Paul B

Advanced Reefer
Rating - 100%
28   0   0
The advantages of keeping a natural Reef

We all know that there are many ways to run atank but I would like to start a thread about keeping a natural reef. The ocean is natural and the fish there areall very healthy and never have to worry about getting sick, getting enoughfood, getting enough sunlight, exercise etc. They do however have to worry about getting eaten by something larger orgetting caught in a net, suffocating on the deck of a ship then being stuffedinto a small can labeled "Dolphin Safe".
None of the tanks we keep are natural by anystretch of the imagination but I feel we should strive to get as close tonaturel as we can.


There is a reason for this thinking. Fish in a natural, unstressed state are justhealthier. They are healthier becausethey eat better and by that I don't mean the foods they eat have morenutrition, although they could have. Imean they eat healthier because the foods they eat have the living bacteria inthem that help keep fish immune from disease.
Fish are different from most of us and some of ussmell better than fish. Fish in the seaeat mostly fish and crustaceans and many of us also feed that type of food, butfish in the sea eat whole fish and crustaceans, bones, guts, eyes and all. It is difficult for us to get very tiny wholefish for food and I discussed this point with fish food manufacturers a fewtimes. I can buy very tiny whole maceralbabies in an Asian market but they are always freeze dried with the consistencyof wood. Fish won't eat wood and neitherwould I.

My last few weeks in Viet Nam we were issued whatthey call LURPS. It's basically freezedried stew but if you tried to eat it without adding boiling water, it would belike eating Styrofoam with powdered Styrofoam on top of it. Our problem was that we hardly had water, muchless boiling water. If you just added water the same temperatureas our tanks, it would just float, and you still couldn't eat it. That?s the same problem with trying to feedour fish freeze dried food.
The ingredient in foods that will keep the fishimmune is the bacteria and parasites in its gut and a wild fish eats that atevery meal. A fishes gut, or intestineand stomach is filled with bacteria just as ours is. We and the fish need that bacteria because itis that bacteria that keep us healthy. That is the reason that when we take antibiotics we get the"runs" and feel lousy. Theantibiotics kill our stomach bacteria and we can?t live without it. I don't really know how fish feel but I doknow they are supposed to have a gut filled with live bacteria and parasites asall the fish in the sea do.

That is the reason fish in many tanks are sodelicate and the reason for all the disease threads. Fish are actually very robust and rarely, ifever get sick on the proper diet. Ahealthy fish in a natural tank will eat right away and not hide for days at atime, unless it is a type of fish that is supposed to do that. All healthy fish will also try to spawn. Of course if you have an algae blenny it won?ttry to mate with a whale shark.
So many people have trouble with feeding fishsuch as mandarins, copperbands, moorish Idols etc. That is because IMO, it is not a natural tank.


When we get the fish from a store, that fish mayhave been collected a month ago. In thattime it was not eating the food it is supposed to eat along with the bacteriaand parasites it is used to eating. It?slike us on antibiotics and its stomach and intestines are not working properlybecause a fish gets its immunity from its kidney and the kidney knows whattypes of immunity it should churn out by the types of bacteria and parasites inits stomach.
If we get a new fish and put it in a tank withcopper or antibiotics, that fish is off to a bad start. I myself used to do that. Treat new fish just to make sure they were ?healthy?. I learned the hard way that that is not theway to go. Naturally if we get a fish inthe process of having last rites, or if an angelfish is giving it mouth tomouth resuscitation, we have to treat it, but we should rarely get a fish likethat.
Healthy fish in natural tanks spawn continuouslybecause that?s what fish do.


The Motherfish imparts her immunity to her fry so it can survive its first few daysoutside the egg because a fish fry has a thin coat of slime which is the fishesonly defense against pathogens. If thatslime doesn?t have any immunity in it from its Mother, it cannot survivebecause it will be attached by every pathogen in the sea, or a tank. If it?sMother doesn?t have immunity, neither will its babies because where would itcome from? The baby fish hasn?t yet beenexposed to anything so it could not get any immunity and it would not survive. Asthat baby fish starts eating, it consumes bacteria and parasite laden foodswhich it should be immune to, but only if it got that immunity from an immune Mother.


