Fish health through slime

[Paul B]

I can (and have) catch a well fed healthy, breeding condition lionfish, feed it fresh caught whole live fish, that have been caught within yards of where the lionfish was caught, and amyloodinium is still a problem....

Not sure where you got the idea my Lionfish croak.

OK so they didn't croak. But croak is easier to spell than amyloodinium, which could also make them croak, not as much or loud as if they ate croakers, but croak just the same.

If eating that natural all live diet was sufficient to make a fish immune, these diseases would not exist in the first place. Yet they do.

Yes, they exist, but they do not kill healthy fish in spawning condition. As I said, I have 24 year old fish to prove it. And no fish, not even one, has died in my tank from any disease in decades, but they all eat live worms. Seems like a correlation to me. :wave:
Bill, did you ask those aquarium wizards you work with why my fish don't croak, OK, die with no quarantine and being exposed to whatever I can find in the sea, and by being introduced to hundreds of fish in aquarium stores? My theory is still live worms, but if you or the scientists have a different Idea, Besides luck. I would love to hear it as I also want to learn and if we knew exactly what it was (besides worms) that would be a great boon to hobbiests. I have not heard another theory yet, except for the luck thing. :smokin:
If anyone on here has a different theory. lets hear it, maybe we will all learn something. But I am still going with luck or my good looks. You should see me in a Speedo.

IMO the only way to solve this debate would be to find a tank similar to PaulB with spawning fish that are not feed real worms.

Good luck with that. I don't know what a dew worm is.

 

[Aquarist007]

Speedo class of 72 ... Hmmm class of 2014... No even though this is the "advanced" forum I don't know if this would be the forum for that pic lol

Dew worms. Aka. Earth worms.. Aka fishing bait.... Found in the earth

 

[Paul B]

Earth worms are great food.

 

[Aquarist007]

Earth worms are great food.

Wow wish I'd known this before

 

[Paul B]

Didn't you ever go fishing?

 

[Aquarist007]

Didn't you ever go fishing?

Of course. Bass pickerel trout perch etc I've been fishing longer then you have had your tank Paul

The real question is whether or not earthworms can substitute for black worms.

 

[Paul B]

I have never fed them long term as I have to collect them and they don't like the winter. Just don't take them after you put bug killer or Agent Orange on your lawn. I would imagine they would be very good but I can't give you a true answer without freeding them for a few years. I have fed them to lionfish, groupers and anemones. They are also a little large for my fish.

 

[Aquarist007]

I have never fed them long term as I have to collect them and they don't like the winter. Just don't take them after you put bug killer or Agent Orange on your lawn. I would imagine they would be very good but I can't give you a true answer without freeding them for a few years. I have fed them to lionfish, groupers and anemones. They are also a little large for my fish.

They are also full of very enriched soil..aka nitrates and phosphates. Would this outstrip their value as a black worm substitute?

 

[Paul B]

You have to hold up the head end of an earthworm under a faucet and slowly run your fingers over it from front to back to purge the thing. Or just starve it for a few days.

 

[Aquarist007]

You have to hold up the head end of an earthworm under a faucet and slowly run your fingers over it from front to back to purge the thing. Or just starve it for a few days.

:lolspin::lolspin: no comment

 

[Reefers4U]

wicked good read. Thanks to the avid participants of the debate. As a diver that's worked a public aquariums I know even those guys don't have it figured out. I just have this feeling that the answers might precipitate from active debates like this one.


I want to ask (throw it in the mix) about Selcon. I've not heard a bad thing about it. I've used it with decent results. It seems there are lipids in the mixture - could these help enhance the oils and slime coat? There seems to be some question about how best to convey it to the animals.

My background is in warfighting :uzi: and economics :reading: so hell if I know what a lipid even is.

 

[Paul B]

I have used Selcon a few times and not being a researcher I have no idea if it is good or not. I do however use a lot of fish oil which is very cheap and comes from fish so I know it is good. Fish oil is a lot thicker than Selcon so you can't really feed fish oil to something like a brine shrimp for instance to gut load it. Actually I don't believe in gut loading but if you do, then Selcon should be great for that. I put some fish oil on anything dry that I want to feed to my fish. I feed some pellets only because I have some fish that hunt at night and I want to get oil into them. When I used to keep lionfish, moray eels and other predators I would inject guppies with fish oil and feed those fish to the predators. You could do the same thing with Selcon, even easier as it is much thinner.

 

[Aquarist007]

I suppose I could inject fish oil into the earthworms?

 

[Paul B]

Capn, who the heck is Aquarist007? Where did that come from? I just noticed it.

 

[Aquarist007]

Capn, who the heck is Aquarist007? Where did that come from? I just noticed it.

"I like my sand beds stirred but not shaken"