preventive meds

[Phill D]

Tried to look this up but didn't find anything. Has anyone ever considered, heard of, or thought of, what i can only think of describing as preventive medication? I mean beyond just the initial quarantine period for a new fish. It's something that just occurred to me one day for some reason. The concept of say, maybe once a year, doing a med dosing on your tank just in case any of the fish have something that hasn't yet displayed symptoms. Is this even a thing? Has anyone done it or is there any validity to it? On the one hand i'm curious if it would have any benefit, on the other i could see it being excessive or paranoid. 

[ccurtis]

I think if you have quarantined your fish and ran the meds trio during the initial quarantine, I’d hold off on running more meds unless you see something. Some of the meds used are antibiotics, the more you use them, the less effective they can become. Bacteria can build up an immunity. Also meds change the viscosity of the water and can add unneeded stress on the fish. I’d lean towards the position of don’t fix what isn’t broken. Remember the goal is to have a thriving eco system. Meds can hamper that. 
 

On the other hand, if you have never ran your fish through quarantine or the med trio, I would do it to ensure a clean bill of health. I just wouldn’t do it again unless I saw issues. 

[Ben Ellison]

Well I think there is a few prevention "meds" out there that are doing what you want. 

#1 salt. Dependant on what plants you are running you can safely run a bit of salt 24/7 and it will be very therapeutic.

#2 tannins. Driftwood and various leaves you can get release tannins which are very helpful in keeping fish healthy.

#3 diet. A widely varies high quality diet goes a long ways to healthy fish.

[Phill D]

5 minutes ago, Ben Ellison said:

Well I think there is a few prevention "meds" out there that are doing what you want. 

#1 salt. Dependant on what plants you are running you can safely run a bit of salt 24/7 and it will be very therapeutic.

#2 tannins. Driftwood and various leaves you can get release tannins which are very helpful in keeping fish healthy.

#3 diet. A widely varies high quality diet goes a long ways to healthy fish.

That was actually one of the reasons i put cholla wood in the tank was because i read that it releases a small amount of tannins. Also because otos seem to like grazing on it. When i get my 10g set up i think i'm gonna put some mopani wood in it. I am trying to keep them on a somewhat varied diet of good reputation foods (hikari wafers, fluval bug bites, freeze dried brine, and plan to get some repashy). I haven't used aquarium salt before, hesitant to because of the amount of plants. I just use stresscoat and stresszyme as part of my maintenance routine. I don't plan to med the fish beyond the quarantine phase, but like i said i was curious if it were something that had ever been done.