Possible job and a new species of rainbowfish

[AdoraBelle Dearheart]

With the whole hardwater thing though, I am near the end of my tether with it. This is not the place but...

Wills

Maybe a new thread for that then? My inbox always open too if you need to rant, you know I'm in the same boat! Super frustrating how limited options are with hardwater. If I could move to a soft water area, I'd do it.

But, fish TB is rare in the UK from what I know - like we maybe see a couple of cases a year on this forum right? I know where I want to get my Rainbows from primarily are from a Dutch farm or home bred so perhaps a bit of solace there? I imagine in reality it will just be a risk either way.

Perhaps some are coming here from the German population then. This is the first I'm hearing about it since I haven't dived deep into rainbow research yet, but it's alarming.

 

[AdoraBelle Dearheart]

Wonder whether it's possible to deliberately seek out stock from Germany. Would mean shipping costs though, and like you said, if they come into contact with the bacteria from other fish/tanks that have had other fish in them, might still be a problem.

 

[GaryE]

I'm fatalistic. You'll notice when I first mentioned Myco, I said it was a politically charged subject. For obvious reasons, a lot of people who sell fish don't like to talk about it. That is made easy because of the nature of the disease - it produces a ludicrous range of symptoms that other diseases also produce, and is hard to 100% diagnose without dissection and a microscope.

It scares the bejeebers out of people because in rare cases, it can jump the species barrier and we can get it. I did. But that's like getting hit by lightning - a known possibility but very uncommon. I saw a professor of dermatology at a major medical school, and he had only seen it in photos. I felt special!

It also afflicts swordtails, platys, mollies and other harder water fish - it is a marine disease originally that has adapted to some freshwater populations.

I try to buy all my fish either wild caught (not many of us have that opportunity) or from hobby breeders. A little digging, and you'll find rainbow fanciers in the UK.

 

[Colin_T]

Are rainbowfish in the UK likely to have this same problem??

Yep. We get a few people each year on the forum that have rainbowfish with TB, at least the description and symptoms suggest TB. Unfortunately not everyone comes on here to report it and most people are happy if their fish lives 12 months before it dies suddenly.

Back in the pet shop we had customers coming in with huge smiles on their faces because their fish lived 6 months. When I tell them the fish could live for 5 or 6 years the smile turns into a frown. But most customers are just happy if they keep the fish alive for a short time so 6 months, 12 months, etc, they are just happy with that.

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Wonder whether it's possible to deliberately seek out stock from Germany. Would mean shipping costs though, and like you said, if they come into contact with the bacteria from other fish/tanks that have had other fish in them, might still be a problem.

You can get eggs sent across and it's a lot cheaper and reduces the risk of contamination. It doesn't exclude it completely but does reduce it a lot.

 

[Colin_T]

My OCD and killing over 600 fish in one day was too much and the brain can't deal with that anymore.

How did you manage that?

I caught the fish and put them in buckets of tank water. Put lids on the buckets and stuck them in the freezer then left the house for a few days. It was a couple more days before I could take the buckets out of the freezer and the whole ordeal messed me up pretty badly. I didn't go near a pet shop for over a year after that and it took months before I cleaned the tanks and got rid of them. I really just couldn't cope with it after that. Even today it messes me up thinking about it.

 

[connorlindeman]

I caught the fish and put them in buckets of tank water. Put lids on the buckets and stuck them in the freezer then left the house for a few days. It was a couple more days before I could take the buckets out of the freezer and the whole ordeal messed me up pretty badly. I didn't go near a pet shop for over a year after that and it took months before I cleaned the tanks and got rid of them. I really just couldn't cope with it after that. Even today it messes me up thinking about it.

oof.

Why did you put them in the freezer?

 

[Colin_T]

oof.

Why did you put them in the freezer?

it was the quickest way I could think of to kill 600 adult fish. We don't have clove oil around here and I wasn't going to hit 600 pets on the head. I couldn't do that then and couldn't do it now.

 

[connorlindeman]

it was the quickest way I could think of to kill 600 adult fish. We don't have clove oil around here and I wasn't going to hit 600 pets on the head. I couldn't do that then and couldn't do it now.

Oh they were all sick?

 

[CaptainBarnicles]

oof.

Why did you put them in the freezer?

They were ill matey, and rather than pass on the disease Colin had to put them all to sleep really sad

 

[connorlindeman]

They were ill matey, and rather than pass on the disease Colin had to put them all to sleep really sad

ohhh.... that is very sad

 

[GaryE]

Oh they were all sick?

Someone didn't read the thread before posting... caught ya!!!

It was, uh, about freezing fish to make slushies. yeah. That was it.

 

[connorlindeman]

Someone didn't read the thread before posting... caught ya!!!

It was, uh, about freezing fish to make slushies. yeah. That was it.

lol. I guess i didnt read the whole thing ;-)

 

[Colin_T]

They had fish TB, no cure, nothing to do but watch them die one at a time and I got sick of that.

 

[AdoraBelle Dearheart]

They had fish TB, no cure, nothing to do but watch them die one at a time and I got sick of that.

I'm really sorry you went through that. Sounds an absolute nightmare, and I'm sorry you had to do such a hard thing.

 

[connorlindeman]

They had fish TB, no cure, nothing to do but watch them die one at a time and I got sick of that.

I'm sorry to hear that. Someday i hope you will get to have fish again