Hell, the blue tang (Paracanthurus hepatus) I bought for my reef system,
which are the quintessential "ich magnet"... My first criteria was that it
was at least claimed to be one of Seaquest's larval tank-reared, and
secondly that it _did_ have a light Amyloodinium manifestation so I'd know
it's shipping stress hadn't been covered up with copper, malachite green, or
some other nasty thing that kills things and makes the fish dependant on the
chemical becuase it also decreases the fish's natural immunity.
I can't even begin to tell you how many dissappointed people I've talked to
that had a fish blow out in parasites _after_ they got it home (it takes
about 3 days on average for symptoms to appear for animals that have been
"pickled") because the shops were hiding the stress with chemicals! And
then... If I could keep them from being reactionary and fueling the industry
further by buying some damned product... 95% of the time we could get the
fish to feed through its stress and become a healthy individual... Without
infecting anyone else!
Ever wonder why I couldn't make a living at this? My answers never generate
income. ;)
How can I be succinct?
What I have found through small scale work (home aquaria) to large scale
work (2000 gal systems at a shop) is...
*** System wide manifestations of the common external parasites are _not_
related to individual introductions of fish or parasites... They _are_
related to the _System_. ***
That's why I have all these odd ball things to check that sound like I
practice some voodoo aquaria... I've taken the time in my husbandry to go
through and figure out every last danged thing that can be wrong, mainly,
because I've had every opportunity to. ;)
Stray voltage _also_ makes fish "scratch".
Your salt solution may have eased the system stress for the fish enough,
that they are now able to keep the external parasites sloughed off... But
there's still that lingering "twitching eyelid" in there driving them nutso.
This is just one example.
And I'm certainly not saying you're a bad aquarist or anything! :) I would
doubt that you would allow a nitrate issue to get out of control. This is
stuff they don't tell you about in books, but I really think you should
investigate so you can solve the problem in it's entirety.
Todd
----- Original Message -----
From: "Bob Bock" <bockhouse_at_earthlink.net>
To: <nanfa_at_aquaria.net>
Sent: Saturday, January 31, 2004 8:07 AM
Subject: Re: NANFA-- parasite removal
> I didn't have any parasites at all until I put the mummichog in the tank.
I
> knew I was taking a chance, but I needed the fish for a photo shoot, and
put
> them in the tank with all of the fish I picked up inexpensively at local
> club auctions.
/-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
/"Unless stated otherwise, comments made on this list do not necessarily
/ reflect the beliefs or goals of the North American Native Fishes
/ Association"
/ This is the discussion list of the North American Native Fishes Association
/ nanfa_at_aquaria.net. To subscribe, unsubscribe, or get help, send the word
/ subscribe, unsubscribe, or help in the body (not subject) of an email to
/ nanfa-request_at_aquaria.net. For a digest version, send the command to
/ nanfa-digest-request_at_aquaria.net instead.
/ For more information about NANFA, visit our web page, http://www.nanfa.org