Read through some of the best ways on how to save dying fish after water change to reduce the death rate of fish in your fish tank after each water replacement.
An aquarium in the house can effectively increase the appearance of it. However, it’s not easy to maintain and keep the fishes alive. You need to change the water often to keep the aquarium livable for the fishes.
Yet, you might see more fishes die when you actually change the water, which is the opposite of what you wanted to happen. Especially if you have some gorgeous fishes in the fish tank, you never want these to die.
How to Save Dying Fish after Water Change
To help you in that case, let’s go over a few effective methods on how to save dying fish after water change.
Save the Dying Fishes after Replacing the Water
Replacing the water is a must job that you need to do often to keep the aquarium water appropriate for fishes. You can learn how to keep fish tank clean without changing water, but eventually, you’ll have to deal with that. However, if you see anything unusual after changing the water, you need to do something quick to save the fishes from dying. Let’s go over some of the things you need to do in that situation.
(1) Check the Water
The first thing you need to do when you see any unusual activity in the fishes is checking the water. Take the filter out of the aquarium and start treating the water as fast as you can. The pH level of the water and the temperature can affect the fishes, and if you don’t fix it soon enough, it’s going to kill the fishes.
It’s a rule of thumb that you must be careful and let the fishes adjust to the new water slowly. That’s going to prevent the sudden shift in pH and temperature level that’s super harmful to the fishes. If you do that, you’ll see your fishes won’t die as much as before.
(2) Examine the Fishes
After checking the water and taking care of the temperature and the pH level of it, it’s time to examine the fishes. Just do a quick check on the fishes to see if any fish is having some kind of symptoms of any kind of sickness.
If you see any fish affected by the replacement of water, you can apply the heat and salt method to the fish tank. That’s going to cleanse the water and make it suitable for the fishes.
(3) Feeding the Fishes
After cleansing the water, you can feed the fishes veggies and some low protein foods to help them regenerate strength. Don’t overfeed; just put a little bit of food and leave it for a few minutes. If you see that the fish is doing better, then you are done.
However, if you see no improvement, you should try our commercial medicines to make it better. It’ll be wise to consult with a pet doctor. That way they can give the best recommendations, and that way the fishes will have less chance to die.
(4) Clean The Water Tank Regularly
Another big reason for your fish dying every time you change the water is that you don’t clean the tank regularly. It can catch bacteria and other nasty toxins that can be harmful to your fish. It’s very critical to clean it often.
Also, make sure to invest in quality gravels and some live plants. That’ll keep the water clean for longer, and when you actually replace the water, the fishes will less likely to die. Be aware of removing the chlorine from the water with a water conditioner as well if you want a better lifespan for your fishes.
(5) Replace the Water Correctly
Let’s get real for a moment; in most cases, the fishes typically die in the fish tank because of replacing water the wrong way. If you learn to change the water in the right way, you won’t have to do most of the other stuff to keep the fishes alive.
The main rule of thumb is, you never want to change the whole water. Rather, go for 40 to 60 percent of the water, and let the rest stay there. That’s going to make sure that the water is suitable for the fishes. That way the fishes are less likely to die.
However, it’s very important to check the fishes every 10 to 15 minutes at least thrice after you replace the water. This is the period when you can catch symptoms, and when you do, make sure to separate the fish from there. Then you can treat it with commercial medications or try changing the water temperature and pH level more easily. Down below there are some common symptoms of a fish that’s sick.
- In most cases, you’ll see that the sick fishes will swim upside down or somewhat disoriented.
- They’ll have white spots appearing on the body.
- You might see bulging eyes.
- Bloating is a very common symptom as well
- Always check the food you give the fishes. Most of the sick fishes will leave the food and won’t eat it. That’s an obvious symptom that you can track down.
If you see these symptoms, you should immediately consult with a specialist. And he will tell you what’ll be the best thing to do in that case. Also, following these methods will make such a big difference as it’s going to increase the lifespan of the fishes by a lot.
Final Thoughts
You just went through some methods on how to save dying fish after water change. As you saw, these are super simple things to do, but it can have a really big impact on the whole thing. If you follow some of the methods shown above, the death rate after water change will drop drastically.
So, make sure to follow these methods whenever you are replacing the water of your fish tank. Being a bit careful might save a lot of fishes, which is pretty amazing.
Writer: Shyran Khan Joy