The biggest threats to a fish’s health

The most important thing you can do as a pet owner is to make sure your fish are healthy. And keeping your fish healthy sometimes means more than just keeping them on a steady diet and cleaning the tank now and then. It means having an understanding of what threats exist to their health and what can be done to avoid them.

Here are some of the main reasons that fish die and what you can do to help keep your aquarium a more healthy environment for them. Let’s jump right in.

Stress

Believe it or not, fish are very sensitive animals and one of the most common sources of poor health and death is stress. Stress opens the gates to a whole plethora of maladies; but is often caused by neglect or improper handling of the fish. Keeping them clean and calm is vital to their overall health.

Make sure you handle your fish gently when you’re changing the water in the tank and just in general. Don’t wrap on the glass or scare your fish. And we also recommend that you listen to your pet shop and aquarium pros and listen to their guidelines about introducing fish to a new environment and the like.

Sickness

When you purchase your fish, you need to be attentive to their overall health. Be on the lookout for things like white spots on the skin, chopped fins and the overall condition of the aquarium they’re in. Are they lethargic? Are they swimming awkwardly? If you notice any of these things, the chances are that the fish is sick.

These illnesses come about largely due to issues with the water composition and general aquarium cleanliness. In fact – ammonia poisoning and drowning due to lack of oxygen are the two most common causes of fish dying in aquariums.

That’s why it’s important to know things like the safety of your fish relative to the size of an aquarium, cleaning your tank regularly, etc. – are being kept up on.

Cleanliness

Keeping your fish tank clean isn’t as easy as it seems. Not only do you need a quality filter, but also the water needs to be replenished every not and then in order to keep a clean and healthy environment for your fish to live in.

There are a lot of little mistakes you can make that can make a huge difference. For example – it’s better to use clean drinking water to fill your aquarium – not tap or chlorinated water. What is healthy for you could potentially kill your fish. Use drinking water and make sure it doesn’t include any additives.

The other important thing is to make sure you use excessively clean materials. Make sure everything you use – from your net to your vacuum – is cleaned thoroughly after cleaning your tank.

While these things seem kind of menial – they add up and help set the stage for your tank to maintain it’s cleanliness longer, thus avoiding the potentially hazardous cleanliness issues that could lead to your fish’s death.

We hope this article is helpful, but please remember – sometimes you can do everything right and fish get sick and sometimes die. Sometimes they die out of the blue and without warning. But there are ways that you can lessen the odds of that happening and by following some of these tips, you should set up an environment that’s conducive to your fish’s overall, long-term health.