# Preventative measures against bacteria?



## jgcon (Feb 10, 2011)

Tank Info:

29 gal long
nitrate/nitrite 0
pH ~8.0
water: very hard (used jungle testing kit, it turns dark brown and the level number underneath says 1000?)
I do a 25% water change weekly, last one was today.
Temp is at 78 F
No live plants. Marineland penguin 200 (50gal) set on low and Topfin 30 set on normal.
I feed them omega1 super color flakes, omega1 spirulina flakes, and bloodwoorms once weekly

I have 7 platies (4 adult, 3 very young - 1 male, 6 female), 5 neon tetras, and 3 dwarf gourami (1 adult male, 2 younger female). Since I have set up the tank (3 mos ago) I have lost one platy to dropsy. About 2 weeks ago, I bought 2 adult dwarf gouramis. I quarantined for 3 days (not long enough?) and they seemed fine so i added them to the tank. A couple days later, I noticed one of them acting strangely and her fin looked tattered. I thought the other may be picking on her, but after quarantining again it became obvious it was fin rot. I treated her with tetracycline with no luck, she died a few days later. (The guy at fish store told me to use tc but now after the fact I have read that the water hardness makes it ineffective.)

But anyway I'm really paranoid now. I know that dropsy is often caused by bacterial infection and fin rot is too. All of my fish seem fine, but should I treat with some sort of antibiotic anyway, as a preventative measure? I know that it can stress them I'm just worried that I'll come home one day and they will all be infected!! Everyone seems fine as of right now. 

I also have added Kordon Fish Protector to the tank to try and help. Does it even work or am I wasting my money?

I am also worried about the hardness of my water. Could it be attributing to my problems? What about the pH? I have some jungle pH 7.0 if I need to use that.

Thanks for reading


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## leogtr (Jan 19, 2011)

jgcon said:


> Tank Info:
> 
> 29 gal long
> nitrate/nitrite 0
> ...



hi there!!! welcome to the forums!!!!!

Oh okay. thats a good filter! I would get some plants in there! some are very easy to take care of. the jungle testing strips? I know they are expensive but you are going to need a liquid master test kit for accurate measures testing strips are really inaccurate. I would find more information on the fish that you currently have. look on top in the tropical fish profiles to see their specifications. If your going to QT your fish do it for about two weeks. yeah people at petstores can be very misleading and they dont know the true facts most of the time. I think if you do antibiotics you beneficial bacteria are going to be weakened. I wouldnt do it. adding multiple aditional chemicals to your aquarium is not a good thing. Im not very experienced but alot of people here are and have many years of experience, your going to get the help you need and learn many things along the way

Im happy that you joined our community again welcome to the tropical fish keeping forums!!!!!:wave:


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## Lupin (Aug 2, 2006)

Don't fix what is not broken. Antibiotics will not work as preventive measure. It will deactivate the immune system of your fish leaving them prone to other pathogens which will eventually leave them open to bacterial infections as a consequence. If your fish are healthy, why bother to dose antibiotics? It will simply build up resistant strains of bacteria and aeromonas, flexibacter and pseudomonas are all present in every tank. No way to eliminate them completely. Your best option is quarantine every new fish for four weeks bare minimum and maintain a healthy environment for them.

Make it four weeks of quarantine, not two weeks. There are many parasites with life cycle spanning from two weeks to several months.

And tetracycline does not work in high pH. Your pH is 8.0. The tetracycline would deactivate instead of making itself useful. Use kanamycin (though you cannot use this in dropsy cases where renal damage is involved as it is nephrotoxic to damaged kidneys).

Stop using pH adjusting chemicals and anything else but dechlorinator.


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## jgcon (Feb 10, 2011)

Okay thanks for the advice guys. Is the API test kit good? For the $30, do you know how many uses I could get out of it? Not that it really matters, I will buy it anyway. Just curious. I will quarantine for 4 weeks in the future, though hopefully I won't have to buy any new fish any time soon! I knew better than to quarantine for that short of a time, I just had some fry that were getting larger and I wanted to put them in there. Poor decision on my part. I will stop using the fish protector, luckily as of now that is all I have added. For future reference, if I would need to get kanamycin, does it harm nitrifying bacteria too? 

I've had terrible luck with live plants haha. I would need ones that are basically indestructible and don't need natural light, since my tank gets none. My friend offered me some java fern, opinions on that?


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## Lupin (Aug 2, 2006)

All antibiotics will harm the beneficial bacteria.

API liquid is very useful. The number of tests they do is indicated in respective bottles. 100-300 range.

Java ferns are fine. Try anubias as well. Both are very slow growers. Not much they can do to your water quality but they're low lighting and easy to keep. Cryptocorynes will also work.


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## aunt kymmie (Jun 2, 2008)

I agree with Lupes. I'm never fond of treating with meds unless I know exactly what I'm treating for. Always good to have a hospital tank set aside, as the few times I've had to treat with an antibiotic I do it in this tank, saving my biofilter in the display tank. Good clean water, and frequently, goes a long way in helping fish build a strong immune system. I've had Discus displaying totally tattered pectoral fins and an every other w/c (no meds) has the fins back to normal in just a few days. Good luck!


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## jgcon (Feb 10, 2011)

Thank you thank you. I think I will start doing water changes twice a week, just since some of the platies are so little I want to make sure everyone is strong and stress-free. I will get some plants sometime too, I'm sure they will enjoy them.


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