2.1 Fish Treatment Sequence and Terminology

Fish Treatment Sequence and Terminology

(Note: This only applies to fish and not for corals or invertebrates)

Objective: Our goal is to remove/kill the following disease causing pathogens: Marine Velvet, Marine Ich and Flukes. Although there may be several other diseases the fish may come with, the removal of the above diseases solves 90% of the disease related problems related to “tank wipe out”; meaning, losing all of the fish within a short period of time because of these diseases. The terminologies used here, and the below shown sequence of steps the fish needs to go through will help us achieve this goal.

The terms “Treatment” and “Quarantine” are often used interchangeably and it can be somewhat confusing what each process means. We clearly distinguish Fish Treatment process from Fish Quarantine process, i.e., Treatment is a process where medication is used to actively remove/kill the parasites from the fish and Quarantine process is a mere observation of the fish for three to four weeks to find out whether our treatment has worked successfully or not. With this in mind let’s look at the following terminologies:

Treatment Tank: Fish is treated here with medications to remove/kill parasites that the fish carry. This tank should not have any biological filtration. The water should be clean/sterile new water free of any organic waste load so that the medications can work effectively. Water changes needs to be done frequently to reduce the ammonia release from fish. Medication needs to be replenished after water changes. Feeding should be kept to minimum to reduce ammonia spike.

Quarantine Tank: After the treatment is complete on a treatment tank, the fish should be moved to Quarantine tank (QT) for observation. In other words QT tank is simply is an observation tank to make sure your treatment was successful. Typically, copper or Nitrofurazone should never be used in this tank. You may use Prazipro to kill flukes. This tank needs to have biological filtration as fish will be kept here for a long period of time.

Display Tank: This is the tank where the livestock is housed after they have gone through Treatment and Quarantine.

Fish needs to go through the following steps in the sequence below for a disease free display tank

Treatment Tank à Quarantine Tank à Display Tank   or for people who don’t have a QT tank, they can skip QT process and follow the sequence shown below:

Treatment Tank à Display Tank

 

All incoming Fish needs to treated prophylactically for 8 days before introducing into quarantine tank or display tank