Prevent disease with water, space, and calm handling

Clinical signs often arrive after the unit has already drifted. Rescue treatments after a crash do not restore the fish you already lost.

Daily discipline

• Keep water in a range the species can live in. Feed only what they finish.
• Stock to what aeration and labour can carry.
• Dry and clean nets, graders, and bins between units. Dirty kit moves both dirt and disease.
• Reduce stress: no throwing, no long dry crowding, no sudden temperature or salinity jumps, no transport without oxygen.

Watch behaviour at dawn and at feed. Write what you see, including odd swimming, colour, or smell.

When something looks wrong

Hold unnecessary handling and extra feed. Check water and recent stocking, feed, or weather changes. Separate affected stock when you can. Product, timing, and legal use come from the label in your hand and local food and veterinary rules — not from this article.

If many units go down at once, stop stacking products and get local veterinary or extension help.

In this series

• Water before feed — watch the pond first
• Stock what the water can carry; buy healthy seed
• Feed for conversion, not for leftover pellets
• Prevent disease with water, space, and calm handling
• Harvest gently, then ice without delay
• A batch without records is a business risk