Fish Prophylaxis

[jejton]

I've been hearing arguments both ways about treating new fish prophylactically. I currently quarantine all new fish but was wondering if maybe I should treat them for parasites prophylactically. The reason I want to be a little more proactive is that I've lost quite a few fish while in quarantine and think that perhaps some could have been saved with treatment. I also think that while quarantining new fish helps avoid many problems, it is not 100% failsafe as a fish can be carrying a parasite load ( or bacterial infection ) which is just below threshold for causing illness or death in that fish but once introduced into your DT can sicken or kill other fish.

 

[jejton]

noone?

 

[biger]

I always treat with prazipro and cupramine. Prazipro for 2 weeks and cupramine for 3 weeks if the fish is handling the copper ok. If they don't seem to be doing good with the copper I might only do 2 weeks of cupramine. Those will take care of most problems.

 

[jejton]

Are there any studies that looked at using copper for specific lengths of time?

 

[biger]

Here is some good reading on ich and other things.

http://atj.net.au/marineaquaria/fishdiseases.html

 

[limitdown]

Every single one of my incoming fish goes through prazi-pro and cupramine treatment. In addition I feed medicated food for internal parasites.

But I wait for them to start eating before I start treatment.