Hi,
Looks like I may have to go collect my own. Wondering about possible resources regarding wild caught fish diseases, treatments. Suggestions appreciated.
Thanks!
Diseases of Wild Caught Fish
Started by
Guest_mander_*
, May 12 2008 05:38 PM
18 replies to this topic
#2
Guest_Irate Mormon_*
Guest_Irate Mormon_*
-
- Guests
Posted 12 May 2008 - 11:05 PM
There is a section in Stoskopf's "Fish Medicine" that deals with temperate fishes. I haven't priced this book lately - when I bought it I paid about 100 bucks. I'm sure it can be had much cheaper.
#3
Guest_mikez_*
Guest_mikez_*
-
- Guests
Posted 13 May 2008 - 07:15 PM
Don't be reading no disease books!
Worrying about diseases is what keeps so many paranoid tropical keepers from ever discovering the joys of keeping natives. Which is ironic because pet stores are the number one place most likely to harbor various and sundry diseases and parasites.
Nature has ways of taking sick animals quickly out of the environment.
You'd be better off putting your effort into learning good husbandry in general and specific needs of fish you're interested in.
Worrying about diseases is what keeps so many paranoid tropical keepers from ever discovering the joys of keeping natives. Which is ironic because pet stores are the number one place most likely to harbor various and sundry diseases and parasites.
Nature has ways of taking sick animals quickly out of the environment.
You'd be better off putting your effort into learning good husbandry in general and specific needs of fish you're interested in.
#4
Guest_mander_*
Guest_mander_*
-
- Guests
Posted 13 May 2008 - 08:17 PM
Don't be reading no disease books!
Worrying about diseases is what keeps so many paranoid tropical keepers from ever discovering the joys of keeping natives. Which is ironic because pet stores are the number one place most likely to harbor various and sundry diseases and parasites.
Nature has ways of taking sick animals quickly out of the environment.
You'd be better off putting your effort into learning good husbandry in general and specific needs of fish you're interested in.
Okay, but isn't part of good husbandry learning to recognize illness?
Despite the fact I wash my hands at least thirty times a day (job requirement) I'm really not very germaphobic. (I mean, if washing my hands thirty times a day doesn't do it, it was meant to happen.) However, I don't want to make stupid mistakes. If, while collecting, I can recognize that the fish has something abnormal about him, I can make a judgment call as to whether to toss him back, quarantine, or destroy him, depending on what's wrong. It just makes sense to know something about them if collecting. I've never gotten a bad tropical fish from my supplier. I trust him more than I do me on this topic because he knows more than I do. He takes a lot of pride in his business.
I use to keep geckos, but my husband's friends were always ranting about salmonila poisoning (not like I kept them in the kitchen,) so I had to find them new homes because of their phobias, not mine.
#5
Guest_mikez_*
Guest_mikez_*
-
- Guests
Posted 14 May 2008 - 06:34 AM
Yes, you have the right idea.
With time, you will learn to spot a fish that just doesn't look right. No need to diagnose - if you pick up on it BEFORE you bring it home.
Also, there are certain conditions which should be avoided in general. I've found removing fish from extremely compromised bodies of water, whether it be severe drought, chemical spills or just heavily polluted etc, is never a good idea. Forget "rescuing" fish from such conditions. Harden your heart and think about the fish already in your collection.
Another red flag is when individuals in a school of fish look sick. Don't take ANY fish from such schools. The close quarters of living in a school make them vulnerable from contageous illnesses.
With such precautions and good husbandry, illnesses should be rare in your collection.
If illness does strike, well, someone else will have to help you with medicating. After more than 3 decades of fish keeping and a decade in the pet trade, I have very little faith in pet store medicines. I've seen them kill far more fish than they save.
On the extremely rare occasion when I suspect disease in my tanks, euthanasia is my prefered treatment.
Most will disagree with me so hopefully others can point in the right direction for medication references.
Edit to add note: I forgot to say, if you have a live fish store that you have complete faith in, I hope you give them your exclusive business [no getting dry goods online or at the chain store!]. Shops like that are few and far between and about as valuable as a trustworthy mechanic [and equally hard to find]. They're a dying breed.
With time, you will learn to spot a fish that just doesn't look right. No need to diagnose - if you pick up on it BEFORE you bring it home.
Also, there are certain conditions which should be avoided in general. I've found removing fish from extremely compromised bodies of water, whether it be severe drought, chemical spills or just heavily polluted etc, is never a good idea. Forget "rescuing" fish from such conditions. Harden your heart and think about the fish already in your collection.
