Introduction to Marine Fish Health and Disease
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© 2014 Andrej Brummer 1 Marine Fish Health And Disease ............................................................................. 5 Marine Fish Selection .............................................................................................. 6 The Eight Golden Rules To Good Health ............................................................... 6 Introduction To Reducing The Incidence Of Marine Fish Disease .......................... 8 Adding Marine Fish To Your Tank The Healthy Way ............................................ 12 What Commonly Goes WRONG When It Comes To Stocking ............................. 12 Making a Livestock Stocking Plan ........................................................................ 14 Stocking Your Tank The First Time ...................................................................... 14 Marine Life Stocking Tips and Tricks .................................................................... 16 An Introduction to Choosing Marine Fish That Are Compatible With Your Aquarium and With Each Other ............................................................................................ 18 Intelligent Selection Of Marine Fish ...................................................................... 20 Deciding What Goes In The Tank ......................................................................... 21 Putting Fish Into Your Tank .................................................................................. 24 Common Causes Of Incompatibility In Marine Fish: ............................................. 25 Dealing With Territorial Behaviour: ....................................................................... 27 How To Choose The Right Happy, Healthy Fish Specimen For Your Tank .......... 29 Keys To Identifying The Right Specimen For Your Saltwater Aquarium: .............. 30 Questions To Ask The Pet Shop About Your New Fish ........................................ 32 Unsustainable And Cruel Capture Methods That Cause Unnecessary Death ...... 33 1. Sodium Cyanide Capture: ................................................................................. 33 2. Collection And Retail Of Species Unsuitable For Home Aquariums: ................ 35 3. Bad Handling, Husbandry And Shipping Practices: .......................................... 36 Good Quality Water Equals Good Health ............................................................. 37 Poor Water Quality Can be Fatal .......................................................................... 38 What Parameters Should Your Tank Be For Optimal Health: ............................... 39 Preventative Measures: Acclimation And Quarantine ........................................... 40 A Good Acclimation Procedure ............................................................................. 41 Reducing Stresses Of Acclimation........................................................................ 43 The Acclimation Procedure ................................................................................... 45 Preventative Measures: Quarantine ..................................................................... 47 © 2014 Andrej Brummer 2 The Importance of a Quarantine Tank and Quarantining ...................................... 48 Why Quarantine? .................................................................................................. 49 A Quarantine Tank Will Serve Multiple Purposes ................................................. 51 So What Do You Need To Set Up A Quarantine Tank? ....................................... 52 This is How You will Set Up Your Quarantine Tank: ............................................. 53 Here’s my Super-Simple Quarantine Procedure ................................................... 54 Quarantining Sick Marine Life ............................................................................... 55 Marine Fish Diseases and General Health ........................................................... 56 Providing a Healthy Diet ....................................................................................... 56 Frozen Food Options ............................................................................................ 58 Freeze-Dried Food Options .................................................................................. 58 Dried Food Options ............................................................................................... 58 Liquid Food Options .............................................................................................. 59 How To Provide Your Fish a Healthy Diet ............................................................ 60 Where Do Your Fish Feed and Why it Matters? ................................................... 63 Feeding the Occasional Treat ............................................................................... 65 Ensure a Varied Diet ............................................................................................. 66 Strategies To Avoid Marine Fish Disease In Your Aquarium ................................ 66 Infectious Marine Fish Diseases ........................................................................... 70 Points to Note Before You do Battle With Saltwater Aquarium Disease ............... 71 The Most Common Saltwater Aquarium Fish Diseases and How to Battle Them: 72 Disease: Amyloodinium Ocellatum ....................................................................... 72 Disease: Bacterial Infections ................................................................................ 77 Disease: Brooklynella Hostilis ............................................................................... 78 Disease: Cryptocaryon Irritans ............................................................................. 82 A Note About Copper Treatments......................................................................... 84 A Note About “Other” Ich Treatments: .................................................................. 85 Common Behavioural Signs of Disease ............................................................... 86 Common Physical Signs of Disease ..................................................................... 87 A Proper Medicine Cabinet for Aquarium Owners ................................................ 88 Antibiotics: ............................................................................................................ 89 So what do you need in your saltwater aquarium first aid kit? .............................. 91 © 2014 Andrej Brummer 3 Immunity and Stress ............................................................................................. 95 Stress in Marine Fish ............................................................................................ 95 Eliminate Stress in Fish ........................................................................................ 96 Diet Related Problems .......................................................................................... 97 Environmental Causes of Disease ........................................................................ 99 What It Takes To Keep The Most Popular Marine Fish Thriving In Your Home 99 Keeping Tangs Healthy In Your Aquarium ............................................................ 99 Tips For Keeping Tangs Healthy: ....................................................................... 101 Popular Tang Species ........................................................................................ 102 Keeping Angelfish Healthy In Your Aquarium ..................................................... 108 Which Angelfish For Your Tank? ........................................................................ 109 How to Choose Your Angelfish Specimen: ......................................................... 110 Popular Angelfish And Their Requirements: ....................................................... 112 Keeping Butterflyfish Healthy In Your Aquarium ................................................. 116 Butterflyfish Tips ................................................................................................. 118 Popular Butterflyfish And Their Requirements .................................................... 119 16 Popular Saltwater Aquarium Species Fact Sheets ........................................ 122 Healthy Marine Fish Is Achievable!..................................................................... 126 Recommended Resources .................................................................................. 126 © 2014 Andrej Brummer 4 Marine Fish Health And Disease The health of your marine fish will dictate exactly how well they do in your tank and how long they survive. If your fish are optimally healthy they will have brighter colours, exhibit more interesting and entertaining behaviour plus they will live longer. Healthy marine fish are also far more lightly to breed in an aquarium environment. There are two sides to having healthy, thriving marine fish; one is providing a healthy environment, water quality and diet and the other is avoiding disease in your tank and effectively, quickly treating it if it does arise. This book will help you to ensure the long term health of your marine fish by avoiding disease and helping you to take active steps to provide an optimal aquatic environment. So many fish, but are they all happy? © 2014 Andrej Brummer 5 Marine Fish Selection The Eight Golden Rules To Good Health From time to time every saltwater aquarium owner can come