The Fish Vet's Blog

One of the FAQs I get is when can will your pet fishes grow big enough to eat?

I was at a friend’s house for lunch on the weekend and he’d just acquired three layer chickens. I thought I’d get my turn at asking him this question… “When can we eat your chooks?” He wasn’t at all impressed and responded,”After I eat you!”

What did one the female clam say to the male clam?

Come on, you never open up to me anymore.

Check out this great resource on elasmobranchs –

http://www.elasmo-research.org/index.html

I thought this might suit as a Sunday post.

http://thebiblicalfoundation.org.au/index.php/component/content/article/78-tbf/106-q-was-jonah-really-swallowed-by-a-big-fish

When I visited New York, I was amazed at the variety of genetically engineered danios with fluorescent colours. These guys that took millions of dollars of technology to develop, were selling for under $5/fish!

Now the Taiwanese have developed fluorescent angelfish!

The article below was shared by Simon Lau.
http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2012/11/09/2003547259

Journal of Applied Aquaculture Volume 23, Number 3 (July 2011) Improving Water Use Efficiency in Semi-Arid Regions through Integrated Aquaculture/Agriculture Authors: Sami Abdul-Rahman ¹ Author Affiliations:

Source: Journal of Applied Aquaculture, Volume 23, Number 3 (July 2011) Page Numbers: 212 – 230 Available Full Text:
Abstract: Two experiments were performed in the Bekaa plain in Lebanon to evaluate the feasibility of integrating aquaculture with established agriculture production in order to increase water productivity. Both experiments consisted of four plant management treatments: 1) Aquaculture effluent irrigation and no fertilizer; 2) aquaculture effluent irrigation and inorganic fertilizer; 3) well water irrigation and no fertilization; and 4) well water irrigation with inorganic fertilizer. In the first experiment, tilapia growth and radish production using aquaculture effluent were evaluated. All fish survived and grew, and radish production was improved by irrigating with aquaculture effluent. In the second experiment, maize (Zea mays) in large plots was irrigated with aquaculture effluent. Irrigation with effluent water improved maize production and improved soil nitrogen availability. In both experiments, fish production improved water value index and water use efficiency. Results suggest that aquaculture effluent can supplant inorganic fertilizers and could actually yield better crop production.

Citation: Sami Abdul-Rahman . Improving Water Use Efficiency in Semi-Arid Regions through Integrated Aquaculture/Agriculture. Journal of Applied Aquaculture, Volume 23, Number 3 (July 2011), pp. 212-230, <http://ejournals.ebsco.com/direct.asp?ArticleID=428285EF57CC7DD4C6E5&gt;

URL: http://ejournals.ebsco.com/direct.asp?ArticleID=428285EF57CC7DD4C6E5

Interesting video shared by Loc Tran

Check out this video I just uploaded: http://youtu.be/iySbeEP5Ii4

For those of you in the northern hemisphere, the flu season will be arriving or might even be in full swing. To give us some sort of immunity, we ought to get vaccinated….

Can similar principles work in crustaceans? This paper says, “Yes”!

Aquaculture
Volume 337, Number 1 (March 2012)
	Vaccines and crustacean aquaculture—A mechanistic exploration
	Authors:	Andrew F. Rowley, Edward C. Pope
	Author Affiliations:	no affiliations available
	Source:	Aquaculture, Volume 337, Number 1 (March 2012)
	Page Numbers:	1 – 11
	Available Full Text:	Full Text: Subscription Required to view full text Format: PDF Size: Unknown Location: Publisher’s Site Authentication: Publisher’s Site
	Abstract:	One of the dogmas of comparative (evolutionary) immunology for the last few decades has been that all invertebrates lack any form of immunological memory similar to that found in jawed vertebrates. Vaccinating invertebrates, such as shrimp, should therefore be an ineffective management strategy resulting in no more than short-lived, non-specific immune stimulation. Recent studies in crustaceans and insects, however, suggest a form of immune memory in these animals described variously as ‘immune priming’, ‘specific immune priming’ or ‘line specific immune memory’. Workers have injected various arthropod species with inactivated pathogens and then later challenged them with a dose of the same pathogen capable of killing the host, reporting enhanced survival or increased reproductive fecundity compared with animals vaccinated with an unrelated organism. Interestingly, in some studies this enhanced immunity is trans-generational (i.e. passed on to progeny). This brief review focusses on a mechanistic exploration of ‘specific immune priming’ with particular reference to shrimp culture. Humoral antimicrobial factors, such as antimicrobial peptides and lysozyme, do not possess the required specificity to explain this phenomenon. Instead, recent studies have demonstrated elevated phagocytic activity after “vaccination” that does not result from general (non-specific) stimulation in phagocytosis. This enhanced phagocytic activity is likely linked to specific recognition of determinants on the outside of microbes by the haemocytes of these “vaccinated” animals. In some cases, at least, the mechanism for recognising these determinants appears to rely upon an invertebrate homologue of the Down syndrome cellular adhesion molecule (Dscam) and the ability of the Dscamgene to produce variants of this molecule with specific binding capabilities. Pioneering studies have demonstrated that Dscam is intricately involved in phagocytosis in insects and able to produce pathogen-specific splice form variants after immune challenge or infection. This would enable an animal to tailor an immune response specifically to a pathogen. It should be noted, however, that the phenomenon of immune priming is certainly not universal, possibly because of the much lower numbers of different immune receptors that arthropods are able to produce compared with jawed vertebrates. The review concludes that immune priming in invertebrates should be re-evaluated on an animal to animal and pathogen to pathogen basis. It also notes that whilst there is evidence that vaccinating shrimp against viral and bacterial infections shows promise, the practicality of such processes and their benefit to shrimp requires further evaluation.
	Citation:	Andrew F. Rowley, Edward C. Pope . Vaccines and crustacean aquaculture—A mechanistic exploration. Aquaculture, Volume 337, Number 1 (March 2012), pp. 1-11, <http://ejournals.ebsco.com/direct.asp?ArticleID=41B7B051E0ABE319B79C&gt;
	URL:	http://ejournals.ebsco.com/direct.asp?ArticleID=41B7B051E0ABE319B79C

Link to this article shared by

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/08/nyregion/hurricane-filled-new-york-aquarium-with-dangerous-substance-water.html?_r=0

Dissolved oxygen and water temperature are the two most important water parameters at this stage.

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Yours sincerely,

Dr Richmond Loh
BSc BVMS MPhil MANZCVS (Aq & Pathol)
The Fish Vet, Perth, Western Australia.
Veterinary Medicine for fish.
http://www.thefishvet.com.au
Ph: +61 (0)421 822 383