Illnesses Your Fish Can Develop

If you have an aquarium you will more than likely develop some kind of illness in your fish. How can you prevent your fish from developing an illness and what illnesses can your fish develop?

How Fish Develop Illnesses

Your fish are really healthy little guys. But they can get in to trouble if they become stressed. Stress will cause their immune system to become less effective so that they will become vulnerable to an illness.

So the key to preventing illness in your fish is to not cause conditions that will stress your fish. Activities that can stress your fish are:

Over Feeding
Sudden Temperature Change
Over Crowding
Poor Water Quality
Inconsistent Lighting
Illnesses Fish Can Develop

There are several different kinds of illnesses your fish can develop. Here are a few of the major ones your fish can contract:

Constipation - Yes your fish can become constipated. Serving them the same old food everyday usually causes this. You can tell they are constipated when they stop eating and you see their body swells. Try serving them different types of food. I give my fish flakes, blood worms, brine shrimp and some algae wafers. Which is quite a variety.

Internal Bacteria - When your fish develop this illness you will see their body swell, they will also become listless, grow darker in color and may even die. To attack this you will need to treat the whole tank with antibiotics. This treatment will help all your fish, even those that are not sick.

Ick - When you get this your fish will look like they have white spots all over their body. You again will need to treat the whole tank with one of the many treatments available. Once you spot it you need to start treatment immediately. I keep a cure at home so I can start the treatment right away.

Fungus - You will notice this on the body of your fish. It appears as a white substance where your fish has damaged their skin. Again treat the whole tank with an anti-fungal treatment.

Tumors - Unfortunately this condition is usually untreatable. But the good news is it may not affect their quality of life.
Conclusion

The best way you can prevent your fish from developing certain illnesses is not to stress them. If they do develop some condition, it needs to be treated right away to prevent the condition from spreading.