- Location
- Baiting Hollow Long Island NY
Quote
Ich is also a very well understood parasite,
Not really. We think we know all about ich like we think we know about a lot of things but the truth is that we "always" think we know all there is until we learn something new.
Many people think that if they have ich in their tank it is a death sentence, and in many tanks it is. But in other tanks, it is not a problem at all and is a non issue.
Why is that? We don't really know. We know the ich life cycle, how it is affected by temperature, how copper and hypo kill it, what it likes to watch on TV but we still can't say for certain why it is not a problem in some tanks and a horror in others.
We do a lot of guessing and some of us call others of us liers, (well not out loud anyway)
I do know a few things. In a new tank it can easily kill everything in a couple of days. No doubt about that. What is a new tank? That could be 5 years old. If a tank is very sterile with meticulous cleaning, it may not harbor the necessary bacteria needed to reduce stress to the point where the fish feel comfortable. Uncomfortable in a fish is stress. Most of our fish are stressed anyway because, well, they are captive in a small glass box in a few inches of water. That is stressful no matter what we do.
Fish may and often are bullied, that is also stress. Eating foods that are not recognized or swimming alone instead of a school is also stressful. A fish has a very good immune system, it has to because it is inhaling seawater that is full of pathogens and paracites.
The seawater is actually an extension of the fishes circulatory system because the blood cells come into direct contact with the water through the gills. It is the same with us if we were to breath in bacteria viruses and paracites.
The fishes immune system will protect it from almost anything commonly in seawater and ich is very common in sea water and probably all wild fish have it. If it were not for copper, there would be no salt water fish hobby.
But the immune system of a fish does not work like ours. We can sit around eating potato chips drinking beer while watching Oprah and we will probably not get sick. Well eventually we would but not right away.
A fish is different. They were made to spawn and they spawn all the time, constantly as a matter of fact. To produce eggs a fish has to be in excellent shape because it is a huge burden on a fish to fill itself with oil filled eggs that can take up a third of the fishes weight.
In this condition (IMO) fish almost never get sick. No disease and no paracites.
Why? I don't know, but they are. How do I know? Because I know.
As I said, they need certain things to be in excellent health and flakes and pellets are not going to cut it.
I feel that it is much better to boost the fishes immune system to the point that it will fight off disease for itself than to worry about every malady that the fish comes into contact with.
We as humans inoculate ourselves with weak diseases to prevent them in the future and it works. Fish evolved with these diseases and if we keep then in perfect shape, they also will be immune to diseases.
There is nothing wrong with quaranting, if you feel it is the way to go then do it but besides that get your fish into breeding condition and they will live forever with no worry of diseases.
Just my opinion of course.
Ich is also a very well understood parasite,
Not really. We think we know all about ich like we think we know about a lot of things but the truth is that we "always" think we know all there is until we learn something new.
Many people think that if they have ich in their tank it is a death sentence, and in many tanks it is. But in other tanks, it is not a problem at all and is a non issue.
Why is that? We don't really know. We know the ich life cycle, how it is affected by temperature, how copper and hypo kill it, what it likes to watch on TV but we still can't say for certain why it is not a problem in some tanks and a horror in others.
We do a lot of guessing and some of us call others of us liers, (well not out loud anyway)
I do know a few things. In a new tank it can easily kill everything in a couple of days. No doubt about that. What is a new tank? That could be 5 years old. If a tank is very sterile with meticulous cleaning, it may not harbor the necessary bacteria needed to reduce stress to the point where the fish feel comfortable. Uncomfortable in a fish is stress. Most of our fish are stressed anyway because, well, they are captive in a small glass box in a few inches of water. That is stressful no matter what we do.
Fish may and often are bullied, that is also stress. Eating foods that are not recognized or swimming alone instead of a school is also stressful. A fish has a very good immune system, it has to because it is inhaling seawater that is full of pathogens and paracites.
The seawater is actually an extension of the fishes circulatory system because the blood cells come into direct contact with the water through the gills. It is the same with us if we were to breath in bacteria viruses and paracites.
The fishes immune system will protect it from almost anything commonly in seawater and ich is very common in sea water and probably all wild fish have it. If it were not for copper, there would be no salt water fish hobby.
But the immune system of a fish does not work like ours. We can sit around eating potato chips drinking beer while watching Oprah and we will probably not get sick. Well eventually we would but not right away.
A fish is different. They were made to spawn and they spawn all the time, constantly as a matter of fact. To produce eggs a fish has to be in excellent shape because it is a huge burden on a fish to fill itself with oil filled eggs that can take up a third of the fishes weight.
In this condition (IMO) fish almost never get sick. No disease and no paracites.
Why? I don't know, but they are. How do I know? Because I know.
As I said, they need certain things to be in excellent health and flakes and pellets are not going to cut it.
I feel that it is much better to boost the fishes immune system to the point that it will fight off disease for itself than to worry about every malady that the fish comes into contact with.
We as humans inoculate ourselves with weak diseases to prevent them in the future and it works. Fish evolved with these diseases and if we keep then in perfect shape, they also will be immune to diseases.
There is nothing wrong with quaranting, if you feel it is the way to go then do it but besides that get your fish into breeding condition and they will live forever with no worry of diseases.
Just my opinion of course.
