Is it okay to introduce a fish into a hospital tank that's already medicated?

[Anne C]

It's coppersafe, and do you have any tips on how to catch him in a small net? He keeps hiding behind plants...

Would you have to put the fish in first, then ease the meds into the water? Ugh. If so, it's too late for that. His friends are in the hospital, but not him because he's a master of eluding the net.

 

[Robert]

Yes, if its the appropriate medication in the proper strength. The bBest example I can think of is a quarantine tank that has Copppersafe in it. This medication works for 30 days, so you suspect a fish has a parasite anf you put in in the tank a week after you treated the tank with Coppersafe, it will still work. It really doesn't matter whether you put the fish in or med in first as long as they are within 2-3 hours of each other. The only excpet to this I can think of is Metronidazole for hole in head disease, which only has a half life of 8 hours, so you want the fish and the med in at about the same time, or the fish first.

Most medications other than Coppersafe loose the majority of their potency after 48 hours, so are not a danger to the fish.

I don't have the world's best eyesight soI just use a large net.And sometimes I have to move the plants.