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.
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?
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
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
Two-headed fish probe flawed: vet
June 9, 2011
Brisbane, AU – A vet has savaged the findings of his own taskforce after it
found no definitive link between farm chemicals and two-headed fish at a
Queensland hatchery.
Fish scientist and vet Matt Landos was part of a taskforce formed to look at
deformities, including double-headed and three-tailed fish, at the Sunland
Fish Hatchery near Noosa. But Dr Landos says its majority finding – that
chemicals used on a neighbouring nut farm could not be definitively blamed –
is seriously flawed. He says the taskforce was stacked with bureaucrats and
others who lacked the right scientific expertise to make a proper judgment.
Among its members were 10 scientists, six government communication and
policy officers, and the chief executive of the Australian Macadamia
Association.
The scientists included toxicologists, Queensland’s chief biosecurity vet
and environmental health officers who concurred with the majority finding.
Dr Landos and vet Roger Chong, the government’s aquatic animal expert, did
not agree with the finding. “There is a high likelihood that the chemicals
caused the deaths and deformities,” Dr Landos claimed. “On four occasions we
took larvae to another property. The ones on this property survived while
the ones at the hatchery did not and some of the dead had deformities.” He
said much of the residue testing was poorly timed and samples were collected
long after any spray drift might have occurred.
Taskforce chairman and Biosecurity Sciences director Jim Thompson has
defended the findings, saying they were based on expert opinion, backed by
independent toxicologists. He said the investigation carried out all
monitoring that was possible at the time but noted some of the incidents
happened before the taskforce was formed.
Disease, ……….
See the source for the full story: http://tinyurl.com/3kqgo4y