Heximita question

[Attreui]

I have been loosing fish recently which has left me very confused as they haven't really had any symptoms... well the last one did, and I was able to trace it to Hexamita. My question is, after reading about it, I don't see how the disease is contagious. I have read that the protozoa lives in most fish and only becomes a problem if the fish is afflicted somehow physically... All of my fish have been healthy for years and I haven't added anything to the system at all. I dont know why this happened now. Now that I know what it is, I am going to start treating with metronidazole to try and save my remaining fish which are still behaving fine, but I just dont understand why this became a problem now and how it started... is it conceivable that it came in on a frozen silverside??

 

[unleashed13]

that is very possible! it is best to rinse all frozen foods like squid ,silver slides scallops,shrimp,, etc in fw b4 feeding them you your fish..all of the foods although frozen can still be harboring parasites worms etc that can be transmitted to your fish.rinsing them in fresh water will kill most of these if not all.. freezing prossess does not always kill them off making these foods carriers of some things you don't want your fish to have.. this is also the best thing to do if preparing fish for human consumption.. fw kills off unwanted sw bacterias.etc .. sw kills off sw bacterias,etc( this I read in a medical book not fish information site or related article)

 

[unleashed13]

oops typo correction . fw kills off unwanted sw bacterias.etc .. sw kills off fw bacterias,etc

 

[JHemdal]

Attreui,

Yes, Hexamita and the related Spironucleous are normal gut inhabitants of fish. Under some circumstances, (stress, long dwell time?) they multiply and can cause problems. I've never heard of a way to identify Hexamita problems without performing a gut smear on a deceased fish, and then "knowing" if the number of protozoans you see are more than there should be in a healthy fish (its a relative thing). I recall when I first started performing fish necropsies, I was determining that most of the fish I was seeing had "Hexamita", and I tried to treat accordingly (with oral metronidazole). I've since learned to ignore them a bit.
One idea that has some merit is feeding the fish food items with more roughage in them. This decreases the dwell time, the time the food spends in the gut, thus the Hexamita is being flushed out of the gut as fast as it can reproduce.


unleashed13, rinsing frozen fish foods off in FW is not a good idea. While it will possibly remove some surface contamination (which shouldn't be there anyway in properly handled food items) it WILL wash away essential vitamins. Public aquariums have long since stopped using tapwater to rinse their food items, or they at least place the food inside a plastic bag and then soak it in water. If you do rinse your food items, you need to supplement the food with a vitamin top dressing.

Jay

 

[unleashed13]

unleashed13, rinsing frozen fish foods off in FW is not a good idea. While it will possibly remove some surface contamination (which shouldn't be there anyway in properly handled food items) it WILL wash away essential vitamins. Public aquariums have long since stopped using tapwater to rinse their food items, or they at least place the food inside a plastic bag and then soak it in water. If you do rinse your food items, you need to supplement the food with a vitamin top dressing.

do we not already do this??do you wash your chicken before cooking it? the proteins are not washed away by this however harmful bacterias are..worms and other parasites can be transmitted through the meat of the fish we are feeding to our fish as well as the intestinal tract .. you must consider the fact we are feeding once live species(not treated) to another species that we end up treating for bacterial /parasitic /and viral issues..
aquariums however also have many things the hobbiest does not.. a 24/7 marine vet ,marine biologist.ichthyologist, and a staff to do extensive treatments on all specimens for any known issues that may arise.. when purchasing foods meant to feed other fish some companies do not go the extra length to ensure your getting a clean well processed product.. I have in the past purchased silverslides that were packed not only with hitch hikers such as small crabs seaweeds and various stuff I couldn't even tell what it was... never assume that it has been properly handled .. chances are it hasn't

 

[JHemdal]

Unleashed,

Sorry - but you can't extrapolate from human foods. We had all of our in-house fish diets analyzed by Michigan State University close to 20 years ago, and their report was explicit - no water thawing was to be done at all. This has become de rigor for other public aquariums....it may sound counter-intuitive to you, but it is factual.

Jay

 

[unleashed13]

Not trying to argue your facts.. however .. so what you saying is that all of the foods you feed to the aquariums fish are analyzed BY MSU before they are fed to any of the fish? as for extrapolating from human foods(it would help if I knew what this words meant lol) many hobbiest buy foods meant for human consumption for our fish.. as for your time frame of 20 yrs ago a lot of things have changes since then.. I'm not doubting the facts as they once stated as of 20 yrs ago. Even in the medical field since that time have changed .. to answer a question before it is asked no I'm not in the medical field what so ever.. what I am is a reader... The main question to this thread is that of CAN DISEASES BE TRANSIMITTED BY FEEDING SILVERSLIDES..Can you without a doubt say 100% that it cannot happen?
of course not ..Just as I cannot say 100% without a doubt it can..However if I can do something as simple as to rinse piece seafood to lower the % rate of transmitting parasites ,bacterias etc to my fish.. Although I may have to add extra vit to boost nutrients..to ensure my fishes health to the best of my ability and knowledge.. I chose to do so...I know the risk when I eat these foods and I eat them cooked(which also loses nutrients)..however all said and done no matter what each of us has read what opinions we have that may differ..in this matter I believe its a matter of choice.. My fish have always been very colorful and healthy

 

[Attreui]

Jhemdal,

It took me several deaths before any showed any symptoms at all, but luckilly the last couple did. They got very thin within a short amount of time, stopped eating, had stringy white feces, and the last developed hole in the head disease in the last day. I was astounded how fast it all came on... the symptoms seemed to match my research perfectly hense my diagnosis. I normally rinse off my frozen silversides with salt water after it has thawed only because of the junk (seaweed etc) that is normally frozen with them.. I also add selcon. The idea about adding more roughage is interesting and I will try it with my reef fish... my predators will be more difficult in that aspect. My main question and confusion is that if it is a parasite that is a normal inhabitant of fish, how on earth did it affect so many fish in a relatively short amount of time? Does it become pathogen at some point? Does it have any kind of free floating stage? The majority of my fish do not eat silversides, but frozen reef food that doesn't contain fish, just mollusks and crustaceans. I am just confused how it affected so many fish. My water parameters are fine, all inverts are thriving and there isn't any sign of disease or infection otherwise.

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15102557#post15102557 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by JHemdal
Attreui,

Yes, Hexamita and the related Spironucleous are normal gut inhabitants of fish. Under some circumstances, (stress, long dwell time?) they multiply and can cause problems. I've never heard of a way to identify Hexamita problems without performing a gut smear on a deceased fish, and then "knowing" if the number of protozoans you see are more than there should be in a healthy fish (its a relative thing). I recall when I first started performing fish necropsies, I was determining that most of the fish I was seeing had "Hexamita", and I tried to treat accordingly (with oral metronidazole). I've since learned to ignore them a bit.
One idea that has some merit is feeding the fish food items with more roughage in them. This decreases the dwell time, the time the food spends in the gut, thus the Hexamita is being flushed out of the gut as fast as it can reproduce.


unleashed13, rinsing frozen fish foods off in FW is not a good idea. While it will possibly remove some surface contamination (which shouldn't be there anyway in properly handled food items) it WILL wash away essential vitamins. Public aquariums have long since stopped using tapwater to rinse their food items, or they at least place the food inside a plastic bag and then soak it in water. If you do rinse your food items, you need to supplement the food with a vitamin top dressing.

Jay