unused portion. lol I did store it in a cool, dark place. I just don't trust it after a couple of days. Now I have a couple of 10 gallon tanks that I can use for quarantine or hospital tanks, so I don't do that anymore. I do still dissolve tablet or powder medicines in a jar before adding them to the tank, though. That way I can be sure they dissolve thoroughly without stressing the fish with extra water motion.

[TNHawke]

ARGH!
Petsmart had guppies on sale for a dollar, so I brought home 15 of them. They all looked healthy.
Now I've lost about 20% of all my fish, including all but 3 of the new guys, and am battling a columnaris infection.
*insert much cussing*

[Synchronized]

ARGH!
Petsmart had guppies on sale for a dollar, so I brought home 15 of them. They all looked healthy.
Now I've lost about 20% of all my fish, including all but 3 of the new guys, and am battling a columnaris infection.
*insert much cussing*

Yikes. Lower the temp in the tank to the low 70s(F) and give all of your fish a methylene blue bath. You could try tetracycline too but it might not actually help. Did you return the fish that died?

[TNHawke]

I dosed with Rid-Ich the first day, and I was able to get the meds I wanted a day or two later and I've been treating them, still losing fish though...

Yes, I brought back my deads.

Seems to be getting to the end of running its course finally. Only one died today. Amazingly, a lot of my younger fish survived, while most of the adults died off.


Edit: Got all my fish moved back into the main tank. Well... all but four who's health I was uncertain of, so they're staying in the hospital tank with meds. The rest look to be doing quite nicely now. One idiot female kept have having babies as she darted around the hospital tank and jumped out of my net (back into the water) as I was trying to get her moved. Then I had to chase tiny, newborn fry around the tank!

I HATE columnaris... there's so little that's really effective against it. I lost a good 2/3 of my stock and all my foundation fish. Just have their babies, and about 5 of the store bought fish who started the whole thing that survived. 5 out of a total of about 20 that I had purchased. Very sad. I'm just glad to be over getting up in the morning and scooping out 5 - 10 dead fish, only to do it again before bed.

[Arionn]

ARGH!
Petsmart had guppies on sale for a dollar, so I brought home 15 of them. They all looked healthy.
Now I've lost about 20% of all my fish, including all but 3 of the new guys, and am battling a columnaris infection.
*insert much cussing*

hmm have you ever used a chemical , i can't remember it's name but it has aloe vera for sure and it removes chlorine from water, it's used straight after you introduce new fish, it's purely natural so you can use a lot of it without negative effects.

Chlorine damages fish's protective coat making it vulnable to diseases especially when the new fish have them In uk it's available in most fish shops

[TNHawke]

Stress Coat is what you're thinking of. Yes, I use it, as well as a proper tap water conditioner. Those things are great when the fish coming in are healthy, but when they are already infected with a nasty, vicious bacteria, you have to treat with an antibiotic and hope that some of the fish survive. Columnaris is probably the worst disease I've ever had in a fish tank. It just wipes out fish. There's meds for it, but they often don't do enough to save the fish. Even such horrors as Hole in Head that can turn your fish into vegetables (ever seen little carrots and eggplants swimming around in your tank, it's WEIRD! lol, kidding) isn't as bad as Columnaris, because Hole in Head generally isn't particularly contagious and there's nothing to treat it, so you can feel totally helpless, rather than incompetent, trying to save them to no avail.

In the end, I lost 3/4 of my guppies. The catfish and snails survived just fine.

Then, a friend wanted to get rid of her pair of tiger barbs and pair of angelfish, so I took them in- since I've wanted barbs and angels again for a while now. The barbs promptly ate all my surviving and newly born fry. *facepalm* so I'm down to about 25 guppies (from 200), most of whom are juveniles. And... the little white angel has POOF disappeared. I can't find her ANYWHERE. Not swimming, not floating, not trapped in plant leaves or under a rock. Just PIFF! Gone. The tank has a full lid, so she couldn't have jumped or been snagged by a cat. WTH? Where does a little inch and a half white angelfish go?!
The tiger barbs, marbled angel and the remaining guppies are all doing well. I'm probably going to move the guppies into a different tank so they can breed in peace.

