how does stuff get in a fish tank

[totalbolshevik]

Soooooooooo, I was just wondering, how do things like fungus, parasites, disease, etc get in our tanks in the first place? I had ich a while back and had some fungus more recently. I have never purchased any fish that were sick or had parasites. So where does it come from? It couldn't just appear out of thin air (or water) and it doesn't seem like that type of thing could survive out of water...I would like to know in hopes of preventing stuff like this in the future.

 

[Zak Ursulo]

It would be my guess that, even when you DO buy a healthy looking fish. They come with all the bugs that we have all had to fight at one time or another. Ich/fungus/parasites are all present when you buy the fish, just like in a human your probably packing around all the worst bugs that you could imagine. If you were to culture your skin you would probably freak out at the bugs that would culture out of it. It wouldnt suprise me to find Tetanus/anthrax/botulinum toxin all of them are weapons of mass destruction . Fish are the same as us in that they carry the seeds of thier own destruction around with them all the time. All that it takes is an injury/poor water conditions/elevated stress to bring them to the surface. After all nature is not a sterile enviroment.

 

[totalbolshevik]

no offence, but your post makes you sound a little crazy like dale gribble on king of the hill... but then again, we already know that i am crazy...

 

[Alien Anna]

There are germs and spores in the air all the time - its no mystery. Most of the time we and our fish have immune systems to fight them off but sometimes things happen to deplete our immune systems and then we get infections. The trick is finding out what it was that depleted it and trying to fix it.

 

[Zak Ursulo]

I supose that i shouldnt post when im tired , what i ment to say was even a healthy looking fish carries Ich/Fungus with it all the time. So the "stuff that gets in a fish tank" is brought by the fish themselves. No matter how healthy the fish look, they are alredy packing the bugs/fungus around with them.

 

[spanky_pp_]

Yes unfortunately, both method of picking up illnesses are true. The fish have them in their immune systems, and the airs spores also transport tha nasty little things around.
The illnesses only become aparent when a fish isnt feeling so good... RUN DOWN!
All you can do, is be ready for anything the fish may be affected by! Or an outburst of ich etc occurs!
Stock up on your liquids to battle them.

 

[gadazobe]

That's why it's so important to keep the quality of the water good. At least 85% (if not more) disease outbreaks in a tank are started because of poor water conditions. As one of our members had as his signature - take care of the water and fish will take care of themselves.

 

[Lateral Line]

>>> take care of the water and fish will take care of themselves

That is so true. We are, in fact, water keepers. Fish are just one of the handicaps we live with.