How many times have you read the instructions on a bottle or package of aquarium medication and it says " Add six drops / tablets per ten gallons of aquarium water" ? After following those directions you then realize that either you needed four more bottles / packages of the medication to adequately medicate your 200 gallon tank, or your aquarium water is now all green or yellow.

Let me ask you this, when was the last time you put your daily multiple vitamins in the bathtub and took a bath believing you would receive the benefit of the vitamins ?

There is a much more medicinally effective and cost savings way of treating your fish with medication, put the medicine in their food.

Think about it, if the fish eat the food that has the medication in it then there is less medication overall that actually is used and the fish consumes it directly, and internally.

Let me clearly state now that I would NOT use this method with copper based medications !

The trick to medicating this way is to determine what is the dosage, or amount, of medication to put into the food. I can not tell you this because every application varies. Certainly do not apply the recommended dosages stated in the directions, that will most likely be too strong and you may overdose the fish. Most manufactures of medication do list their telephone numbers on the package, and once you have identified which medication to use you could contact them for this dosage.

What I can tell you is how to apply the medication to the food.

If you feed frozen foods, take what you normally would feed in the period of time that you plan on using the medication ( usually 3 to 10 days ), and allow it to thaw in a bowl.

If you feed flake or dry foods, take what you normally would feed in the period of time that you plan on using the medication ( usually 3 to 10 days ), and place it in a bowl.

Using the smallest amount of freshwater possible mix the medication into the freshwater. Why a small amount of freshwater ? Too much water and the food becomes runny and difficult to handle. Most foods contain some salt. The salt in the food will  draw up the medicated freshwater much more readily.

After thoroughly blending the medicated freshwater into the food you can spread the food out on a piece of aluminum foil and allow it to dry out, or be re-frozen ( if it was originally frozen ).

Once the food is dried / frozen begin feeding it to your fish in the quantities that you normally would feed the fish. Because the fish are now consuming the food directly the impact of the medication is much more effective. Additionally, the cost of medication is lower since you have now used less.