How to Make Sure the Fish in Your Aquarium Don’t Get Sick

Keeping your fish healthy may seem as simple as feeding them the right amount of food at a scheduled time. While feeding is an important part of taking care of fish, it’s not all you should do. If you want to keep your fish healthy and minimize the chance of them becoming ill, there are many more things you should do for them. The aquarium experts at Aquatic Warehouse recommend the following tips to give your fish the best chance at great health.

Maintain Your Aquarium

Test kits are an important part of fish ownership, as they allow you to monitor the water quality regularly. Levels of nitrates, pH, ammonia, and hardness in the water are among the most important details because they help fish stay healthy. While levels of pH and hardness vary based on aquarium type, nitrates should stay below 20. It’s also important to invest in a good filter and clean it regularly with non-chlorinated water (used aquarium water from a water change works best) to keep the live beneficial bacteria healthy. If you have a larger tank, you might also want to invest in a UV sterilization light to keep the water clean and reduce the risk of disease.

Monitor Water Temperature

The temperature of the aquarium should be monitored daily to make sure the fish are living in the safest environment possible. Monitoring the temperature is especially important when you do water changes, as the temperature can shift when new water is cycled through. Water changes should happen every 2 or 3 weeks if your tank isn’t heavily full. However, if you’re at capacity, you’ll want to “replace” (not just add or top off) the water often to remove nitrite and ammonia accumulation.

Be Cautious of New Fish

Adding new fish to an overpopulated tank has the potential to add stress to the inhabitants that already live in it, which can lead to a deterioration in health or even sudden death. Always introduce new fish gently and slowly by dripping water into the bag (place the bag in an upright vessel) over 30 minutes. Remember, you’re acclimating slowly from the store’s water quality to your water quality—not just temperature—so don’t float the bags anymore. You may even want to use a separate tank to acclimate the new fish to others individually. Buying fish online is more of a risk. The fish have been in a small environment for many hours, sometimes even days, so the pH may be very low and the ammonia stressfully or critically high. Support your local fish store and pick out your fish, not some random entry-level online fish supplier.

Pay Attention to Your Fish

It’s important to observe your fish every day. Be proactive. Add aquarium garlic paste or liquid to the fish food (not the garlic you’d normally eat), as it has amazing beneficial properties that significantly reduce the risk of protozoan diseases. If any new fish are particularly inactive, thin, or have sores, they should be cared for in a separate tank to prevent other fish from becoming ill. If several look like they’re not thriving, you may want to boost nutrients by using a high-quality fish food and garlic or adding liquid vitamins to the food.

Don’t Add Salt to a Freshwater Tank

Some old-school proponents (many of whom can be found on YouTube) state that adding salt is beneficial to freshwater fish. Nope! These are freshwater fish, not saltwater fish. This ill-advised method is very stressful to most fish (koi and goldfish are an exception, but only with strict care and exact doses), and it can be fatal to fish that live in a freshwater aquarium. Please do some research on this subject.

Whether you need high-quality food for your fish, testing kits, or other items to make sure you’re maintaining a healthy aquarium, Aquatic Warehouse has you covered. We also carry aquarium monitors, protein skimmers, LED lighting, and much more. Check out our website, stop by our store in Kearny Mesa, or give us a call at 858-467-9297.