Diagnosing Your Fish and Treating with API Fish Remedies

If your fish is exhibiting signs of illness, it’s important to diagnose the type of disease accurately in order to provide effective treatment.

Have you noticed strange behavior with your fish or change in appearance? Follow the steps below to help treat your fish accordingly.

Observe Your Fish

What does the fish look like? What is the fish doing or not doing? Take a look at the API Diagnostic Fish Treatment chart to compare the fish symptoms and see what is the best treatment to start with. 

Observe Your Tank Environment

Look at the aquarium as a whole as this will help narrow down what could be causing the fish illness. Causes could be water quality related, stress induced from other fish, malfunctioning equipment, or new fish friends introduced. Fish keeping is not only looking at the fish but also the environment to what could be causing the fish to become ill. 

We would recommend researching the type of fish you have and the preferred water parameters they thrive in such as pH, KH, GH tank size and temperature. If the type of fish you have is living outside of their preferred thresholds, this could be another reason they are not doing well.

Check Water Parameters

Test your water with the API Master Test kits to see if you see any elevated levels like ammonia and nitrite or low pH. When was the last partial water exchanged? Performing a partial water exchange (25%-30%) will help dilute out anything in the water that could be causing the fish to act abnormal.

Check Equipment

Is the filter and heater working properly? Periodically, check the filter for any clogs and the thermometer is working properly. If applicable, make sure to change out filter cartridges and media.

Nutrition

How old is the fish food you are feeding? We would recommend changing out fish food every 60-90 days. After opening, the fish food will slowly lose its nutritional value and no longer provide the valuable nutrients and minerals for the fish. 

Fish Medications

It can be hard to distinguish what exactly your fish may have. If a medication treatment doesn’t heal the fish, this would be an indication this medication is not directly targeting the bacteria, fungus, or parasite the fish may have. Here are frequently asked questions regarding API fish medications.

Can you use any of the medications at the same time? Absolutely! You may use any of the API medications in conjunction with each other. Using multiple different medications at once will create a broad-spectrum treatment. We would recommend following the directions listed on each label carefully.

Which medication is the strongest or best? There are a few different medications that can treat the same symptoms or ailment. We would recommend starting with one and observe the fish during the treatment to see if they are improving. If they are not improving, we would recommend switching to another medication that will treat the same symptoms. 

Are there any wait times between treatments? There are no wait times between treatments. You may start a new treatment as soon as the other one is done, or you may use any of the API medications in conjunction with each other. 

Have additional questions? Reach out to our Tech Services team to answer all your fishkeeping questions regarding products, treatments, and fish behavior here.