Fish In Veterinary Clinic

[joeysgreen]

Hello everyone,

My name is Ian and I am an animal health technologist. I've been on these forums sporadically and recommend them to fish keepers all the time. I work in a veterinary clinic that has a large exotic caseload and am currently working towards my specialty in exotic companion animals (this includes fish). As a clinic, we have several staff members taking continueing education courses in fish medicine.

As an aside, we have had a fish tank in our reception area for many years. It contained a hodgepodge of various fish, and while clean and well functioning, not a lot of research went into animal selection. We did have a good balance, but with the death of a large tinfoil barb our community has been at war! Long story short, we have rehomed many of the fish and are looking to start over, perhaps from scratch.

I don't know yet if we will continue with the plastic plant-type set up or if we will be able to begin a fully functioning planted aquarium. We do have some key demands to meet in our selection; the aquarium has to be relatively easy to maintain (during busy stretches time can sometimes be quite limited), and clients really enjoy brightly coloured fish that don't mind being out in the open.

I would appreciate any suggestions as to good fish communities that fit this scenario. I would like to limit adult size to about 4-5 inches; the tinfoil barbs were a little to large for this tank in my opinion. I like the idea of keeping all of the fish from a certain region, like a South American tank. My first thought was to set up a South American cichlid tank and am currently looking into how they get along with each other and if they'll do okay with a planted aquarium.

Thank you,

[syno321]

What are your aquarium's dimensions?

[ckmullin]

A rule of thumb is cichlids and plants do not get along...plants are more along the line of being a salad bar. If you wanted a planted tank and have that sort of ecosystem I'd strongly suggest a community tank. Regarding the plants and all of that including substrate and lighting etc I'd be happy to offer assistance. I'm in Calgary so I won't be able to sell any plant but at least I can provide good words of thought.

I like that your thinking about live plants than plastic as the live plant will help complete that ecosystem we're all trying to create.

[joeysgreen]

Thanks guys; it is a 48" x 13" x 17" aquarium. It has a Fluval LED Ultra bright light on top and a Fluval 306 filter. Now the girls are saying they like the looks of gouramis.

It looks like we will be keeping our emerald corydora, mosaic corydora, and our unidentified pleco's that seem to have max'd out at 3-4 inches. They stay under a rock shelf all the time.

I also think I'm winning the battle towards a planted aquarium. Did a bunch of water testing today (another area that was lacking) and we have high nitrate and phosphates.

Ammonia= 0

Calcium = 160ppm

GH/KH = 480/20

Iron = 0 (free and chelated)

Nitrate = 110ppm

Nitrite = < 0.1

pH = 6.5

Phosphate = >5.0

Because of the corydoras, if you have any suggestions of attractive, northern South American community fish I would love to hear them. Otherwise it'll be a "mixed earth" aquarium again. (like a ditch in Florida!) I'd like to add some tetras, but larger fish would be appreciated by all.

For the change-over; can I mix in some plant appropriate substrate with the gravel we currently have or is it best to do a complete overhaul? Do you still vacuum the substrate with plants? How do you not uproot them? Suggestions on plant substrate would be appreciated; I'll also be browsing the other sections of the forum for info.

Thanks again for all the help. I am admittedly a herptile guy and a novice fish keeper. I really need to master this stuff.

Ian

[ckmullin]

Nitrates are high for fish, do a water change.

I always tell people when they want to do a big switch start fresh but some don't like that idea. You know what will be in the tank than just adding bits of this and bits of that. Start moving things around you can get water parameter spikes etc etc etc. If you want to do a great planted tank I'd suggest a nutrient rich substrate such seachem flourite however there are other alternatives that is just about the easiest thing to do. Don't get ADA it is a waste of $ as other products provide the same results that we need. I advocate a soil substrate but I don't think it'd be good for this use. There are fertilizer tabs, sticks, balls that can be used to supplement but I'd suggest a general nutrient rich substrate. People have used plain sand and plain rock however there is time between this sand/gravel having the mulm to properly support plants so something is best in regards to fertilizers for that lee time. Personally I don't like play sand and that sort as it is way too fine and wafts up way too much.

You can gravel vac when the detritus adds up but typically less is done with a good planted tank.

So you don't uproot plants have a substrate which has some % of gravel as this will help lock down root as why I don't like sand especially for shallow rooted plants. Hold your vac just an inch above the substrate...waft with your hand a bit...many different little things can be done.

If you don't have any nasties in your current tank you can use that filter media to see the new setup. Doing this basically does an instant cycle. (to a degree)

If you want more ideas on substrate let me know.

[cullymoto]

I wish you the best in your new tank setup. Angels and gouramis can be a nice S.A. Tank (pretty sure gouramis aren't even s.a. But they do well in those conditions)

But whatever you pick give them some love (water change) and everyone will be happy.

I'm interested to know where you work, as I've wanted to find local help and couldn't before with fish emergencies and autopsy.

Thanks

[joeysgreen]

Thanks again for all of the advice. I'm at Park Veterinary Centre. I had noticed there were a few gourami's introduced into Columbia so they might fit with a stretch

Do you guys recommend any good books?

[joeysgreen]

So for an update, we did not have an empty tank for long. People brought fish in from everywhere! We now have various platy's, swordtails, angel fish, gouramis, tetras and pleco's. With all the new fauna we've had to deal with some stress and stress related illnesses but what better place to do so than a vet clinic!

The first thing we do after observing an ill fish's behavior and respiratory rate are to weigh it. This is easily done by taring a small dish of water on a scale and then placing the fish inside.

I'm having a hard time uploading pictures, but the first one is of a 2.2 gram platy being weighed. The smallest fish we have treated so far was 1.1grams! Knowing the weight is important because it allows us to monitor body condition, as well as calculate drug doses. We inject antibiotics into the tail musculature. This is preferred over treating the tank water because it gives a specific dose to the fish in need, and only that fish. Ironically, fish don't drink much as they need to remain more concentrated than their environment so it can be hard to determine if they get any medication at all from the water.

When handling fish we wear latex free gloves to minimize trauma or irritation to the animal. The next photo I am preparing to radiograph a platy.

Included is a photo of the radiographs. Notice the swim bladder in the lateral view on the left.

Diagnostics can be a difficult thing to do with fish. In larger fish we can take blood samples which can determine immune and organ function. For these tiny little guys we can still take skin/scale scrapings and look under the microscope for parasites, bacterial or fungal growths. The last picture is a scale from this platy. On higher magnification we can see a large growth of coccal bacterial. On other scrapings I have seen thick, large black colonies of bacteria.

I hope this post proves interesting. At a clinic that already treats everything from mice and rabbits to birds, frogs and snakes, fish seemed to be the next logical step

[PistolPete]

Very cool, next u need to do house calls.

[Jayba]

Is it possible to do a post mortem workup's? If so what would the costs possibly be?

[joeysgreen]

The problem with house calls is that all of our equipment is in clinic.

For questions on costs and specific cases it's best to call the clinic 780 417 1119. We havn't officially launched our move into fish medicine so you may have to leave a message and fish experienced staff will give you a call back.

It has been fun collecting the equipment necessary for fish medicine. A hospital tank that's able to be sterilized inbetween patients, pumps and drain tables for anesthesia and surgery, textbooks, new drugs and medications. I'll post more pictures as they come

[PistolPete]

Personally I think there is a market for it. Just the number of asian arowana in edmonton would help support it. I wish I knew about this when I Had my diablo red

[cullymoto]

I very much like what you are doing and where you are headed.

Keep up the good work!