If you keep a sterile tank with no input ofnatural bacteria or parasites, that fish will always be at risk of infectionfrom bacteria, viruses and parasites so everything in contact with it needs tobe quarantined. But even if youquarantine everything that is in contact with that fish, you can?t keep alldisease bacteria away from it, especially if you buy coral or rock becausethose things, even if quarantined for years can harbor disease pathogens in theform of viruses and bacteria that quarantining will have no effect on. Quarantining can remove parasites, butnothing else.
You can?t turn a sterile, quarantined tank into anatural tank very easily because those fish have no natural immunity toanything because they are not exposed to anything so it would be a slow and possiblyscary process. The fish would need tobecome infected, and then cured by un natural means until the fish builds upimmunity or unfortunately, dies.


It is much easier to set up a natural tank in thebeginning but of course that can also be scary, especially if you are new atthis. If I were to set up another tanktomorrow I would do it almost exactly like I set up my present tank. Reverse Undergravel filter and all, but Idoubt the UG filter has much bearing on the health of the fish.
I am lucky that I can get some natural water andmud from the sea, but I also add regular dirt from outside my house. Dirt that doesn?t have pesticides,fertilizer, weed killers or battery acid from a 1957 Oldsmobile Cutlass. I add a little soil, not for the soil, butfor the bacteria. If I collectearthworms for food, I leave the dirt on. It?s the same dirt that is inside the earthworms. Eating a little dirt won?t hurt us and it won?thurt your fish.
I would also feed something with live bacteria init at every meal. I use white worms,blackworms, earthworms, or clams that I buy live and freeze myself. Clams that you freeze yourself would stillhave the same bacteria in it as when the clam was alive because our homefreezer is not that cold. Processed fishfood you buy is questionable as to the presence of bacteria because it needs tobe somewhat free of bacteria so it can last and be sold. It may also be irradiated.
(If I could only use one food, it would be clams)


Our fish should only die of old age and fish onthe proper diet in a natural tank do.
This is all just my opinion of course and I wouldlike to hear your ideas on keeping fish healthy


 
Last edited:

jd371

Experienced Reefer
Location
Levittown
Rating - 100%
1   0   0
Great read Paul. You inspired me to run a more natural tank. My fish only eat Black worms, Mysis, BS, clams and LRS, no processed foods. I've collected some mud and added that to the tank. I run just a skimmer and doser for the 2 part, and only if needed I'll run GAC, but that's it. I like the KISS method.
 

samster

Senior Member
Location
brooklyn
Rating - 100%
14   0   0
I agree with your logic Paul, just like how one shouldn't be taking medication all the time for a tiny little sneeze or running nose, how you're immune system will never build up if you keep popping meds for little issues. I remember growing up drinking water straight out of the tap or fire hydrant, and now our fish tanks need RODI water, and cars need soft water for car washes ??
 

Paul B

Advanced Reefer
Rating - 100%
28   0   0
Jd371, your fish love you. :flirt:

Samster, I agree. When I was a kid I drank water from hoses and even a lake. I rarely get sick and I don't remember anyone as a kid being allergic to anything. I never washed my hands. My Grand daughter who lives in Manhattan is allergic to everything as are half the kids in her class. You can't serve peanuts in schools any longer and so many people are allergic to shellfish. There are studies suggesting the lack of bacteria in our systems growing up is the cause of these things.
When I go to the Museum of Natural History in Manhattan I see the cave men there and they are all eating Skippy Peanut butter.

In Viet Nam I lived a year in a jungle, I never saw a roof, wall or electricity, only leaches, scorpions, mosquitoes and rain. When it wasn't raining, it was raining harder. I ate more dirt than food and I never even got a sniffle. I got numerous cuts from bamboo, crashed helicopters and shrapnel, never got an infection.
Never had a stomach problem, rash, cold, mononucleosis, aids, parasite, tapeworm, claustrophobia, (Fear of Santa Claus) or the heartbreak of Psoriasis.
Dirt is the miracle drug we need and our fish also need the bacteria in dirt. :rolleyes:
Me and my combat buddy from Nam


 

Sponsor Reefs

We're a FREE website, and we exist because of hobbyists like YOU who help us run this community.

Click here to sponsor $10:


Top