Fish Keeping While Sick

[Cinnebuns]

I knew getting into this that things like vacation and sickness would play a role in the hobby but damn I didn't expect to get sick 6 times this year!  I have lost some fish purely due to not being able to do the care while I'm sick but surprisingly not much at all.

I thought I might start a thread to give tips for caring for our aquatic creature while sick. I'll add mine to a comment below. 

[Cinnebuns]

Under feeding - my first go to is to feed fry only and not adults. This helps keep the water cleaner longer. They also then will eat stuff around the tank and clean up!  

Prime - this one is a pretty obvious help if your levels get out of control or even just to ease your mind for a day. I do know it can lower oxygen levels so be aware of over use. Idk about any other negative effects tbh. 

Under stocking - the last time I got sick, which unfortunately was only 1 month ago and yet I'm sick again, I moved some fish around to have less fish in the smaller tank. This essential gave me 1 less tank to worry about because that tank now is exclusively a ramshorn cull tank so the parameters don't matter as much. This did mean I had to dose stability in the tank I moved the fish to but that worked out great in the end! 

Ask for help - this isn't always an option for me but it may be for someone else. Ask someone to do a water change for you. 

If able, check up at least once a day on each tank - depending on how sick you are this may be hard but it's important if you are able. It's easy to miss an easily treated disease that turns fatal. 

Edited November 28, 2022 by Cinnebuns