Willfishguy

Your right. They have nothing on the african butterfly fish. You know it. Oh now Will. You! Know it. Yeah, Rudy, yur right.

Sure, but the odds of child contracting samonella from a infected pet aquatic turtle is far greater then from infected chicken in the kitchen.

Your right. They have nothing on the african butterfly fish. You know it.

Which is 95% of the time, I'm sure. Turtle bowl anyone?

I don't know, I just don't see it. I mean they are rays and that's cool and all, but one looks like a regular leopoldi and the other looks like a brown henlei. I'm more impressed by pure strains.

Copods are believed to be part of the pathogenesis (<--my new word :smokey: ) of nematodes in fish according to Dr. Chris Andrews in his book The Manual of Fish Health. As far as whether or not they are destroyed in the freezing process of bloodworms I cannot say much other then that could explain why Hikari sterilizes their frozen bloodworms. I however do not use Hikari BW, but a cheaper unsterilized brand and I've never experience Camallanus in my private fish collection. I do add freshly minced garlic to my fish's diet.

*waves*

If the fish heals under your care you'll see that it's wound heals completely. Another thing I'd like to point out is that the average person cannot afford to go to the vet everyday to have their $5 fish injected with antibiotics. What we do is, we get a 5 gallonish sized tank, a heater and a small filter and set a hospital tank. It only cost about $50. Good luck and I hope your fish does well.

The rate of transfer for a disease to travel from one tank to another depends on the disease in question. For example, if you land a fish with oodinum and water from that fish's tank has access at all to another tank (spash, nets, hands, etc.) then you can be sure the fish in the next tank will contact the oodinum within 24 hours. If you land a fish with Flexibacter then it could take much longer for it to spread because of it's bacterial physiology compared to a parasites'.

I'm glad to hear this guy is doing well, it really is a beautiful looking fish.

Late sure, but I thought of it more as thorough and helpful if not for you then for anyone reading it. Anyway, I was on a bit of a year long vacation and I didn't get back till Nov. 20ish. I didn't think it was caused by another fish picking on it, but I threw it in there to cover that base. I believe there is something wrong with your water. I believe you have an accumulation of phosporous and nitrogen compounds in your water. Compounds that provide an ideal environment for pathenogenic bacteria. Pathenogenic bacteria, as you know, do not just spring up out of nowhere, there has to be a carrier. And because this seems to be an isolated case, then I have every reason to believe that this fish is the carrier and contacted it from eating bird droppings during it's time in a fish farm grow-out pond. When you say you test you water parameters I assume you mean pH and ammonia and they are safe and normal? How much of a weekly water change do you do? I am not blaming you for anything or trying to make you feel guilty, what I am trying to do is help you understand why your fish came down with this disease so you can help heal it now and prevent any future occurance. According to you, you said in your AA intro that you've been only keeping fish for a little over a year. Correct? If that is the case then you are, compared to my 30 years of fish keeping and my 20 years as a professional aquarist, just a newb. Or better put, an amateur. My experience is, that it is caused by poor water quality and I've seen and healed literally tens of thousand of fish with this most common of bacterial ailments. I was hired on at the SFU genetics guppy lab to rid this problem from all their wild caught rare guppies and I did it with out using any medication. After the fish were all back to good health I then trained the faculty how to keep rare and endangerd fish alive in a fishroom environment. Everyone had a Dr. in their name, yet I've never graduated from high school. As the manager of Canada's 3rd largest fishroom for several years, I cared for litterally millions of fish. Anabantoides of the genus Trichogaster and Loricariides of the genus Hypostomus and many many other pond raised fish came in to the fishroom with this ailment and I healed 95% of them all. Those that did die were to far gone by the time I recieved them. Fins, flesh and scales grow back on fish. I know this because I've seen it happen thousands of times. Nope, but I use to have a girlfriend who worked deep in the catacombs of the Foothills Hospital, where they kept all their lab animals. She use to take me down there and show me some of the going ons. I though that by you working in a lab and using the lab as an example, you'd better understand how your fish became ill. What do you think would happen if a mouse cage was only 25% cleaned once a week every week for over a year. The accumultion of mouse waste would be to the point of disease causing. The same goes with fish tanks and fish. 25% water change once a week for a year is not enough water change to sustain a healthy tank over the course of a year. Some people get lucky, most don't and start experiencing fish die offs. Then they go to the LFS/LPS and buy new ones and put them in the unheathy tank and the fish die and then the person goes back to the LFS/LPS and blames the store for selling them sick fish. Congrats on the credentials even though medical reseach does not interest me in any way. I do have a question though, I have heard that in the US 'cures for disease' are illegal, is this true, if so, is it the same in Canada?

Actually, any type of dog is a potential safty hazard, but really, no matter the breed, I go with the belief that there are no bad dogs, only bad dog owners. So dogs should not be banned because losers treat them poorly or train them to cause harm. Any three month old puppy that has been treated well is going to lick a person's face (gesture of love) and wag it's tail (gesture of happyness). Dogs have been domesticated longer than any other animal for a reason. Crocodilians on the other had are born dangerous animals, just like big cats, elephants and polar bears and is why they are illegal to buy, sell or own in Alberta without a special permit. Reptiles of the dangerous animal act of Alberta include all cocodilians, all venomous snakes, including rear fanged colubrids, all venomus lizards, most monitor lizards and boids that exceed 16 feet (I believe). Provinces that allow crocodilians do not have shelters over run with them, but I will say that one caiman in a shelter is a big problem and 6 is a disaster. The real problem is Iguanas and Red Ear Sliders. Why Alberta does not have a ban of Iguanas is beyond me. And no one should support any company that sells them and the same goes with puppies. The real reason our shelters are bursting with unwanted animals of all kinds is because of the easy access to them at pet stores. I believe only registered breeders should be allowed to sell cats and dogs.

I am not deliberately goading you. I had to look the word up to see what it meant. This is nothing more then an aery attempt at humor on my part and I appologize for rubbing you the wrong way. Honestly, when I made the comment, I didn't realize you were a moderator and I've never read anything that you've posted that would lead me to engage in a conflict with you. I am brash, and I have a lousy sense of humor, but I'm not naturally an ash-hole, unless otherwise provoked. Or should I say, goaded? :smokey:

So the cause of the ulceration is a bacterium. That then means the ulcer was created by the bactera. OK, then why did the bacteria cause the alceration? Did the fish contact the bacteria some how from your tank or was the fish already carrying before you acquired it? If the fish contacted it from the tank then I'd have to say that you have pathenogenic bacteria on the rise in your tank. Knowing this I'd have to ask myself what is in the tank that stressed the fish enough to weaken it to become susceptible to the bacteria? I'd also have to ask myself what's in the water that provides a suitable environment for pathenogenic bacteria? If the fish was the carrier before you acquired it (most likely), then for a normally healthy fish to be affected by a bacteria laying dormant within it's body, the fish would have to be exposed to high levels of stress. Again, I'd have to ask myself what caused the stress in the first place. Did another fish cause this or is there something wrong with the water quality? As far as the vet saying "it will never look like it did before the infection.", that's not entirely true . If the fish completely recovers from this ulceration, then a person will not be able to tell if the fish had the ailment or where it was if you were to tell them that it did. The only reminants of this ailment would be, possibly, but most likely not with this species, different coloured scales growing in over the healed area. :laughs: I imagined you submerging a mouse under water to give it an injection. In a lab situation, imperatively, things are kept as sterile as possible; the cages, food hoppers and water bottles are cleaned daily. So in order for a healthy lab animal to catch or be affected by an uncontrolled bactertial infection it would have to be exposed to pore living conditions.