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By
Luke Roebuck, PPGA One
of the most upsetting circumstances to inflict itself upon the guppy
fancier is an outbreak of disease in their fishroom or fishtanks.
Infectious diseases can create havoc with us hobbyists by causing
large fish losses, loss of quality strains, lost time in selective
breeding, sleepless nights and extra work and investment in fish medications,
to name a few. All of us, from the expert to the novice have had our
share of disease problems in one form or another. Some of the more
experienced hobbyists have learned to cope or prevent major outbreaks
of disease, some have not. The novice gets confused and befuddled
by disease outbreaks and ends up spending money on various medications,
some of which do not work. If the fish do recover they will never
be the same, not to mention attaining show quality. The most efficient
cost effective way to avoid outbreaks of disease is prevention by
undertaking certain basic procedures in your everyday maintenance
of your fishroom. Before I delve into that topic, ! should mention
some of the basic diseases which we commonly encounter in ourgunny
tanks. Diseases come in
The
topic of disease is so vast I could not possible cover enough in this
article, nor was this article intended to cover disease or treatment,
mainly prevention. Parasitic diseases such as ick, velvet, cotton
wool disease, leeches that attack the fins and skin of your guppies
are fairly common in improperly maintained tanks and occur very seldom
in properly cared for aquarium environments. Bacterial diseases such
as columnaris, finrot, eyefungus, etc., which also attack the skin,
fins, eyes and also occur internally in the fish's blood and organ
tissue are also common in unkempt environments and occur even in the
advanced hobbyist's tanks. They require a similar approach to prevention
but are sometimes a bit more difficult to prevent and sometimes fakes
the eye of experience to spot in your fish. Infernal worms such as
tapeworms, roundworms, or nematodes such as Callmanus and parasites
such as Hexamifa are also fairly frequent and can occur in properly
cared for tanks. They are more difficult to prevent for the unknowledgeable
or unwary hobbyist. Genetically inherited diseases can occur when
improper breeder parents are chosen to start your breeding program.
Fish with these problems need to be disposed of immediately and no
attempt is made to maintain or cure. The
other diseases will occur occasionally even in the well maintained
tanks since we are all not perfect in our rearing techniques. Some
treatment medication and drugs or chemicals should be kept in stock
in the event of such occurrence. Soma chemicals such as formaldehyde,
salt and stress coat formulas are used on a semi-regular basis for
disease prevention. Antibiotics used to treat bacterial infections
should only be used when there are obvious signs of a bacterial infection
treatable by the drug. They should never be used frequently as a preventative
as the bacteria will develop a resistance to the drug thereby rendering
the drug useless in the future. Regular use of disease preventative
chemicals such as formaldehyde can all but eliminate any form of external
parasitic infections. I have not seen ick, velvet or external parasites
on my fish since I started using the drug along with salt in my tanks
and this has become a major aspect of disease prevention in my fishroom.
Guppies are very sensitive for extremes in pH since they live in near rainwater conditions. Their small stream living conditions offer constan1 and regular water change to fresh so there is no buildup of toxic wastes such as ammonia, nitrites or salts. Oxygen content is fairly high in the maximum solubility to temperature range (6.5 - 9.0 mg/liter). Lighting:
Bright daylight for 12 hours a day and darkness for 12 hours a day
so they can sleep, Full sunlight for a few hours a day assists in
vitamin D production along with development of melanin in the skin
chromatophores. |