I'm jealous of your opportunity. I'm about an hour and half north of a marine laboratory (the Huntsman in NB, Canada) with a small attached public aquarium, and I have wished I were closer. There would be so much to learn.
I've only gotten to wander with one fish vet. They are rare. He was finishing his degree in Montreal, and eventually vanished into the salmon industry. We used to do the rounds of the local large chain style fish stores, and he would buy diseases. He'd stop in front of a tank and get a glint in his eyes, and buy one tetra, or one livebearer. They were, sadly for them, destined to become microscope slides. He got very excited one day because he had found seven diseases in one store.
He didn't have a car and I did, so we went out and did the rounds of the stores. He said that what he called the "tropical disease stores" were a rich hunting ground and while he knew he'd end up working in the north with salmon farming, he would come away with a collection of tropical parasite and pathogen slides to study. I have wondered if he stayed with commercial farming, or went off into research. He was a curious man, probably retired by now.
If I sometimes seem skeptical about our ability to identify, let alone treat fish parasites and diseases, it dates back to then. Interestingly, to me, he attended a few aquarium society meetings, which always had a couple of dozen bags of locally bred fish for the auction. He checked every bag, and said there wasn't one worth buying. The homebred fish were all healthy.
. My opinion is usually by the time we see the signs whatever is going on is fairly advanced. I spend tons of time watching most of my fish but being completely honest I think I'm more of a hypochondriac Dr than anything else cuz I love them so much
