question about wild caught fish

I have heard all the arguments for quarantining newly conscripted fish from the wild but i would like to hear from people who have real life experience with diseases or parasites that they brought in to there tank from wild caught fish. my only experience with such a thing was with a bluegill that i had several years ago that had a "crab" looking parasite that was under one of its scales, i removed it with a pair of needle nose pliers and I never had a problem, the fish even lived through a "crash" with the tank, (power was cut to the house for 6 days) (renovation gone bad.)

on my recent Collecting trip with Irate we caught a bunch of small shrimp that i think my red spot sunnie would like to know better, so to speak.

i understand there is a risk involved but i am interested in seeing some actual numbers.

thanks

well introducing any new fish to any new aquarium carries some risk of disease. However if you keep a properly maintained tank it helps reduce this risk as much as humanly possible. It is more effective because I believe (anyone feel free to correct me i am just goign on my personal experience) anyways i believe that a sick/infected fish will heal better in a properly kept tank than if you put it in there and try to medicate it with all your other fish. Also if you collect your fish from the wild, and they are generally from the same area, I think the risk is smaller since the fish were exposed to the same parasites at one time or another before it was caught. I think the greatest risk is introducing fish from a pet store to a tank with wild caught ones, because the parasites are different.

Here is what I do when i get new fish, take it or leave it. Also others please feel free to correct me, i dont want to accidentally give bad ideas to anyone.

First I keep my regular aquariums healthy. I keep the water clean, filters working etc. I also put 1 teaspoon of salt per gallon in the tank. First this helps to keep the fishes slime coat healthy. Also most fish can tolerate a decent change in salinity, most pathogens cannot.

If i catch a new fish i put it first in a small (2 1/2 gallon) medical/observation tank by itself. I try to look for any obvious infections or parasites. I keep it for a few days to see if any develop. If it appears healthy still i go ahead and introduce it.

With storebought fish (i only buy channel cats and flagfish really so not often) i keep them in the small tank a few days longer. I always clean the tank after each new inhabitant.

I have had very few instances where I have introduced parasites/disease to my tank. 4/5 of them were my fault. Ive rarely noticed fin rot or ich in my small tank i use to raise feeder gambusia and for my juvenile sunfish. I got rid of both by adding a little more salt and removing the fish with fin rot to solitary tanks. The ich i beat by raising the water temp to 85 for 5 days and then vacuming the gravel (to remove the cysts or whatever they are).

Hope this helps. My main point would be that it seems to be more common to introduce disease with store bought fish than wild caught.

how often do you see ich in wild caught fish? I think fin rot can be caused by stress related to being netted and wierd water condition changes.

I have had several bad experences (ich, fungus, etc..) on store bought fish and bait shop shiners.

thanks

Ich is very rare in wild caught fish from north america. From my experience it is even rarer in marine species (maybe something to do with the higher salinity?). I have had a few cases but i honestly think it might have been from a store bought channel cat i introduced. It did not show symptoms but i know that ich will release a cyst or something that contains several protists inside and that settles to the bottom and eventually hatches, so that could have been where it is from.

Fin rot/fungus on the fins I see more often but it usually goes away in a few days. Only the juveniles seem to be in any real health danger from it.

The only things I have found on my wild caught fish were anchor worm and black spot. Black spot isen't a problem but I have given other fish anchor worm on two seperate occasions, it's easy to get rid of though. most aquarists seem to agree that a QT of a month is best in case it has something you cannot see like an internal parasite. I honestly don't QT a lot of my fish but I know I really should. In my opinion many wild fish are safer than tropical store bought fish. As for inverts, the risk isen't as great because I don't think there are many things a shrimp or cray can pass on to a fish, I would still QT them though just in case they came in contact with any kind of pollution or other runoff.

Depending on the time of year I think it is a must. In the warmer months, things fish have show their ugly heads and their immune systems are comprised. I collected well lets say ALOT of darters for our mussel propagation lab. The student did not do a formalin bath on fish and in 3 days every fish was dead. Forget exactly what it was, but it is a parasite common to fish here. I've moaned about it several time sbefore. FIsh get open sores and flesh turns white and there dead. Spring Fall and Winter I rarely take the time to do it especially when the water is around or below 15 C.

