stress coat for slime coat?

[andrewsky]

not sure if this has been asked or if this is a stupid question but could you use stress coat even though you use RO/DI water. not necessarily to dechlorinate the water but for the slime coat for the fish to help protect them. or is that not even worth it?

[sland]

I still use it...might be a waste of money but for me I guess a piece of mind, been using it for years so force of habit.

[andrewsky]

ok. how do u know if a fish is losing their slime coat ofcourse aside from touching them? lol.

[tubntxawg]

you can see it in the water, looks like a string of clear slime coming off... just make sure that your pH is correct, and your water quality is good...

[Chris27]

I use it when I'm handling fish....like from QT to DT....or LFS to QT. I just put some in the bucket while acclimating. I'm not a big fan of nets, so I usually try to catch all my fish with my hands and a small container of sorts.

[andrewsky]

ok, sounds good, just that my fish has ich and if you treat him he'll just get it again wouldnt he, so i figured putting an additive for slime coat would help. its a powder brown tang and a royal gramma. so treating him will just stress him out and then putting him back in the tank and most likely he'll get it again since its in the system it'll just over stress him wouldnt it? so with this should i just do a bunch of water changes to get the parasites out of the water? i have a 18 watt UV sterilizer and its kind of helping.

[tubntxawg]

Andrew, dont do so much water changes, it is not good for the tank nor the fish... it like if it was you... you were place in a warm location(settle in) and then suddenly was move to a cold location... then you have to readjust and settle in and then move back into a cold location... etc etc... it doesnt give enough time...
If it is just ich, just keep the fish healthy... nice and fat, and let nature take it course... , If it get worsen, then you can start treating the tank... but to many water changes in a brief time is really bad for the tank... If you going to do water changes do (say 55 gallon tank, do 1-2 gallon a day water change, it will be slow but it better for the tank, rather than one big one today... another big one tomorrow... Really bad for the tank ! Good Luck

[andrewsky]

ok what types of fat additives for fish are there, im using garlic extreme and marine c by kent marine, but im going to start buying vita-chem, zoecon, and another type for the fat additive i forgot the name, are there any other fat additives?

[tubntxawg]

I feed my guys with PE(Piscine Energetics) mysis shrimp, more nutrient than your regular mysis shrimp, and i feed them throughout the day with Ocean Nutrition Formula Two, Ocean Nutrition Angel Formula, and flakes food... but take in consideration that will cause alot of waste... so in my case i have a 1500 gallon rated skimmer on a 220 gallon tank... which doesnt really affect the likely hood of the tank at all...

[Jacob D]

Andrew, I think you should attempt to fix the problem by removing all fish from your tank and treating them for Ich with either Copper, Chloroquine, or Hypo and leave your display tank fishless for 8 weeks.

I realize this is a lot of work and not easy to do depending on how many fish you have.... but you're going to spend a lot of time, energy, and money on things like water changes, uv, and dietary supplements... and the chances of eradicating Ich with those methods is very, very low.


BTW, I use Stress Coat when acclimating or handling fish. I think it's a fine product for those uses. If there are other issues causing the fish to lose their mucus coating then those issues should be directly addressed.