Fin rot

DESCRIPTION:Fin rot is a very commmon yet very preventable disease. This is ussualy a secondary disease that occurs when your fish is currently infected with something else.

For instance say your fish had inflammed gills, this would lead to fin/tail rot. Its looks like little shrivels of white strings at the end of your fish's tail and or fin. If left untreated for a couple of days the little remaince of the tail might have blood patch on it. IF left untreated the disease will eat away at the tail and continue towards the body, once it reachs the body there is no hope and the best thing to do is put your fish out of its misery.

CAUSE/CURE:There are many causes of fin/tail rot. But most commonly its when your tank enviroment is out of wack, so mabey you overfeed, temperature is off, PH level is off, leftover food in the tank and stress can cause this. But it can also be caused or triggered by aggressivness and nipping by other fish. OR it can be a secondary disease, set off by something like inflamed gills by example. But the cure will not work until you find the root of the problem.

So when diagnosed check the tank for fish fighting, unstable water conditions and other diseases.

Once thats taken care of then you can properly treat it with Melafix. (Make sure you take out the carbon filter when you give your fish any kind of medicine) Ohh, but when you find out your fish has fin rot don't wait to give him the medication until you found the cause because the medication will slow down the fin rot until you find the cause then it will start to cure the disease.

PREVENTION: The prevention is very simple. Don't overcrowd your tank with too many fish, don't overfeed, make sure all your fish are compatible with eachother and check the tank water's balance daily. That should prevent this disease in the future.

Ick

Description: Ick is the most common disease with fish.
But luckily its one of the easiest to cure! Ick is a parasite that latchs on to your fish and feeds on its blood, Ick resembles little tiny grains of salt on the fish' body. Its very contagious so if one fish has it, all your fish are going to get it
TREATMENT: is very simple. First put up your water heater a few degrees, for coldwater fish just heat up the tank a few degrees. this will speed up the process of the ick. IN 3-4 days the Ick will fall off to regenerate. this is when there vulnerable. For when they latch on to your fish they are unvulnerable to the medicine or water condition. So treat the tank with Ick treatment for 7-14 days. Take out the carbon filter because this takes out the medicine and do daily 25% water changes 10 hours after the medicine is givin. THis should clear up the tank of Ick
CAUSES: A number of things can cause Ick.
-dirty water, stress, offbalance water conditions, alcers/cuts and new fish.
PREVENTION: Make sure your PH is in balance. Don't overfeed your fish, leftover food can grow bacteria and a fish' immune system will go down if overweight. Avoid stressing out your fish as much as possible, only do partial water changes for intance. And when getting a new fish make sure he has no sign of ick and keep him in a iscolation tank for 3 days.