Journal Club

[Bignose]

One of the goals of the scientific section here was to start a journal club. That is, there would be a scientific paper posted and then we would discuss the content of the paper.

I think I've found an excellent candidate for a first journal club paper. "Fin Erosion in Aquaculture and Natural Environments" by David N. Latremouille. Published in Reviews in Fisheries Sciences Volume 11, 2003.

The best thing is that it is freely available from the author's workplace's website, the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources. See http/wildlife.utah.gov/fes/publications.html and it is the 5th publication down. The pdf file is available for download.

Fin erosion is fairly common in aquariums, and this looks like it is a good review paper that discusses the causes of fin erosion. The author considers "abrasion with rough surfaces, fin damage from aggressive encounters between fish, nutritional deficiencies, and bacterial infection."

So, let's get this started. I haven't read the entire article myself, yet, but I'll give everyone a few days to read and digest the paper, and then let's start discussing/asking questions.

 

[dwarfgourami]

It won't open for me.

 

[Bignose]

Won't open how? The webpage or the .pdf file? Do you have Adobe Acrobat Reader? The latest version? Can you be more specific?

 

[three-fingers]

I think she means the link in your post, as it's not working for me either . I get a 'Server not found' message.

I take it it's working for you? Maybe you have to be in the US for it to work or something, since it's a .gov domain?

Hmmm, anyone else able to access it?

 

[Bignose]

Try searching for "Utah Division of Wildlife Resources" in Google and then if you search for the author's name it should bring you to the publications page. Yes, I have no problems at all with the link. Has this always been a problem with .gov pages? Maybe there needs to be some sort of .us after it?

 

[Aphotic Phoenix]

I didn't have any problems getting the page to load, so it may indeed be a domain problem? (Looking forward to discussing this by the way)

For those less familiar with some of the terms used in this scientific article I thought it might be handy to provide a small glossary of terms. Please note...some of these definitions have been directly ripped from various sources including http/biotechterms.org . Sorry these are not in alphabetical order as I simply looked for terms as they appeared in the document.

Necrosis - Tissue death resulting from infection, disease, chemical exposure, or trauma.

Organosomatic index - (?) the standardized size and weight of various organs within a particular species in relation to age, body size, and/or weight.

Intraspecific - Arising or occurring within a species or between members of the same species

Adenilate Cyclase - (very simplifed) an enzyme within cells which is used in the process of creating energy

Hematocrit - measurement of the proportion of red blood cells in the blood of an organism.

Erythrocytes - red blood cells.

Neutrophils - Phagocytic (ingesting, scavenging) white blood cells that are produced in the bone marrow. They ingest and destroy invading microorganisms and facilitate post- infection tissue repair.

Aggregate - clustering or collecting of units into a body or mass

Lymphocytic infiltration - (will try to provide later)

Hyperplasia - proliferation of cells within an organ or tissue beyond that which is ordinarily seen. Cells of a hyperplastic growth remain subject to normal regulatory control mechanisms. (wikipedia.org)

Hypertrophy - increase in the size of an organ or area of tissue due to enlargement of the cells.

Spongiosis - inflammatory buildup of fluid in the epidermis.

Cortisol - a steroidal hormone that can regulate blood pressure (in humans). Increases water retention by decreasing the kidney's water-excretion rate. (biotechterms.org)

Diploid - The state of a cell in which each of the chromosomes, except for the sex chromosomes, is always represented twice (46 chromosomes in humans). In contrast to the haploid state in which each chromosome is represented only once. (biotechterms.org)

Triploid - Sterile (man-made) organisms that posses three sets of chromosomes.

Estuarine conditions - adj. form of estuary (?) : coastal habitat where a freshwater source flows into the ocean/sea

 

[three-fingers]

Try searching for "Utah Division of Wildlife Resources" in Google and then if you search for the author's name it should bring you to the publications page. Yes, I have no problems at all with the link. Has this always been a problem with .gov pages? Maybe there needs to be some sort of .us after it?

Nope, cant get in that way either, cant get into any utah.gov pages .

I did a quick search for the paper elsewhere too, but can only seem to find places where you are able to buy it.

 

[Bignose]

Did the non-U.S. members ever find a workaround to get this paper? It is world-wide, or just UK based? Please respond in this thread or PM me; if there is just a few people I can probably email the paper out (I personally don't see copyright as an issue since the paper is freely available on a public webpage), or if there is a lot I can probably put up a temporary webpage for download.

 

[chishnfips]

worked fine for me, and I live inscotland, if you want it pm me

 

[Essjay]

I am in the UK and I've downloaded both the link and the paper without any problem (once I'd remembered to reinstall Adobe after our recent Windows reinstall!)

 

[merry78]

The link worked fine for me too, and while i have not yet read the entire paper, i found it very interesting that in some species, keeping fish of two size groups reduced the overall amount of fin damage, as the smaller fish were picked on, but not to the extent that would occur with a group of same sized fish. In addition to this, the point that fish fed to satiation nipped less, made me think about the statements i see sometimes, eg:

" i have fifteen male guppies in a seven gallon tank, but they are fine because i don't overfeed, and they are all the same size, so no-one gets bullied"

I know the paper was not referring to guppies, and that the author made it clear it was only some species that benefitted from having two size groups kept together, but it's making me think a bit more about the research that is available to help us stock our tanks for the best chance of healthy, peaceful mixes.

will read the rest of the paper shortly, and perhaps follow up here (if i have questions).

Nice topic Bignose!

 

[steelhealr]

Does this help?

http/wildlife.utah.gov/fes/pdf_pubs/2003_03.pdf

SH

 

[Bignose]

Guys I am sorry I've been neglecting this thread. I've been busy trying to finish my own research and interviewing for jobs and move at the same time and haven't had the time to devote to reading someone else's research at the moment. I'll get back to this again soon, or if someone else wants to take the lead on this, that'd be great, too.