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lfs water
Terry,
Just read your article on how bad nets can be. I try to avoid using them, but I didn't know that problem was that bad. But I do have a question: One thing that is pounded into aquarists over and over is never to put the water from a vendor's aquarium into your aquarium. You advocate chasing a fish into a bag or specimen container to remove them from an aquarium, but how do you advocate adding a new fish without adding any water? --Jeff |
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Amonhen,
Good question, and I understand your concern. Partially empty the water from the plastic bag or specimen container periodically when you acclimate the fish. By the time that you are done the water has been diluted several times and very little LFS water will get into the aquarium. This is really not a problem, because the fish should never go directly from the LFS into your display anyway. New acquisitions should be placed into a separate quarantine tank for a minimum of three weeks before being moved into your display. 1. The only real danger in allowing any LFS water to get into your tank is that of importing a parasite such as Cryptocaryon irritans (ich). Throwing the water out at this point is sort of like closing the barn door after the horse has already gotten out. If the fish was taken from a tank at the LFS that was infected the odds are very high that the fish already harbors some theronts. The chance of taking a parasite free fish out of an infected tank and importing the parasite solely from the water is miniscule. Your specimen would have to come from an aquarium that contains ich, but this particular specimen does not harbor any attached theronts either visible, hidden, or yet too small to be seen with the naked eye. Probably not going to happen. If the fish already harbors attached theronts then throwing out the water that it came in is probably a moot point (too little too late). 2. In order to import the free-swimming stage you would have to time it just right. Theronts die in less than 24 hours and lose their infectivity in just a few hours. The odds of importing free-swimming theronts that have not lost their ability to infect is very small. What I am trying to say is that it is very unlikely to get an uninfected fish from a tank that contians ich and then import it in the water itself. Even then, if you are properly quarantining the fish then you should become aware of any problem long before the fish would go into your display. HTH, Terry Bartelme |
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