North America is home to a great many nasties, with many of them being poorly known and/or not very widespread. Many more are known all too well and are all too common. In short, the odds of picking up an unwelcome hitchhiker on your collected fish are higher than you might think, and worse yet, getting rid of it may be trickier than you'd ever imagine.

Just this summer I collected a bunch of really nice fish from central Alabama, about 150 miles from my usual stomping grounds, and I brought home some Trichodina, which is unknown around here, and which took me by surprise. Nasty stuff, and it did a lot of damage before I finally figured out what it was.

I hope that example helps to illustrate the point I'm trying to make, namely, you'll tend to get accustomed to the species in your usual collecting areas and thusly know what to expect. You really should quarantine religiously at first until you figure out what your usual suspects are going to be, and most importantly, you should absolutely always quarantine all fish from areas with which you are unfamiliar, because those are sure to be the ones that blindside you with something you never expect.

Whirling disease, various poxes, trichodina, benedinia and other flukes, parasitic mussel glochidia, insect larvae, local fungi... you never know what you'll find in your creeks but not find in your books. Be ready for anything.

As for "ick"... there are many different diseases which result in the characteristic white spots, and ich is only one of about 7 which are commonly seen in aquaria. Our native fishes certainly have some of these in many areas, and don't let the salinity fool you. Saltwater has it's own brands of "icks", and the dreaded brackishwater version found in estuarine areas will only laugh at your feeble attempts to control it with salt or freshwater dips. My advice is to make every effort you can to learn all you can about fish diseases so that you can handle whatever arises, and to quarantine everything.

Oh, by the way, this reminds me: starting January 1, a LOT of over-the-counter fish medicines will suddenly become available only by prescription. Stock up now while you can.

My advice is to make every effort you can to learn all you can about fish diseases so that you can handle whatever arises, and to quarantine everything.

That sounds like good advice. Do you know any good references - books or web sites?

Oh, by the way, this reminds me: starting January 1, a LOT of over-the-counter fish medicines will suddenly become available only by prescription. Stock up now while you can.

Why would one need a prescription for fish medicine? And what veterinarian would see a fish, much less write a prescription for fish medicine? I had a hard enough time finding a veterinarian to see my rabbits. Most of them seem to only be willing to deal with dogs and cats. Where, may I ask, did you learn this, and is there a list of these medicines?

I just today posted an inquiry about small parasitic leeches on sunfish that were caught (in Minnesota) a few months ago. We had the fish for well over a month before we realized they had leeches. At this point now they seem to be reproducing in the tank and we have some work ahead of us to try to get rid of them. We had the fish in quarantine for at least a month, but then got a bit more careless when there were no obvious signs of diseases or parasites. I am a bit worried I could have spread the leeches to other tanks (by using the same siphon on the sunfish tank as on other tanks), but I think there is a very good chance that they are still only in the sunfish tank.

Anyway, parasites on wild fish are a very real possibility. After this leech experience, I'm starting to think that I should really be treating the fish for external parasites like this soon after getting them whether they obviously need it or not. At the very least, I am more convinced than ever that good quarantine procedures are a must.

Are you sure you have leeches and not anchor worm or something? I would think any leeches would be eaten.

NO, the leeches are sneaky, and dwell fully on the body of the fish, and out of reach. I am dealing with some myself.

I have heard all the arguments for quarantining newly conscripted fish from the wild but i would like to hear from people who have real life experience with diseases or parasites that they brought in to there tank from wild caught fish. my only experience with such a thing was with a bluegill that i had several years ago that had a "crab" looking parasite that was under one of its scales, i removed it with a pair of needle nose pliers and I never had a problem, the fish even lived through a "crash" with the tank, (power was cut to the house for 6 days) (renovation gone bad.)
on my recent Collecting trip with Irate we caught a bunch of small shrimp that i think my red spot sunnie would like to know better, so to speak.
i understand there is a risk involved but i am interested in seeing some actual numbers.
thanks

" quarantining " whats that?? OK I know what it is but just never do it. Hey the only fish I catch are health nuts so I do not have to worry about illness with my fish.

Oh, by the way, this reminds me: starting January 1, a LOT of over-the-counter fish medicines will suddenly become available only by prescription. Stock up now while you can.

I'm interested in what medications will be affected (so I can get some if I feel I might use it in the near future).

No worries. Apparently that got deferred or stopped outright. Try as I might, I can't find any news about it, despite the big news it was back in june. It was mainly antibiotics which would have been affected.