To Medicate New Fish or Not

[Katie B.]

I read from Cory that I should medicate my new fish with the med trio from Aquarium Co-Op before inserting them into my tank.

I learned from Prime Time Aquatics that I should quarantine for a month without meds.

*** I could really use your thoughts. I just purchased 6 x Albino Corydoras and 2 x Mystery Snails to arrive next week from AquaHuna. 

[lefty o]

its kind of do what makes you feel best. giving med trio should treat most of anything that they come in with. qt for a month wont cure anything, but should give long enough for anything bad to happen without you introducing them to your other fish.

[ange]

It's a time thing for the most part. There are some (legitimate) concerns about overuse of antibiotics in the hobby. People internationally also struggle with the availability of most medications without a vet visit, which is part of why aquarium salt is so popular.

I'm not hardwired into Cory's head, but as a business owner it makes sense to always medicate if I quarantine because:

1. Meds are faster acting than salt in most cases. If I'm remembering correctly, the shop quarantines for a week before moving them onto the floor. Fish exhibiting symptoms of disease are kept longer from what I remember.
2. Most of the tanks at the shop have live plants in them from what I've seen and salt is unsafe for plants. It's also slower to act than medication. That said it's amazing for slow killers like ich and most bacterial/fungal infections in my experience.
3. Cross contamination is unavoidable due to the auto water change system. I don't know the exact setup at ACO but I would assume that quarantine isn't on the auto water change system and has its own set of nets to minimize risk factors.

As hobbyists we have the luxury of choice when it comes to how much time we commit to quarantine. I personally have my own process that has worked fairly well, but I recognize that it's not practical for everyone. It starts with aquarium salt quarantine and foods with a lot of roughage. Repashy "Soilent Green" amended with dried duckweed (AKA fish laxatives) is my favorite, but brine shrimp/other invertebrates with exoskeletons, many spirulina diets, and other high fiber diets also help with any potential GI blockages. Hatching baby brine is a pain in the butt so I tend to dose vinegar eels or microworms once I confirm that the fish are having healthy movements and they'll eat those + frozen foods as their standard fare for the rest of quarantine. I feed commercial diets regularly but in my opinion it's much easier to control water quality with live and frozen food, which is important during quarantine.

The only medications that I run during quarantine without fail are Paracleanse (one round of treatment) followed by Expel P a few days after completing the round of Paracleanse. The water will also be dosed with aquarium salt for any ich organisms, but it's important to note that salt can miss ich unless you quarantine for a very long time. I mostly use this method if I'm adding a fish to one of my long-running tanks. Since most of my new tanks have been nano sized I tend to dose medication into the tank itself since it's fairly economical. The one exception is Ich-X getting dosed in quarantine if fish exhibit symptoms due to the medication's tendency to stain silicone.

Salt is great for dehydrating microorganisms and ACO has a really handy article for people who are uncertain about trying it for the first time. The main disadvantage to salt is that it isn't safe for planted tanks, but I have a storage bin and spare heater that I use for all of my quarantine/illness needs.

[Widgets]

My LFS has a good quarantine system, so I am willing to take the risk of no (or minimal) quarantine for livestock from there. I have some wild caught Least Killifish from the canal in my backyard. I am afraid of what might be in that water, so I used the quarantine trio for a week and am now monitoring. I haven't decided yet for how long to monitor. It also helps that I had Zebra Danio (?) fry hatch out in the shrimp tank, so now I am waiting for them to grow a bit before I move them.

[PineSong]

As a hobbyist rather than a store, I have the luxury of "wait and see" before medicating.

I do use dewormer on all fish in QT no matter where they came from, but I wait on antibiotics and IchX to see if there are any symptoms the fish need those. I do keep fish in QT for a month, and in that time I deworm them twice.

This has worked for me and so far has prevented problems that would be hard to treat in heavily planted and fully stocked tanks. I have used Maracyn, Maracyn 2 and Kanaplex as well as IchX, aquarium salt and heat to successfully treat fish in QT, so I'm a believer in using them when needed. 

