I saw a documentary tonight on the Travel Channel about Europe's largest aquarium. I found it particularly interesting how they treat some of their new fish. In the case shown on TV, they were treating a newly caught ocean sunfish or mola. They first fed it a piece of squid containing an antibiotic to treat any potential infection it may have and then they somehow got it to drink fresh water. I could not really tell if they were force feeding this to it or if it was voluntarily swallowing it, but it looked more like force feeding to me. They said that by getting it to drink fresh water, that would kill any internal parasites that the fish may be carrying. I couldn't help but wonder if may may help with osmotic stress as well. I have been thinking about this and whether it may be an effective method for smaller aquarium fish as well. I have had several problems over the years with certain fish that seem to loose weight and eventually die despite the fact that they are eating and being fed good food. I suspect this could be due to internal parasites. I know internal parasites are relatively common in marine fish, as I find them all the time when cleaning marine fish that I have caught for food. I wanted to get some other's opinions on this. I currently have a gray chromis that I caught in Florida a few months ago that I believe may have internal parasites for the reason stated above. I think I am going to try this treatment and see what happens.
On another note, I am a little skeptical based on other obvious myths presented in this program. First they called what was obviously a sand tiger shark a bull shark. At first I thought that maybe it could just be a difference in what the common name is in Europe versus here. They really got my attention when they said that all the corals in their million + gallon tanks were fake because corals were live animals and if they put them in there they would just fight. Out of all the reasons not to keep corals, surely they could have thought of something better than this. I'd think that if I can keep 50+ differnt corals in a pidley 120g tank without fighting, surely they could figure out how to keep some in a million gallon tank. Other than that it was a pretty good program though.
On another note, I am a little skeptical based on other obvious myths presented in this program. First they called what was obviously a sand tiger shark a bull shark. At first I thought that maybe it could just be a difference in what the common name is in Europe versus here. They really got my attention when they said that all the corals in their million + gallon tanks were fake because corals were live animals and if they put them in there they would just fight. Out of all the reasons not to keep corals, surely they could have thought of something better than this. I'd think that if I can keep 50+ differnt corals in a pidley 120g tank without fighting, surely they could figure out how to keep some in a million gallon tank. Other than that it was a pretty good program though.
