Things You'll Need:
- Glass fish tank
- Lighted hood
- Aquarium Filter
- Air pump and hose
- Aquarium heater
- Plastic plants
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Step 1
Choose a glass fish tank for your hospital tank. A two or three gallon tank would work if you have small sized fish. Of course, if you keep large fish such as some cichlids, you will need a larger hospital aquarium for your sick fish. You will only be housing the sick fish in there temporarily. Start with a plain glass or acrylic aquarium with a lighted hood.
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Step 2
Set up an air pump and hose with a bubbler or air stone attachment on the end. The hospital tank will also need a air stone bubbler or other air pump input device. High oxygen levels can help sick fish recover faster.
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Step 3
If your fish are tropical, use a fish tank heater appropriate to the size of the hospital tank.
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Step 4
Set up the aquarium filter. The filter should include mechanical filtration only: no activate carbon or other chemical filtration agents. These will reduce the effectiveness of medications.
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Step 5
Leave the bottom of the hospital fish tank bare glass. This makes vacuuming up waste easier. Since the bacterial colonies that help maintain healthy aquarium water often grow on the gravel, you will not have this help in a hospital tank. However, many medications would kill off this bacteria anyway, so it is not necessary to establish a colony.
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Step 6
Include some aquarium decorations for the comfort of your fish may help healing. Plastic plants should be used rather than live plants that could be damaged by medications. Weight the plastic plants by using aquarium grade sealant to attach them to rocks. Other good decorations for the hospital fish tank include tipped over flower pots and rock caves for the fish to hide in.
