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Marine Health CareMaintaining a healthy marine aquarium is so much easier it you take a few elementary steps to prevent diseases occurring in the first place. Always buy your fish carefully from a respected and proven shop, where the livestock is well cared for and quarantined before sale. Never buy a fish that ha snot been in the country for at least two weeks, try and see it feeding before you buy it, and inspect it closely before taking it home. If the fish has any marks, spots, irregularities, tears, blemishes, in fact, if it is anyway less than perfect, save your money! Once the fish has been bagged, leave it in darkness until you get it home; do not keep inspecting it to see if it is all right. Once home,switch off the tank lights and expose the fish to dim daylight. Place the whole sealed plastic bag into the aquarium water and leave it there for30 minutes, in order for the two water temperatures to equalize. Then tip the water and fish into a clean, clear, plastic container that can floating the top of the aquarium. For the next 60 minutes gradually add aquarium water to the plastic container. Finally, net the fish into the aquarium and discard all the water in the container. Leave the tank lights off until the following day. However carefully you try to stick to any guidelines to reduce stress and prevent disease organisms entering the aquarium, sooner or later, disease will appear. Since all marine fish are so intolerant of changing surroundings, and since every marine fish should he regarded as swimming time bomb full of potential disease, eventually disease will break out. In simplest terms, diseases can be divided into two categories- a few readily recognizable, treatable diseases, and all the rest. Fortunately, it is the recognizable and treatable diseases that are often highly contagious, whereas most other diseases are often limited to the original host fish. The recognizable diseases include marine white spot, coral fish disease and flukes. All of them are characterized by spots of different sizes and colors on the fish, and all can be treated, fairly simply, by adding proprietary medications based on copper sulphate to the tank water. Almost without exception, these medications work effectively and fairly quickly. However, they all have one drawback - they may not be used in an aquarium containing invertebrates. This is why it is best to start with a fish-only system. If a disease breaks out in a fish-only tank, then you can treat the whole tank immediately. If the marine system contains both fish and invertebrates,however, and one of the above diseases appears, then the only way of treating the fish is to remove them to a separate treatment tank. And since all these diseases are contagious, it often means treating all the fish from the affected tank. So, if you intend to establish a mixed fish and invertebrate system, it is vital to first establish a small, separate quarantine tank in which you can hold all newly purchased fish for week or two in order to quarantine them and to treat any fish that do become affected. This tank can be very simple, without a substrate and with just a heater, external power filter (no carbon) and strong aeration. Yellow-tail blue damselfishes (Crispate) show off their brilliant colors against aback ground of corals Andorran. Treating the fish in this aquarium would mean isolating them from the invertebrates. Marine white spot White spot in marine fishes is caused by the single-celled parasite irritants and can be recognized by the appearance of small, pinhead-sized white spots, quite regular and round, evenly distribute dover the body. If left untreated, the spots increase in number, until after about two weeks the fish will become distressed and die. White spot is very contagious - but not as quickly as other diseases - and can be slow to respond to treatment (often based on copper compounds). The life cycle of the parasite involves the release of hundreds of free-swimming spores from cysts that fall to the tank floor. Coral Fish Disease Coral fish disease, caused by the single-celled parasite Amylopsin,also produces spots, but they are far smaller, giving a dusted velvety appearance. ('Velvet' in freshwater fish is caused by the related parasitoid.) Often the spots can only be seen at a certain angle. About 48hours after developing the disease, the affected fish invariably develops a high gill rate. If it is not treated very soon after this stage, death will follow, not only to the original fish, but also to all the fish in the aquarium. Your aquarium dealer will be able to supply suitable anti parasite remedies for treating both marine white spot and coral fish disease. Flukes Flukes take many guises, and are often difficult to diagnose. The spots (i.e.the flukes adhering closely to the skin)are irregular, both in co lour and shape, often being off-white and smudgy. They are just as likely to be on the fins rather than on the body.The number of flukes can vary during different times of the day and, indeed,this variation is a good indicator that flukes are present. Flukes can be very debilitating, often marked by frequent scratching by the affected fish. Black flukes' are also not unusual,especially on yellow sail fin tangs, and occasionally on other yellow fish boron other tangs. Black flukes do not respond to copper medications, and need to be treated in a formal in bath.Seek expert advice about this. Once completed, transfer the fish to a new tank for two weeks, not the original aquarium, otherwise the flukes may reappear and you will need to treat the fish again. Lymphocytes The virus disease lymphocytes is the only other marine disease that is fairly easy to recognize and at least partly curable. The disease usually occurs on flat-sided fish, often angels, and looks like fluffy white growths on the sides of the body and fins. You can try tackling the condition by improving aquarium conditions and/or adding suitable aquarium disinfectant. Formal in in a 36%solution, obtainable from your chemist, for treating certain flukes and some other external parasites.This has a limited shelf life;replace it if a deposit occurs in the bottle. An oxygen bath, which is excellent for treating all those unrecognizable diseases not treatable with copper. This comes as basalt that you dissolve in separate container. The blue-and-white cleaner wrasse (Abridges insidious) grows to about 7.Scm(3in). It reacts to chemical treatment sand is not very king-lived, but it is so useful in cleaning parasites off other tank inhabitants that many autarkists it an essential addition. Juvenile specimens of the beautiful queen angel(Holocaust claries)sometimes act as parasite cleaners for other fish. The colorful orange-spotted emerald filefish(Boynton) is the only filefish that lives on the reefing the wild. It would make an ideal companion for seahorses and razor fishes,but demands extra loving care from its owner for long-term survival in captivity. Part those that live in fresh water and those that live in salt water. There are also a few species that cross the dividing line and can move from one environment to the other - salmon are a common example. Fishes are also described as 'tropical' or`cold water', but there is not necessarily a clear-cut division here, as there are many species that can withstand a wide range of temperature zones, and in many parts of the world - in the Mediterranean, for example - the temperature is intermediate. Many fish keepers have happily kept tropical freshwater fishes for many years before deciding one day to move on to marines. Perhaps it is the sight of clownish darting among the tentacles of an anemone that sparks their interest, perhaps it is the brilliance of the colors and patterns of marine fishes, or maybe it is the challenge of keeping these beautiful species in carefully monitored environment that makes the prospect so exciting. Whatever the reason, mariners has increased enormously in popularity.
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Fish Care Tips
Anemone Fish
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