Beware of Harvest Failure! Check the Characteristics of Sick Fish Here!

As a fish cultivator, one of the important things that you must know is the characteristics of sick and healthy fish. Usually, sick fish can be seen from their strange or unusual behavior and habits.

As a cultivator, you must frequently check the condition of the fish to ensure their health. If the disease is detected early, prevention and treatment will be easier to do.

Come on, read this article to find out the characteristics of healthy and sick fish and how to handle them!

Characteristics of Sick Fish

It is important for you to recognize the characteristics of sick fish so that you can take early treatment to overcome them. The following are the characteristics of fish that have been infected with viruses and diseases:

1. Jumping over the Pool

When feeling discomfort, the fish will jump up and down the pond with irregular movements. This is due to an increase in temperature, a decrease in pH, or an accumulation of toxic compounds in the pond.

2. Looks Aggressive

The increase in aggressiveness in fish is caused by the density of the pond which is too high. You have to be careful about this because when the fish pond is too dense, the oxygen content in the pond water will decrease. This will make the fish become stressed and limp.

3. Being alone

Fish that like to live in groups like goldfish when attacked by a disease tend to separate themselves from the group. Most of these sick fish will stay silent in one corner of the pond and their response rate will decrease because they feel very weak.

4. Slow Motion

When you are sick, the movement of the fish will slow down, unlike when the fish is healthy. This is caused by wounds on the fish's body, lack of oxygen levels in the water, and pathogen attack.

Serious wounds on the fish's body can be caused by predatory attacks. These wounds can hinder the movement of fish in the water. Slow movement can also be caused by decreased oxygen levels.

5. Abnormal Physical Conditions

Abnormal physical conditions such as red spots, white spots, boils, fungus, and blanching of the gills are signs of disease. If signs like these appear in your fish, immediately treat the fish according to the disease.

Characteristics of Healthy Fish

After knowing sick fish, knowing the characteristics of healthy fish is also important for you. This is very useful for smooth cultivation because healthy fish must be separated from sick fish. Check out the explanation below to find out the characteristics of healthy fish!

1. Move Actively

The liveliness of the fish in moving is probably the first thing you will see from a healthy fish. In general, healthy fish will always appear to be moving actively. Healthy fish can move actively because there is a lot of energy in their bodies which they get from the food they ingest.

Therefore, if the fish is healthy, it's only natural if the appetite is high. However, don't overfeed the fish, ladies and gentlemen!

2. High appetite

Healthy fish always have a high appetite because they need a lot of energy to move actively. The feed that enters the fish's body should not be careless, it must contain high nutrients needed by the fish's body. If the nutrition is sufficient, the growth and development, reproductive and digestive systems that work in the fish's body will function perfectly.

3. Clear Eye Color

Healthy fish will have clear eyes without membranes and white spots. Other eye characteristics in healthy fish are their shape which does not protrude too much. Fish eyes that protrude too much are caused by poor water conditions with lots of bad bacteria.

4. Ideal Body Condition

The ideal body condition can only be owned by healthy fish. Not only seen from the weight of the fish, the ideal body condition can also be determined from the integrity of the fish's limbs such as the completeness of the fins, scales, and tail. A healthy fish also doesn't have wounds all over its body because wounds that expose the fish's body can be used as a gateway for bad bacteria to enter to infect the fish.

5. Regularity in Breathing

Healthy fish gills will open and close simultaneously. Thus, it can be said that the two gills of the fish work perfectly. Fish that only breathe with one gill are usually infected with gill lice.

Causes of Sick Fish

Many factors can cause fish to get sick, such as an unsuitable environment and unbalanced feed. For more details, continue reading below!

1. Unsuitable Environment

Environmental factors that do not support fish life include the non-neutral pH of the water, low oxygen content, sudden changes in water temperature, and the presence of toxic gases and waste in the pond. If one of the causes above is in your pool, you should deal with it as soon as possible. Otherwise, these factors will harm the fish.

2. Poor Feed Management

One of the diseases that can infect fish is starvation. Starving fish will have stunted growth and anemia. In addition, if you do not provide fish with balanced nutritional content, the fish will lack vitamins and nutrients which will affect the quality of the meat.

3. Stress

Stress on fish can cause disease. Stress is a stimulus that raises the limit of psychological balance in fish against its environment.

Usually stress on fish is caused by changes in the environment due to several things, for example transporting fish using floating nets. After transportation, usually the fish will experience shock, stopped eating, and his immune system weakened.

4. High Pond Density 

Fish density that is too high in the pond will lead to competition between fish for oxygen. In addition, too many fish capacity in the pond will increase the amount of metabolic waste substances such as ammonia. Ammonia can cause stress and disease in fish.

How to Overcome Sick Fish

As the saying goes, prevention is better than cure. It's the same with fish disease. Preventing diseases that infect fish is better than treating sick fish. To prevent disease in fish, you are advised to maintain pond cleanliness, improve feed quality, prevent pond overcrowding, and provide vitamins to fish.

These things are very related to each other. For example, if the pond or fish media does not meet pond preparation standards, disease will easily attach to fish. Vice versa, fish will not be infected with disease if the environment meets the standards, the feed is rich in nutrients, the pond is not overcrowded, and the vitamins are sufficient.