How to prevent fish illness & stress

Stress is one of the main causes of disease in your aquarium. Just like humans, fish get stressed by their surroundings, and this can make them run and down and more likely to get sick. It’s important to understand the cause of stress for the best chances of preventing or solving it.

The most likely cause is poor water quality.

Even if water looks crystal clear that doesn’t always mean it’s safe and healthy for your fish.

The main cause of poor water quality is a build-up of fish and plant waste. As these begin to rot and break-down they release toxic chemicals like ammonia, nitrite and nitrate and can also change the pH levels. Now the water is full of toxic chemicals, the fish become stressed out and get sick.

Your filter is meant to solve this problem as all the nice bacteria will breakdown the toxic chemicals, however if you have a new, immature or badly maintained filter then the toxins won’t breakdown quick enough, if at all.

Water quality problems are invisible so the only way you can monitor them is with regular use of water test kits.

If you make sure your fish have a stress free life, they will be able to fight off common diseases easily, just like we do when we have a cold. 

Below are some of the other factors which create stress for the fish in your aquarium:

Avoiding stress in the aquarium is key to preventing disease in your tank, however some stressful situations just can’t be avoided.

If you know a situation is going to be stressful for your fish, like when adding new fish to the tank, you can help your fish cope by adding a tonic salt. This salt will help your fish to manage their internal salt levels better, which relaxes the fish and frees up energy for their immune systems to do their job properly.