Ever walked past an aquarium in a shop with coloured water? Never buy fish from an aquarium with coloured water. Why? It most likely means that the fish are being treated for some sort of
disease.
Some medications cause discolouration to the water. Can we tell what they are being treated with and then what they’re being treated for?
I’ve written a short list of commonly used drugs that are readily available from the local fish store.
Brown = tetracyclines = treating for bacterial infection.
Yellow = acriflavin = treating for bacterial infection.
Pink/purple = potassium permangenate = treating for bacterial infection or fungal infection.
Blue = methylene blue = treating for bacterial infection.
Green = malachite green = treating for fungal or protozoal infection.
Do you know other colours?
As an aside…
I’ve actually been to an aquarium store once where the sales staff tried to convince me that there was nothing wrong with the fish in the green water and that they would catch the fish to sell to me if I was interested!
Is your local fish shop selling fish responsibly?