Another red flag is when individuals in a school of fish look sick. Don't take ANY fish from such schools. The close quarters of living in a school make them vulnerable from contageous illnesses.
With such precautions and good husbandry, illnesses should be rare in your collection.
If illness does strike, well, someone else will have to help you with medicating. After more than 3 decades of fish keeping and a decade in the pet trade, I have very little faith in pet store medicines. I've seen them kill far more fish than they save.
On the extremely rare occasion when I suspect disease in my tanks, euthanasia is my prefered treatment.
Most will disagree with me so hopefully others can point in the right direction for medication references.
Edit to add note: I forgot to say, if you have a live fish store that you have complete faith in, I hope you give them your exclusive business [no getting dry goods online or at the chain store!]. Shops like that are few and far between and about as valuable as a trustworthy mechanic [and equally hard to find]. They're a dying breed.
Edited by mikez, 14 May 2008 - 06:48 AM.
#6
Guest_mander_*
Guest_mander_*
-
- Guests
Posted 14 May 2008 - 09:36 PM
Edit to add note: I forgot to say, if you have a live fish store that you have complete faith in, I hope you give them your exclusive business [no getting dry goods online or at the chain store!]. Shops like that are few and far between and about as valuable as a trustworthy mechanic [and equally hard to find]. They're a dying breed.
I send Eric all the business I can, he earns it.
My husband is in the plant business. I learned to be "hard hearted" with which plants I would revive and which I wouldn't long time ago. I'm still working on him. Of course, it's all my fault, I'm sure. So long as there's one or two plants I will rescue, he'll bring them all home for me. We're talking about a guy that rescues ants. One of us has to be a softy, might as well be him. I wouldn't want to be married to a hard hearted man.
If you do have to euthanize a fish, what's the best way despose of the body? What's the best way to sanitize the tank?
Thanks!
#7
Guest_mikez_*
Guest_mikez_*
-
- Guests
Posted 15 May 2008 - 05:49 AM
I toss deads in the trash.
I haven't ever sanitized a tank because of disease.
When I bring home used tanks I fill them to the top with hot water and dump in a generous dollop of bleach.
In some cases [ich being one], a tank with disease can be left up and running with no fish for 30 days and the bad bugs supposedly die off without fish hosts. That's the conventional wisdom anyway. I've never tried it.
I haven't ever sanitized a tank because of disease.
When I bring home used tanks I fill them to the top with hot water and dump in a generous dollop of bleach.
In some cases [ich being one], a tank with disease can be left up and running with no fish for 30 days and the bad bugs supposedly die off without fish hosts. That's the conventional wisdom anyway. I've never tried it.
#8
Guest_centrarchid_*
Guest_centrarchid_*
-
- Guests
Posted 15 May 2008 - 10:04 AM
I send Eric all the business I can, he earns it.
My husband is in the plant business. I learned to be "hard hearted" with which plants I would revive and which I wouldn't long time ago. I'm still working on him. Of course, it's all my fault, I'm sure. So long as there's one or two plants I will rescue, he'll bring them all home for me. We're talking about a guy that rescues ants. One of us has to be a softy, might as well be him. I wouldn't want to be married to a hard hearted man.
If you do have to euthanize a fish, what's the best way despose of the body? What's the best way to sanitize the tank?
Thanks!
If trying to be environmentally friendly, put the carcass in the compost heap. Composting process will kill most if not all pathogens.
As for sanitizing, many of the disease causing organisms are ubiquitous, therefore it is easy to go overboard with such efforts. When must be done, I agree most often bleach is way to go. Most of your disease outbreaks require not only a host and pathogen but also a stressor compromising the host immune system. In the long run, good husbandry can be at least as effective in controlling outbreaks as "nuking" a tank with dissinfectants.
#9
Guest_Newt_*
Guest_Newt_*
-
- Guests
Posted 15 May 2008 - 10:33 AM
I use a one step euthanization/disposal process:
As Centrarchid said, you're not going to be able to keep all the pathogens out of the tank, but if you keep your water quality high and your fish fat and happy, you will have few incidences of disease. Try telling that to tropical hobbyists, though.
As Centrarchid said, you're not going to be able to keep all the pathogens out of the tank, but if you keep your water quality high and your fish fat and happy, you will have few incidences of disease. Try telling that to tropical hobbyists, though.
