Sometimes, if you notice that your fish does not seem to be as active as it was before with loss of appetite or if there’s a huge wound visible on the body area, first thing first, do not panic. What you need to do is to find out what fish disease your pet may be suffering from and find out information related to it. Most of the time, novices did not take the effort to understand what causes sick pet fish and instead become agitated until they apply wrong pet medication and led to the situation becoming even worse.Basically the best approach for you to deal with the situation properly is that you need to identify the disease your pet fish is suffering from. The disease can be bacterial, fungal, protozoan, viral or even non-infectious disease so it’s a good idea to learn each and every one of these and know how to identify them. What actually separate between a particular sickness or fish disease is actually the symptoms associated with it and what it causes. The article here will teach and explain to you which group the disease belong to and how you can cope up with it.
Bacterial diseases are transmitted through water borne, meaning that there is no contact needed between individual species as long as all of them are in the same fish tank. This group of particular disease can be difficult to deal with and most of the time will infect large numbers of fish until the situation become out of control. It can either cause infection entered through gills or fish skin or it can just stay on the surface. Usually, it all started as a result of poor water quality or the bacteria is introduced to the fish tank through infected fish. Most common sickness that belongs to this group is dropsy.
Other than that, sick pet fish can also be caused by fungal infection. Usually it is characterized by growths of cottons especially on gill areas of the fish and thus leading to breathing difficulties. The infected fish will be left gasping for air at the aquarium surface and if treatment is not quickly administered, it will lead to death. Similar like bacterial growth, it will spread rapidly and usually infects large number of fish living in the same fish tank confinement. You can read more about fungus infection here.
Viruses can also be equally devastating and is much more difficult to detect. Most often, the symptoms only appear during the advanced stage of the disease and there is no specific medication or cure for it. Usually the best way to deal with viral infection is to enhance the water quality and maintain cleanliness hoping that the fish natural immune system will respond to combat the disease. Prevention is always better than cure, and therefore before you introduce new fish to established community aquarium, make sure there is at least 3 to 4 weeks quarantine period.
Sick pet fish can also result from protozoan infection. Perhaps the most potent and well-known disease that can be categorized in this group is ich or white spot. Finally, there is also a non-infectious group of disease which does not pass on from one fish to another and that, it only seem to infect particular species. Goldfish flipover condition or swimbladder disorder is one such example.
