Fish Disease Poll

[DucaMonster]

Reefers,
As I embark on this hobby, like most everyone, I choose to take calculated risks in all elements of my system. Part of the calculated risks is data analysis, but unfortunately, data is consistently lacking.
As a data driven analytical person, I would like to pose a question to the community on something we will all be fighting for our entire journey.
What fish health organisms do we have to worry about, and how often?
So far in my journey I have found common belief is far from reality.
After collecting all the web information, LFS histories and anecdotal evidence I could, I have averaged those results into a simple to understand percentage based table.
As many of us preventively treat for many diseases, I believe we lose track of what is really out there and over-exaggerate reality.
On the flip side, we never know what diseases we have successfully eliminated and never saw to a point of diagnosis.
"you will never count how many lives you have saved, only those you have lost"

Of the vertebrate species sold at a typical LFS:
40% of the fish are perfectly healthy
Of the remaining 60%, they have one or more of the following parasites or diseases:
70% have one of the several forms of external flukes
50% have Ich, several types
8% have internal parasites
8% have Velvet
2% have Uronema
2% have Brooklynella
2% have praziquantel resistant flukes
2% have bacterial, viral and fungal infections

This averaged every aspect I could determine and quantify. And as a true statistician, all numbers were grossly rounded.
Is all of this total hogwash? Let's find out!

A few rules to keep the data true;
Please only select diseases you accurately diagnosed to more than a 60% certainty in the past year.
Please no fish stores or high volume dealers. Please comment to share your insights though!

 

[i cant think]

In my own personal fish I have diagnosed;
Ich
Flukes
Internal Parasites

Ich was back when I still had tangs, since removing tangs I haven’t faced Ich. I last faced Ich in December, then I upgraded in April and haven’t spotted any Ich.

However, the route I’ve gone down now with fish has resulted in species prone to;
Flukes
Uronema
Internal Parasites

Luckily, I have managed to avoid uronema for now. However I did have to undergo Prazi and Internal Treatments in my 5’ main system (which for anyone who doesn’t know, I did lose most of my coral because of this - although, it wasn’t actually for the reason of the treatments it was me moving them out of the tank).

Now, as an LFS worker I have spotted quite a few diseases surface even over here in the last year. Some of the ones I know that have surfaced in other people’s tanks involve;
Ich
Velvet
Brook
Flukes (resistant to Prazi)
Uronema

It’s why the LFS I’m in are following a strict QT procedure on fish is to avoid this in tanks. However, one thing everyone forgets is to QT properly it isn’t just the fish that matter, it’s coral and inverts as well.

 

[Doctorgori]

uronema is almost a guarantee with emeciated chromis and anthias from “certain” vendors known to ship thin fish …
I “assume” flukes and ich with “short ship” , no quarantine, wild Carribean fish, not that they always have it but the incidence is a lil higher than normal

while not a direct question but soon to be: I don’t always QT, if I do it the short version with UV, quazi, and copper

 

[Dburr1014]

Uronema 3x in the last 6 fish.
Lost 1 wrasse.
2 angels made it through.

 

[Sharkbait19]

1 H. chrysus wrasse to uronema (it was a good looking one too)
2 banggai cardinals to suspect iridovirus

Luckily neither of these are transferable to all of my fish (and the wrasse never made it out of qt).
It’s not worth losing all of your fish to an easily preventable disease. Qt’ing new stock is only beneficial.

 

[exnisstech]

I voted other because none isn't an option. I've dealt with disease but its been longer than a year.

 

[Tamberav]

Ich on Caribbean fish

I think asking LFS isn't a good way to gather useful data because...

1. They sell fish, so the fish are not in their possession long enough to show disease (4-6 weeks imo)

2. They have so many fish they probably miss subtle signs of fish that are not heavily infected, yawning, occasional flash or twitch but no spots or heavy scratching

3. Many run subtherapeutic copper which hides disease which means the customer gets to find out in the coming weeks. They are in the business to sell fish so I understand they have to protect their loses to stay in business.

If you are curious about disease, look at the average Petco (one that gets more than clowns/damsels). The majority are not allowed to run copper because they have to use whatever is on their shelf. It is generally not a pretty sight but that is where you will find unmedicated fish that don't sell fast.

Their fish are not dying because of GHA, Nitrates, or aiptasia, average petco fish are struggling because there is no process in place to manage the disease they come in with and the water is shared (as it is at wholesalers and many LFS but those run copper).