Prophylactic treatments???

Get Ready! 🐠 It's time for the....
FishForums.net Fish of the Month
🏆 Click to enter! 🏆

seangee

Fish Connoisseur
Joined
Feb 16, 2008
Messages
5,400
Reaction score
4,938
Location
Berks
I'll start by saying I am not a fan of putting anything into my fish that they don't need and only medicate when all else fails.

I am considering ordering otos to go into multiple tanks. I don't believe that I can get a QT up and running with enough algae / biofilm to support them through a decent quarantine period. Buying in small groups would prove prohibitively expensive because of shipping costs - but buying them and putting them directly into their new homes all could prove disastrous if I get a diseased batch.

Any suggestions or should I just shelve the idea for now and accept paying well over the odds in small groups from the LFS. AFAIK they are not prone to specific diseases, other than new fish being severely malnourished and high mortality rates due to starvation.
 
I have always been lucky in having a permanent QT running. It is planted, thick with floating plants, and all new fish acquisitions go into there and are going into an established tank which is biologically identical to my other tanks. My QT used to be a 20g, but now with my move and downsizing I have a 10g.

Without the above, dried leaves and floating plants will probably work. The plants shade the tank and deal with water quality, and otos do love to graze their leaves. The dried leaves like oak, beech, maple do seem to be favoured by all the "algae" fish. I have raised many Farlowella fry on dried leaves, and their need for algae is equal to that of otos.
 
 
Yeah worms are the only thing I have ever encountered in new fish - besides the odd fish that is just too stressed or weakened to survive. I did de-worm my last lot of sids as I know these are prone to skinny disease. If I do go ahead I'll just turn the lights on for 18-20 hours a day in the QT for a couple of weeks before buying them. I'll also check out my LFS and see what stock they have now that their revamp is done.
 

Most reactions

Back
Top