 

[Guppysnail]

I do not medicate automatically.  I watch and wait. Fish are designed to deal with a lot if stress is kept low they have amazing immune systems.  If I see symptoms I treat. I agree with @ange as a business owner I would medicate for the reasons stated. As a home hobbiest I have the luxury of time. Medication stresses fish and is hard on them lowering their natural immune system. If I add them to my tank stressed it increases the chance whatever may be present in my tank will be able to get by their immune system causing illness after being added to my main tanks. I’m also in the not wanting to create med resistant super bugs. That way if I ever get hit with something my meds are the big guns. 
edit to add …I also agree it is what makes you most comfortable with your hobby. I’m not comfortable even with human meds though I take them if I need them. 

Edited March 26, 2022 by Guppysnail

[Ken Burke]

Agree with all.  But I confess: I’m a bard aquarium keeper.  A don’t qt as a rule, but my tanks are all smaller (<40gal), I keep the water clean, and watch them carefully.  
 

one day I may have a problem, but I don’t have a good place to keep a qt tank.  I figure setting up a qt as needed is more likely to create issues than prevent them.

[YeePuffer]

I go ahead and medicate any new fish in a quarantine tank with a similar “quarantine trio” of medications. That way there’s less time for any disease from the store to accumulate and possibly do irreversible damage to the fish’s health. Another plus is I can quarantine them for less time, and feel much more confident in putting them in my main tank. 
 

Edit: just saw the part about you ordering snails too. From what I’ve read (including from Aquarium Coops own blog), snails don’t really pose much of a risk for bringing in diseases, and I can also confirm I’ve never had a problem adding them in immediately. 

Edited March 26, 2022 by YeePuffer

[H.K.Luterman]

I'm in the camp of "only medicate if I see a reason to." I keep new fish in a quarantine tank (mine is a plastic bin) for at least 3 weeks and closely monitor. 

[Mmiller2001]

I'm 100% in camp Medicate no matter what. We medicate our kids, dogs and cats, and I see no reason to not include our fish.

Edited March 26, 2022 by Mmiller2001

[Katherine]

On 3/26/2022 at 10:01 AM, Mmiller2001 said:

I'm 100% in camp Medicate no matter what. We medicate our kids, dogs and cats, and I see no reason to not include our fish.

I see what you're saying, but I don't think antibiotics with no proof of an infection are the same thing as vaccines.

I also have not quite decided how to handle quarantine myself once I have a larger than 10 gallon tank. At this point basically the whole thing is the quarantine tank.

[Mmiller2001]

Certainly, there's no proof we will be exposed to polio, but we go ahead and vaccinate. 

I will add, if fish are wild caught, they have parasites. Their immune system may keep them in check, but they have them. Also, checking for parasites is probably overly complicated and expensive. I can think of no reason to not treat for parasites when it costs just a few dollars.

When we go for surgeries, we will be given prophylaxis regardless of infection as a preventative. I'd imagine this is a "safe, rather than sorry" approach. I can't imagine the toll on fish being any less damaging just getting to our tank. This is why I treat no matter what.

[Katherine]

I was thinking of it more as, oh man, my kid was at school around 1000 other kids in the halls this week. He's not acting sick, but let's give him some amoxicillin just so we can knock out anything he could have picked up.

The parasites makes much more sense to me than the antibiotics right off the bat. 

[Mmiller2001]

I agree, at the very least, parasites should be treated for.

I've modified how I treat and use Med Trio.

If you are interested:

I dose Paracleanse/General Cure (same stuff) after 8 hours of fish being added to the QT tank.

At the same time as above, I dose Ich-X (Ich is a parasite). I only dose it once per Med Trio recommendation.

I use an air stone at this time too.

48 hours later, I dose Seachem Kanaplex with Seachem Focus via food for oral application. I no longer use any antibiotic in the water column. I target feed antibiotics. I dose per directions on Kanaplex. Epistylous is a parasite and is treated with antibiotics. 

At day 7, 50% water change and then I watch the fish while completing the Kanaplex.

At the end of or mid week 2, I dose another round of Paracleanse/GC per directions.

Then I watch for a minimum of an additional 2 weeks.

If I see anything like Ich or Columnaris, I do a full course of recommended treatment.

Edited March 26, 2022 by Mmiller2001