[Arionn]

Stress Coat is what you're thinking of. Yes, I use it, as well as a proper tap water conditioner. Those things are great when the fish coming in are healthy, but when they are already infected with a nasty, vicious bacteria, you have to treat with an antibiotic and hope that some of the fish survive. Columnaris is probably the worst disease I've ever had in a fish tank. It just wipes out fish. There's meds for it, but they often don't do enough to save the fish. Even such horrors as Hole in Head that can turn your fish into vegetables (ever seen little carrots and eggplants swimming around in your tank, it's WEIRD! lol, kidding) isn't as bad as Columnaris, because Hole in Head generally isn't particularly contagious and there's nothing to treat it, so you can feel totally helpless, rather than incompetent, trying to save them to no avail.

In the end, I lost 3/4 of my guppies. The catfish and snails survived just fine.

Then, a friend wanted to get rid of her pair of tiger barbs and pair of angelfish, so I took them in- since I've wanted barbs and angels again for a while now. The barbs promptly ate all my surviving and newly born fry. *facepalm* so I'm down to about 25 guppies (from 200), most of whom are juveniles. And... the little white angel has POOF disappeared. I can't find her ANYWHERE. Not swimming, not floating, not trapped in plant leaves or under a rock. Just PIFF! Gone. The tank has a full lid, so she couldn't have jumped or been snagged by a cat. WTH? Where does a little inch and a half white angelfish go?!
The tiger barbs, marbled angel and the remaining guppies are all doing well. I'm probably going to move the guppies into a different tank so they can breed in peace.

i have golden bars they are beautiful, also got albino corgy *not corgies * skirt tetras catfish (most common one) danios and red robins? or am i just making the name up? i believe that was their name

had a betta fish u.u but it died recently *sobs*

i love guppies but they reproduce like mental >_<

[TNHawke]

Golden bar? Or golden barbs?
Cory Catfish? They're the super common, cute little catfish that help clean up food that falls to the bottom of a tank.
red robins? there are Cardinals, which are like neon tetras, but have a full red bar across the bottom, not just half and then white.

Got pics?


I'm actually raising the guppies to BE feeder fish for my omnivorous, semi aquatic lizard (he's a Chinese crested water dragon). I was finally getting some babies large enough to feed to him when I got the infection... now, I practically may as well ditch the guppies and get mollies, because the lizard is big enough that a single guppy is barely a snack instead of being too large for him to swallow. (baby lizards grow FAST when cared for right. Lol)

[Arionn]

Golden bar? Or golden barbs?
Cory Catfish? They're the super common, cute little catfish that help clean up food that falls to the bottom of a tank.
red robins? there are Cardinals, which are like neon tetras, but have a full red bar across the bottom, not just half and then white.

Got pics?


I'm actually raising the guppies to BE feeder fish for my omnivorous, semi aquatic lizard (he's a Chinese crested water dragon). I was finally getting some babies large enough to feed to him when I got the infection... now, I practically may as well ditch the guppies and get mollies, because the lizard is big enough that a single guppy is barely a snack instead of being too large for him to swallow. (baby lizards grow FAST when cared for right. Lol)

d'awww baby lizard yeah mollies and guppies reproduce fastest, do you have any pictures of your lizard?

pics hmmm i can show you ones from internet, i lost my camera somewhere >_<
got 2 Golden Barbs
2 Albino Corys
4 Danios
1 albino tetra
2 skirt tetras
algae eater

my dead betta approx. this colour

just as a side note i always wanted one of these GLOW fish
they come in diffrent neon colours and glow in the dark u.u there's blue/red/green/yellow/orange and purple i believe