I've seen a bit of discussion lately about routine deworming of newly bought fish that don't show signs of disease. I really have to question the practice.
I assume all my fish have gutworms. I keep a lot of wild caught fish, and parasite host relationships are how the world goes round. I don't worry unless I see symptoms of them doing harm, or unless they are the dreaded Camallanus nematodes. The latter tends to be a fishfarm problem I avoid with keeping wild caught and breeder bought fish.
There is an intriguing direction being explored in the field of human evolutionary medicine that makes me think. The theory is that many of our autoimmune diseases, like Crohn's are a response to our lack of parasites. The systems that evolved to deal with our parasites have no one to battle, and turn on us. It's being studied, and is an enormously complex question to explore, but it makes sense to me as a general principle.
If we attack what may be a normal part of the gut flora and fauna of our fish as a matter of routine, could we be damaging them? It goes with what should be our fundamental principles of keeping healthy fish. Don't treat unless you know what you're treating for, and don't use remedies or meds you haven't researched as to whether they even work. Focus on the aquarium environment to maintain health. Recognize our deep ignorance about the complexity of fish, and only try to do the little you can figure out based on fish veterinary studies...
It's simply a thought, and a way of doing things that most of us fall into anyway through not having easy access to dewormers, or not even thinking about it.
I assume all my fish have gutworms. I keep a lot of wild caught fish, and parasite host relationships are how the world goes round. I don't worry unless I see symptoms of them doing harm, or unless they are the dreaded Camallanus nematodes. The latter tends to be a fishfarm problem I avoid with keeping wild caught and breeder bought fish.
There is an intriguing direction being explored in the field of human evolutionary medicine that makes me think. The theory is that many of our autoimmune diseases, like Crohn's are a response to our lack of parasites. The systems that evolved to deal with our parasites have no one to battle, and turn on us. It's being studied, and is an enormously complex question to explore, but it makes sense to me as a general principle.
If we attack what may be a normal part of the gut flora and fauna of our fish as a matter of routine, could we be damaging them? It goes with what should be our fundamental principles of keeping healthy fish. Don't treat unless you know what you're treating for, and don't use remedies or meds you haven't researched as to whether they even work. Focus on the aquarium environment to maintain health. Recognize our deep ignorance about the complexity of fish, and only try to do the little you can figure out based on fish veterinary studies...
It's simply a thought, and a way of doing things that most of us fall into anyway through not having easy access to dewormers, or not even thinking about it.
