The Fish Vet's Blog

Once in a while comes a book that has the potential to become indispensable to zoos and aquariums.

“Fish Vetting Essentials” has what it needs.

Reviewed by Svein A. Fosså

Book Review in Pet Scandinavia – PetScandinavia_4-2011-book_review

“Fish Vetting Essentials” is written by two highly experienced veterinarians with fish health as their specialty. The authors said that the purpose of the book is to collect knowledge aquarists, aquaculturists, public aquariums,
and veterinarians already have, filter away incorrect information and then present the overall knowledge in an understandable and accessible form. This principle itself makes the book far more interesting and useful for
aquarists than any other fish health texts.

After about 60 pages of introduction to fish anatomy, it presents the main groups of commonly kept aquarium fish and a schematic review of the aquarium, technical equipment and water chemistry for aquarists, as well as nutrition. The main part of the book is devoted to the diagnosis and treatment of common diseases.

For practical reasons, the disease description and details of the procedure are presented separately. This can certainly confuse a new reader, but does in general make the book more useful. The book has good illustrations, with clear and large colour photos of most diseases. Veterinarians will appreciate the references to other veterinary literature and the detailed therapeutic
the protocols. All readers will benefit from the good index.

In summary, this is a book that should be recommended for all veterinarians
who feel the need to familiarise themselves with fish health at any aquarium.

Loh, Richmond & Matt Landos. 2011.

Fish Vetting Essentials. Richmond Loh Publishing, Perth,

Western Australia, Australia. ISBN 978-0-9871571-0-2.

216 pages, A4-format.

Sample pages: FishVetEssentials_2011 eSample.pdf

More information and ordering: www.thefishvet.com.au.

(translated using http://translate.google.com/ and edited by Richmond Loh)

In the old days, before refrigeration, snakeheads were one of the few fishes that could be available, fresh at the market because of their amazing ability to survive in very little water. If you’ve seen River Monster’s episode on snakeheads, you will see their amazing ability to travel across land in search of more suitable habitats. There is also folklore that they have eaten small dogs and babies! But as the show reveals, these are myths; they do not eat cats, dogs and people. They do however, eat frogs and other small aquatic critters.

The Chinese may eat snakehead fish because it is believed to help with wound healing and can be part of the confinement period diet of new mothers.

So, there is demand for the fish as food. The paper below addresses one of the many aspects of fish farming that needed to be nutted out – the ideal stocking density.

Aquaculture Research
Volume 43, Number 2 (January 2012)
Growth and production performance of threatened snakehead fish, Channa striatus(Bloch), at different stocking densities in earthen ponds

Authors: M Aminur Rahman 1, A Arshad1,2, S M Nurul Amin 2
Author Affiliations: 1: Laboratory of Marine Science and Aquaculture, Institute of Bioscience, Universiti Putra Malaysia, Selangor, Malaysia

2: Department of Aquaculture, Faculty of Agriculture, Universiti Putra Malaysia, Selangor, Malaysia

Source: Aquaculture Research, Volume 43, Number 2 (January 2012)
Page Numbers: 297 – 302
Available Full Text: Full Text: Subscription Required to view full text
Format: PDF
Size: unknown
Location: Publisher’s Site
Authentication: EBSCOhost EJS

Abstract: Production trials of threatened snakehead fish (Channa striatus) were carried out under different stocking densities in earthen ponds of Bangladesh. The average weight and length of the fingerlings during stocking was 17.63 ± 1.23 g and 13.21 ± 0.52 cm. Fingerlings were stocked at 5000 ha-1in treatment-1 (T1), 6250 ha-1in treatment-2 (T2) and 7500 ha-1in treatment-3 (T3) respectively. Fish in all the experimental ponds were fed with supplementary feed comprising of fish meal (30%) and mustard oilcake (70%) at the rate of 3–6% of estimated body weight two times per day. In addition, trash fish were supplied at the rate of 2–3% of the estimated biomass on each alternate day. In situwater quality parameters of the pond were within the suitable range for fish culture. The growth and survival of fingerlings were significantly higher in T1than in T2and T3. The food conversion ratio was significantly lower (P<0.05) in T1than in T2and T3. The estimated gross and net production of fish was higher in T1, followed by T2and T3. Overall, the highest growth, survival and production were obtained from T1. Therefore, it could be concluded that of 5000 fingerlings ha-1is the most suitable stocking density for culturing C. striatusunder a monoculture system in the earthen ponds for better production.
Citation: M Aminur Rahman, A Arshad, S M Nurul Amin . Growth and production performance of threatened snakehead fish, Channa striatus(Bloch), at different stocking densities in earthen ponds. Aquaculture Research, Volume 43, Number 2 (January 2012), pp. 297-302,
URL: http://ejournals.ebsco.com/direct.asp?ArticleID=48F38ACC09A11A3170AC

There is increasing awareness for animal welfare, starting first with the pet dog/cat, then to farmed terrestrial animals and now with aquatic animals. There are the more traditional organisations like the RSPCA and the animal ethics committees at educational institutes; then there are the extremists like PETA and new groups such as sentient.org.au that are raising awareness on animal welfare.

Likewise, there is an ever increasing body of knowledge being generated to help us understand what is needed to improve conditions and we would do well to incorporate it in the business of fish farming.

This paper is one more step closer towards providing better welfare for farmed fish.

Aquaculture
Volume 329, Number 2 (January 2012)
	Crowding, pumping and stunning of Atlantic salmon, the subsequent effect on pH and rigor mortis
	Authors:	Bjorn Roth, Endre Grimsbø, Erik Slinde, Atle Foss, Lars Helge Stien, Ragnar Nortvedt
	Author Affiliations:	no affiliations available
	Source:	Aquaculture, Volume 329, Number 2 (January 2012)
	Page Numbers:	178 – 180
	Available Full Text:	Full Text: Subscription Required to view full text Format: PDF Size: Unknown Location: Publisher’s Site Authentication: Publisher’s Site
	Abstract:	An optimum setting for electrical stunning of Atlantic salmon under commercial conditions was tested and compared against percussive stunning before and after pumping and at increasing durations of crowding (0.5 and 3h). For electrical stunning the fish were exposed to 60V, 100HzAC+DC for 6s after pumping. The results show that there were no significant differences in muscle pH or rigor index between fish exposed to electricity or a percussive force. Pumping and crowding did have a significant effect. Pumping alone halved the time until maximum rigor from 24 to 12h post mortem. Increasing crowding for 3h caused a significant drop in muscle pH and the time until onset of maximum rigor tension was reduced to 6h post mortem. We conclude that optimum electrical stunning performs equally well as percussive stunning and that future challenges for improving the pre rigor times for Atlantic salmon lays in the pumping and crowding conditions, and not in the selected stunning technique.
	Citation:	Bjorn Roth, Endre Grimsbø, Erik Slinde, Atle Foss, Lars Helge Stien, Ragnar Nortvedt . Crowding, pumping and stunning of Atlantic salmon, the subsequent effect on pH and rigor mortis. Aquaculture, Volume 329, Number 2 (January 2012), pp. 178-180,
	URL:	http://ejournals.ebsco.com/direct.asp?ArticleID=492D8A922079FCCBD2DE