Re: sick fish

["Mike Jacobs" <mjacobs2@tampabay.rr.com>]

I am in TOTAL agreement with John. I also would be hard pressed to find a
bottle of medicine for fish around my house.  Change water.......change
water.......change water................if I have a fish that is ailing some
how isolation and I'll change water on him 2-3 times a days for 2-3 days and
then re-evaluate and then change water again.  For Ich what Erick said about
the diatom I agree with also.  I don't mean to be snooty but I CAN'T
remember the last time I had a case if Ich but when I did I changed 60-70%
of the water every other day and used the newer version of the old Voretx
diatom........it hangs on the side of the tank and I think it's made by
Aquarium Products......it's a diatom filter better designed than the old
Vortex in my opinion and I will run that every day.....elimination.......not
medication.

Which brings up another topic I would like to give my 2 cents worth
on................................wild fish!  This is NOT an advertisement
but an attempt to give a very real observatiuon!  Now, after getting in wild
fish from South America for almost a year I have changed my opinion about
wild fish.  For years when Julio was selling all of us wild fish (from Wash.
DC area) I simply thought Julio was very good at treating wild fish that
were covered with all sorts of "creep-crawlys" and worms coming from every
hole a fish has, because I don't ever remember getting fish from Julio that
were sick in any fashion.  Oh, for sure we occasionally lost a fish but
there was no apparent cause and it was 1 fish out of 20 I would buy from him
and the cause most probably could have been rough shipping before I could
blame it on "wild fish".  When Julio and I spoke of me bringing in the fish
personally I was mortified for fear of having to deal with "wild
fish"...............Julio laughed and we talked for quite some time about
why fish come in covered with this and worms coming from that and it turns
out to be what you would think folks...................the conditions from
which they came.  I'm talking about how the person who collected the fish
stored them and so on!  For the sake of shortening this already too long
post.  I now have had maybe 7-8 importations of totally wild fish sent to
Florida and I must tell you that I would trust wild fish (from Julio) more
than a lot of shops and some fish farms I've been in...................I can
say honestly that I have NEVER seen a worm from even 1 fish I've brought
in..........this shipment I'm getting in this Tuesday...........is 15
boxes..........a lot of fish.....times 7-8 times.......a bunch of fish!  Not
once have I seen a worm or fungus or any type of sickness.  That's not to
say that I don't lose 3-4-5% from the shipping and they do come in "ready to
eat".........they don't feed them before they send them.....standard
practice........and they are ready for a meal.  However give them a meal or
two and change 1/4 - 1/3 of the water every day for 5-6-7 days and there are
a bunch of healthy fish.  I think Julio, on the beginning end of this
process has a lot to do with this condition however........Julio comes from
the hobby and is "one of us" so his tanks and environments in Peru is
super..................I've talked to people who have visited Julio and seen
his tanks......so maybe that's the factor with my good luck and "Wild
Fish"..................Now remember one more thing folks.........my fish are
from Julio to me and they are in a stable environment in a matter of
hours......if the flights go OK.....another story) but
consider.......exporter to some country to an importer to some fish farm to
some store to your home and then into a stable environment............no one
is ever trying to put out bad fish but sometimes there are too many stops
for some fish.  It's almost inevitable that they will pick up some problem
somewhere!..........and I always keep them for 2 weeks before I let them
go................!

Thanks for listening................go Bucs.........today at 1:00!!

Mike

Mike Jacobs
Inca 50's In Stock Now!
SOUTHERN APISTOS
Wild Peruvian Imports...Plus
http://www.southernapistos.com
----- Original Message -----
From: "John Wubbolt" <BigJohnW@webtv.net>
To: <apisto@listbox.com>
Sent: Saturday, January 11, 2003 3:02 PM
Subject: Re: sick fish


> Ok, here goes my 2 bits worth of experiences with sick fish.  Im
> probably going to piss someone off by saying that I NEVER use
> medications of any sort......closest i get to putting anything into my
> tank, chemical wise, is Tap water conditioner to dechlor my tap water.
>
> I have been raising and breeding apistos, cichlids and other species of
> fish for over 13 years now.... i used to try this stuff and do that
> stuff to my water to try and save my "sick" fish.  In all that time,
> i've learned that major water changes..... raise the temp a little and
> watch your fish, has gotten me through a whole lot of bad times with my
> fish, actually not a whole lot of bad times.   Maybe im lucky , maybe i
> am careful....  I dont know.   I dont add new fish to established tanks,
> never keep Neons or lots of little tetras any more, they cause too many
> problems, I keep my fish as 99% species tanks only.....i have very
> little "community tanks.... ie mixed species"....   this in turn i think
> cuts down on my problems..... I very rarely ever use "dither" fish...
> just another thing that can cause problems....
>
> When, and if I do see a problem, I do big water changes.... 75% changes,
> maybe once or twice a day..... maybe raise the temp in the tank a few
> degrees...... I DONT use Salt at all.... i find no beneficial use for
> it... yes, it helps ease stress on the gills they say, allowing fish to
> breath easier for a few minutes, but then you gotta deal with the salt
> in the tank, and the problem still isnt solved... Salt only goes in my
> Molly tanks, they are brackish water fish to start with.....
>
> Doing Water changes most of the time eliminates what was causing the
> problems in your tank to start with..... fish just dont get sick for no
> reason..... a chilled tank doesnt cause ick either.... I know , i lived
> through the ice storm , fish tanks got down into the lower 40's and with
> over 100 tanks, when the power came back on a week later.... and tank
> temps went back to normal..... NOT ONE outbreak of Ich..  Ick is in all
> tanks at all times, whether you realize it or not, stress causes the
> outbreak.... which means your water conditions caused your fish to be
> stressed... not the temp...ammonia or nitrate or nitrite levels were
> up..... this caused your fish to be stressed...
>
> Water changes....Water changes...water changes....  watch your fish,
> look at every tank each day.... see what's going on in there.
>
> Ok, off my soap box, I'll shut up now... Oh Scotty.... I can use shields
> now!!!!
>
> Tundra John
>
>
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