Recommendation for items to keep on hand... aquarium 1st aid kit...

[Magnum Man]

so I am setting up a hospital / quarantine tank area, after getting Ich in one of my tanks, after the introduction of some rough looking mail order fish...

I've been disease free, after I started up again, about a year ago... but this Ich outbreak reminds me I guess I should have a stocked aquarium 1st aid kit... I don't have a good local fish shop, so any medications or other items, other than stock items at the local Walmart ( not much there ), have to come mail order, so at minimum they are a week out...

what do you keep on hand, or suggestions for medicines & or other items to keep ion a "1st aid kit"

 

[MaloK]

Personally For the moment I Have:

a 5 gallon bucket, a small heater, one net and one Siphon. I always treat fishes in the dark.

Medication:
Ectoparasite and fungal infection.
Bacterial for internal and external uses.
Fluke and Lice eliminator.
Ich medication.
Mercurochrome.
Malachite Green.

 

[Fishmanic]

I keep
Prazipro: treats flukes, tapeworm, flatworks
Levamisole: parasites, dewormer
Kanaplex, treats dropsey, popeye, fin and tail rot, fungal infection, bacterial infections
malachite green to treat ick
Aquarium salt

 

[Magnum Man]

I already have extra heaters, & air pumps, & numerous extra filters... pretty much looking at what medications you guys reccomend, & what I'm likely to need to keep on hand... The Ich medicine I ordered ( holiday season or what ever ) is 2 weeks out... I could have dead fish by then... so will have to peruse Walmart & if they don't have anything, will have to drive out of town, in search of something

 

[MaloK]

Kordon Rid Ich Plus is a marvellous product, Will not harm bio-filter. Ich falls in minutes also protects from secondary infections.

 

[sharkweek178]

And for salt, you don't have to buy "aquarium salt". Supermarket salt will do just fine and costs much less. It's all NaCl. Just make sure that's all it is. Don't use any iodized salt or anything with anti-caking additives. I like Morton's canning salt. It's additive free and ground fine so that it dissolves faster in water.

 

[Magnum Man]

In think In read that pure water softener salt is great for aquarium use as well???

 

[WhistlingBadger]

Heat, salt, and paraguard are my go-tos. If it's too complicated for those, the fish is probably doomed.

 

[GaryE]

I keep:
pickling, kosher or marine salt, bought in bulk;
A malachite green (for Ich) formalin mix (for velvet);
Betadine, for dabbing wounds;
Praziquantel, for white gut worms,
Levamisole, for nematodes;
a good disease book or two, for identification.

Most of the time, fish meds reach their expiration date unused. Salt doesn't!

But it is of limited use. Prazi is good in the rare cases of fish arriving with problem tapeworms. If you are buying farmed fish, you need an anti-nematode for Camallanus. If the fish come with Flavibacter/columnaris infections, here, they are doomed. Bit I have only had that once in maybe 6-10 sight unseen online orders. I ducked it when I could see the fish (the value of the books).

The disease sections of old books, or books like Chris Andrews' one on fish diseases have saved more fish here than meds have. If you use them, you don't blindly toss meds at diseases they won't cure.

Quarantine is always the first line of defence.

 

[MaloK]

I already have extra heaters, & air pumps, & numerous extra filters... pretty much looking at what medications you guys reccomend, & what I'm likely to need to keep on hand... The Ich medicine I ordered ( holiday season or what ever ) is 2 weeks out... I could have dead fish by then... so will have to peruse Walmart & if they don't have anything, will have to drive out of town, in search of something

Ich cannot wait... If you have no medication at the moment, You can raise the tank temperature and add salt. If it's not enough it will at least give it a hard time. The speed it will kill fishes depends on the infection scale and the health of your fishes. Some may remain untouched in an infected tank.

 

[Magnum Man]

Found this book, & put it in my watch list, when I went down this path...

assume this one would be OK???

Handbook of Fish Diseases Hardcover – January 1, 1992​

by Dieter Untergasser (Author), Herbert R. Axelrod (Editor)

 

[Magnum Man]

at 1st sight, I posted a thread & @CaptainBarnicles ... recommended raising the temp. so I did that right away... she thought 30 degrees centigrade... that did nothing to diminish the white spots... this particular tank has very Alkaline water ( it's what we have in this area, & I'm not running RO over to that tank yet ) so I'm unsure about adding salt???

 

[GaryE]

Amazon.ca

I use this one, but I paid $3.99 for it. I don't have the Untergasser book, but it will be dated.

Heat speeds the life cycle of Ich, weakening it, but it can survive depending on its origin and heat resistance. It's my least favoured treatment. It is a cure that can kill.
Salt caused skin burning, so the fish secretes slime and the slime discourages the parasite. If you have nothing else, heat and salt are usually better than nothing. Ich kills fast,.

 

[MaloK]

You better wait for a Salt expert to chime in... I never used it.

And wouldn't dare to recommend a dosage. It all depends on flora and fauna inhabiting the tank.

If you want to, Read this paper it has an article on using salt against Ich.

srac_476_ich_white_spot_disease

 

[Essjay]

at 1st sight, I posted a thread & @CaptainBarnicles ... recommended raising the temp. so I did that right away... she thought 30 degrees centigrade... that did nothing to diminish the white spots... this particular tank has very Alkaline water ( it's what we have in this area, & I'm not running RO over to that tank yet ) so I'm unsure about adding salt???

Heat, like a lot of meds, doesn't work instantly. Heat and most meds can only kill the parasite in the third stage of the lifecycle, so you have to wait till it reaches this stage for it to die. Of course not all the individual parasites are at the same stage, there are probably some in all three stages in the tank.

You probably know this, but in case you don't, and for anyone else reading this:

Stage 1 is on the fish. We see it as a white spot. The spot is a sort of casing over the parasite protecting it from meds etc. In this stage the parasite is feeding on the fish's tissues. Once it has eaten enough, then it falls off the fish.
Stage 2 is where the parasite has fallen off the fish and falls to the bottom of the tank (or on any decor in the way). It is encysted, and again meds etc can't reach it. Inside the cysts it divides and divides until there are hundreds of ich parasites.
Stage 3 is where the cyst opens and all those new parasites go swimming off looking for a fish to infect. This is the only stage where the vast majority of meds and heat can kill it.

If using meds, there must be some med in the tank when the very last cyst opens or the infection will start over again. If using heat, the temp must still be at 30 deg C/86 deg F when the last cyst opens - the temp should be maintained for two weeks or a week after the last spot disappears from the fish, whichever is longer.