I think the EPA would go crazy before drug companies would dump medications in the water system; I'm sure they wouldn't permit it. -----Original Message----- From: gsas-member-bounces@thekrib.com [mailto:gsas-member-bounces@thekrib.com] On Behalf Of Hess, Clay A Sent: Sunday, March 12, 2006 7:27 PM To: Greater Seattle Aquarium Society member chat Subject: [GSAS-Member] To Test or Not To Test............ Soooo, I finally could resist this thread no longer. My two cents on testing (rigorous or otherwise), financial incentives and the user community. First, rigorous testing. There is a place for it. We do a lot of this in my industry and I am very glad of it. I would like to think that is part of what makes our airplanes the best available to fly on. Rigorous testing works great on inanimate subjects and can prove to be very worthwhile. With that said, testing is just that....testing. Without using the data from the testing to verify hypotheses and arrive at conclusions we would have no use for testing. The problem with "financial incentives" is exemplified in what we see today in the drug industry. ABUSE and COST. Drug research is not a simple thing. Developing and testing new drugs costs a fortune. With the push to find better drugs for less cost driving the drug industry, the opportunity for abuse is high. Drugs are tested on subjects that may not realize the implications. And, drugs are tested on animals that have no choice. The only thing that limits this abuse is the fact that human subjects can speak out against this type of abuse. Imagine what this industrial abuse could be like if all we were doing was developing and testing new drugs for fish. Who knows where this could lead? Our waters are polluted enough, but, given the proper "financial incentive" I could see major drug companies poisoning our rivers, lakes and oceans in an attempt to find the ultimate fish medications. Not a pretty vision. "Rigorous testing" does not play out so well on living subjects if done for the wrong reasons. Thus, I am happy to not have "rigorous testing" on fish medications. If given the choice between clean rivers, lakes and oceans or medicating my fish with rigorously tested medications, I shall choose the clean water. And, in the search for medications that might work to fix my fish's maladies I will ask other aquarists for their experiences and treat my fish based on this input. Once again, looking at testing and the fact it does no good without the data being analyzed and conclusions based on the analysis I would venture to say Aquarists can prove useful. Aquarist can provide reasonably good data if analyzed appropriately and it is understood there are limitations as to how the data was aquired. For instance, many hobbyists have told me that changing 50% of the tank water once a week keeps their fish in premium condition. In fact, so many hobbyists told me this that I feel compelled to change my water on this same schedule. My fish seem very happy when their water is changed this frequently and to this extent. A simple enough treatment and one that is only based on hearsay from other aquarists. However, I have found evidence to support this treatment myself. Going on vacation for two weeks and, thus, not changing the water in my aquariums for almost three weeks because of this, I came home to ill fish. These fish seemed "stressed" and behaved rather different from their usual patterns. I changed 75% of their water immediately upon seeing this. The next day my fish seemed much better, more like they should before I left on vacation. Now, I could chock this change, in my fish's health, up to the fact that they missed me. Yet, somehow, I really do not believe that to be the case. I do think that the "treatment", that I was shown by many aquarists, was more likely the solution to my fish's illness. There ya go...lots of words.....one conclusion......."What works for you, just might work for me too"......and I appreciate all the data our club members share with me....it does add value to my aquarium hobby experience. Clay -----Original Message----- From: matt kaufman [mailto:igotadose@hotmail.com] Sent: Tuesday, March 07, 2006 12:49 PM To: gsas-member@thekrib.com Subject: Re: [GSAS-Member] big cichlid appetites... What's missing from all this discussion on how to treat fish is any sort of rigorous testing of results in order to form conclusions. We're just sharing our individual experiences, and recommending what works for us. The problem is, that's the best you'll ever find for the ornamental fish industry, as there's little financial incentive to implement anything resembling a rigorous set of tests with reproducible, accurately measured results. This is why there are, for example, no expiration dates on fish food, nor on a lot of medications, and marketing of products like "Bausman's Miracle Tonic" or "Miracle Food" or "Chemi-Pure" that don't describe their contents, or that nowhere will you see the words "Guaranteed Analysis" on fish food or meds. It's simply just, "What works for me." Dumping vitamins in megadoses into the water might do something - or maybe it's because the fish is isolated, the water is changed regularly, it's not having to compete for food, etc. I certainly wouldn't be in favor of that treatment as it risks fouling the water, nor has there been anything but anecdotal evidence for success of alternative treatments for people (i.e., since it's just voodoo for humans, applying the same reasoning to fish treatment is no more than continuing to promulgate voodoo treatment) Matt _________________________________________________________________ Is your PC infected? 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