All about Fish Vetting – Dr Richmond Loh
Although they don’t gave eye lids, they do sleep. Watch the your fishes in the dark and notice that most of then stay very still and in the same position in the water column by small twitches with their fins. Nocturnal fishes like clown loaches will scurry around at the bottom, looking for any left over morsels of food.
Because fish have no eyelids, it is important that the lighting period reflect what happens in nature. It also gives nocturnal fishes the opportunity to come out of cover.
As fish keepers, we may bear some of the brunt of the watchful eyes of neighbours as big water users. In my opinion, we would struggle to use as much water as those who have swimming pools or thirsty gardens with large areas of lawn. Regardless, we need to do our bit to save our most precious resource by utilising some of these water saving tips:
Dr Richmond Loh, The Fish Vet.
Recently, I attended a talk on how the Water Corporation is investing a lot of resources, trying to solve water shortage issues. But did you know that 42% of household potable water is used/wasted on gardens?
Some of the methods used include collecting and storing surface water (rain), desalination plant (harvesting freshwater from seawater) and recycling water (waste water is filtered and disinfected).
Some of the shortfalls in thse methods are summarised below:
Collecting surface water relies on rain events which may be erratic and my not always be reliable. The reservoirs are also exposed and water loss by evaporation can be high.
Desalination uses large amounts of energy to produce and the water that is returned to the sea will be more saline than normal; this will have adverse effects on the sealife.
Recycled water may not be fully safe. Chemicals and hormones may be in levels undetectable by current means, but may pose biological threats to animals including fish, amphibia and invertebrates.
Is there a simpler, quicker, more environmentally friendly solution?
Increasing water charges so that it will encourage consumers to be water wise?
Worried that water changes can cause temperature stress on fish? Try performing more regular (weekly) smaller partial eater changes (e.g. 10-15%).
Check out
http://www.stanford.edu/group/parasites/ParaSites2009/DesireeBurroughsHill_Gnathostomiasis/DesireeBurroughsHill_Gnathostomiasis.html
http://www.cdc.gov/parasites/gnathostoma/index.html
http://cmr.asm.org/cgi/content/abstract/22/3/484
Dr Richmond Loh
BSc BVMS MPhil MACVSc
The Fish Vet, Perth, WA.
+61 (0)421 822 383
Veterinary medicine for fish & other aquatic creatures.
http://www.thefishvet.com.au
I have piles and piles of scientific papers to support the contrary but I don’t want to bore you with the details. A simple way to answer this is to answer it with a question.
If fish have a 3 second memory, how do they remember to come to the surface the next time they are fed?
Found an interesting article in the West Australian this morning (see attached).
Such parasitic infections can occur in humans who ingest certain poorly cooked freshwater fish. Prevention is easy by pre-freezing the fish and/or cooking fish properly. Treatment for infected humans would be by means of traditional anthelmintics combined with anti-inflammatories.
Did you know that still water bodies are a a haven for mosquito breeding? Even in winter! Apart from givkng us annoying itches, mosquitoes can spread several viral and parasitic diseases among humans. Did you know that they can also do so in your pet animals! Rabbits can contract fatal myxomatosis or calicivirus. Horses can contract viral encephalitides. This is why every pond should contain small fishes that will eat these pests while they are breeding. Some good examples include zebra danios, white cloud mountain minnows, rosy barbs, small comet goldfish and native pygmy perch or galaxids. Ask your local fish shop for their expert opinion. Happy fish keeping!
Dr Richmond Loh
http://www.TheFishVet.com.au
Yes and no.
The first catch of rainwater should not be used because it may contain a lot of “pollution” from the materials that have been deposited on your roof.
Water collected during subsequent rain periods would be pure and can be used for your fish without needing to use anti-chlorine. However, note that rain water will not contain any salts or buffers. So, depending on the water quality requirements (GH & KH), you may need to add aquarium salts.
It all depends on the water temperature…
>30 oC: Fish with higher oxygen demand (e.g. kois >40cm) should be fed no more than 2 times a day. Smaller fish may be fed no more than 4 times a day. Ensure there is good, reliable aeration at all times.
21-30oC: Feed 2-4 times a day (even up to 6 times a day provided that the filtration can handle the loading and that there is sufficient dissolved oxygen).
10-21oC: Feed 1-2 times a day, what can be consumed within 3-5 minutes.
8-10 oC:Feed alternate days, what can be consumed within 3-5 minutes.
4.5-8 oC:Feed every 3rd day, what can be consumed within 3-5 minutes.
<4.5 oC: Cease feeding entirely. This is so that food will not ferment in the gut when the fish are less metabolically active.
http://www.TheFishVet.com.au