#10
Guest_scottefontay_*
Guest_scottefontay_*
-
- Guests
Posted 15 May 2008 - 11:25 AM
Try telling that to tropical hobbyists, though.
Well, you just did, and I treat my tropicals the same as my natives...rough love, frequent water changes, and fat bellies. When I am spawning my fish for the purposes of creating a breeding group I am purposely a bit neglectful of the fry so that "only the strong survive"
#11
Guest_Newt_*
Guest_Newt_*
-
- Guests
Posted 15 May 2008 - 11:46 AM
Good to hear it. I'm used to tropical hobbyists who are complete germophobes, yet think that anything that comes wrapped in plastic must be clean and pure. You just can't argue with them.
#12
Guest_scottefontay_*
Guest_scottefontay_*
-
- Guests
Posted 15 May 2008 - 12:06 PM
Good to hear it. I'm used to tropical hobbyists who are complete germophobes, yet think that anything that comes wrapped in plastic must be clean and pure. You just can't argue with them.
I laugh at the majority also. Its funny, if you think about it, tropicals are native to somewhere...and those places tend to be hotter and more humid with an even more diverse array of bacteria, fungus, mold, parasites and other pathogens. It is exactly the kind of sterile conditions that IMO weaken fish and genetic lines overall.
#13
Guest_redfinpickerel_*
Guest_redfinpickerel_*
-
- Guests
Posted 03 August 2008 - 01:26 PM
check the dnr site for your state as they will most of the time have info on most of the fish diseases in your state
#14
Guest_BenjaminS_*
Guest_BenjaminS_*
-
- Guests
Posted 03 August 2008 - 06:43 PM
Newt, that is a nice looking snapper! A pet?
#15
Guest_Newt_*
Guest_Newt_*
-
- Guests
Posted 04 August 2008 - 09:55 AM
That one isn't, but I do have a handful (well, more like a wheelbarrow-full) of pet snappers. Two adult commons, two juvenile commons, and one juvenile alligator snapper.
#16
Guest_JohnO_*
Guest_JohnO_*
-
- Guests
Posted 09 August 2008 - 10:02 PM
You can tell quite a bit by the stream and the fish you catch. One stream I was working about a week ago, I noticed that I found several that had white spots on them, where they shouldn't have white spots. After finding the fifth diseased fish (out of about fifty of sixty I had netted), I decided to empty the catch bucket and go looking for another stream - something wrong with this one.
Having investigated six creeks in the central KY area, and three in the Cumberland area, that's the first one I've come across that had any degree of sick fish. My gut feel is that in nature, they're pretty healthy. If they aren't, they become dinner - nature tends to clean up after itself. It's in pet stores and the distribution process that you tend to have a problem, where fish from a lot of areas get put into a common water supply. Where you look also is a factor. My main interest is in darters, and they live in small, fast moving streams, places where fishermen don't tend to go, and don't dump bait buckets out.
Having investigated six creeks in the central KY area, and three in the Cumberland area, that's the first one I've come across that had any degree of sick fish. My gut feel is that in nature, they're pretty healthy. If they aren't, they become dinner - nature tends to clean up after itself. It's in pet stores and the distribution process that you tend to have a problem, where fish from a lot of areas get put into a common water supply. Where you look also is a factor. My main interest is in darters, and they live in small, fast moving streams, places where fishermen don't tend to go, and don't dump bait buckets out.
#18
Guest_critterguy_*
Guest_critterguy_*
-
- Guests
Posted 30 August 2008 - 10:19 PM
Agreed on tropical fish keepers. The water alot of tropical fish come from is pretty nasty stuff in the wild as far as bacteria goes. Even open sewers are tropical fish habitats down there.
But in captivity you shouldn't compromise water quality. Just don't worry so much about diseases themselves.
But in captivity you shouldn't compromise water quality. Just don't worry so much about diseases themselves.
#19
Guest_roscoe_*
Guest_roscoe_*
-
- Guests
Posted 01 September 2008 - 02:04 AM
One thing I didn't see mentioned previously in this thread is setting up a hospital tank and quarantining your catch.
Take an old ten gallon and sponge filter and quarantine your new fish for a couple weeks. If you are concerned about pathogens, you can treat them while in quarantine without upsetting your other aquarium.
Take an old ten gallon and sponge filter and quarantine your new fish for a couple weeks. If you are concerned about pathogens, you can treat them while in quarantine without upsetting your other aquarium.
0 user(s) are reading this topic
0 members, 0 guests, 0 anonymous users
NANFA Youtube Channel 
