Fish Health Through Slime

Paul B

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Fish diseases—they are the meat of fish forums and the subject that takes up the most ink (or whatever causes words to form on a computer screen), so for today’s post, I am going to discuss fish immunity in relation to fish slime.
Fish, like every organism, have an immune system that is specifically designed to function in the environment they live in, using as its source of energy the food that the creature is able to acquire through its intake devices, or mouth parts. The immune system is one of three parts of a fish that needs to be fueled to keep the fish operating at peak efficiency. The other two parts are growth and reproduction. If fish don’t take in enough food or get the wrong types of food, there will be less energy to fuel those systems properly and one or all will suffer.


Reproduction goes first…


With improper food, the first thing to go is reproduction. That is the reason very few fish in captivity reproduce. All healthy fish spawn all the time, and it is a huge burden on a fish to produce eggs or sperm. If you have ever seen a pregnant fish, you may have observed that the eggs can be almost the weight of the entire fish, and they lay eggs constantly.





Healthy fish are always pregnant, and those eggs are made almost entirely of oil. Most fish do not make this oil, so it has to come from the food they eat. That’s why tuna, mackerel, sardines, and menhaden are very oily fish. It comes from their diet of oily prey. Whales (okay, I know they are not fish) are full of oil and because of that were harvested for hundreds of years. That oil comes from the krill they eat.


…followed by immunity


The second system to become compromised is the immune system, which is the reason there are so many disease threads online. So what can we get from this? If our fish are not spawning or showing spawning behavior, they are not getting the nutrition they need and their immune system is not operating at peak efficiency. I won’t talk about growth because in a captive environment, that may be a good thing, as many captive fish are stunted. The fish, however, may not agree with that statement.


High time to consider slime!


As I said, this is going to be about fish slime, and fish slime is a fantastic substance. We rarely think about or discuss fish slime, as we are more concerned about color, price, carpet surfing, water parameters, iPhones, bio-pellet reactors, calcium dosing, and super models, but fish slime is more important than all of those things (with the possible exception of supermodels). It is fish slime that keeps most of our fish free from disease, including parasites, and fish slime is the reason fish can regenerate body parts, such as fins and gill covers.


We tend to think of fish slime as a lubricant that allows fish to cram themselves into tight places, and that is true, but it is only an accidental benefit of the slime. We as humans evolved from fish, depending on what you believe. I myself used to date a girl who resembled a flounder, so maybe she was still evolving, but most humans don’t exude slime, although we still do have oil glands. Our ancient slime glands became sweat glands. The reason fish don’t sweat is because if they did, the oceans would overflow. But I digress.








Fish exude slime from many places, and it is the most important part of their immune system. It protects fish in multiple ways. Fish skin is alive, unlike our skin, which is dead on the outside. A fish’s skin is very thin for a couple of reasons. It allows intake of some nutrition, water, gases, odors, hormones, etc. The slime has to allow those processes to occur while protecting the fish at the same time.
Now I am not the god of fish slime, but I can go into the processes that occur in slime, I can also discuss the lipids, T Cells, macrophages, etc., that come into play in the immune system, but most of us are not doctors and won’t understand or care, so we are going to keep this simple. I will leave that to people who have more degrees than thermometers, but not necessarily fish tanks. By the way, I have had fish for every day of my life for over sixty years, so if you find someone who has had fish longer than I have, don’t ask him anything or he is liable to drool or spit up on you.


The many roles of fish slime


The first way slime protects the fish is mechanical. Slime traps bacteria, viruses, and parasites and just makes it difficult for those pathogens to get to the skin of the fish. Slime is constantly washed away just from the process of the fish swimming or, in some cases, burrowing into the substrate. When the slime washes away, so do the pathogens. But unfortunately for the fish, pathogens evolved right alongside the fish and some of those irritants manage to hold on. Luckily for the fish, the slime is also a “living†part of the immune system with all the anti-pathogen devices that are also inside the fish, so the slime, besides slowing down the pathogen, has the ability to kill most of the offending organisms. (Many supermodels have bodyguards for that.)


Fish slime covers the entire outside of the fish, even the fins and eyes, extending into the gills. That is also the reason fish can quickly regenerate fins. If a fin is damaged, the living slime covers the damaged area, allowing the fish to send cells to the site to repair the damage. If we get an injury, it is easily infected and takes a long time to heal because the outer layer of our skin is dead, so we have to wait for a scab to form to protect the area, then we have to wait for the scab to eventually fall off before the area is healed. During that time, bacteria can enter the wound, causing infection or worse. There is a study going on that uses fish slime to treat human skin wounds.


Slime production takes energy!


Fish continually produce slime and it, like developing eggs, is a huge burden and energy drain on the fish, requiring many calories every day to form efficiently. If a fish is injured or under stress, it will produce more slime. Slime production will also increase if an irritant, such as copper, is used in an attempt to cure a parasite. Extra slime will also make it harder for a parasite to get hold of the skin of a fish and make it easier for the fish to slough off extra slime to help eliminate parasites.


Fish slime is the first—and best—line of defense a fish has. As I said, the slime is alive and just like the insides of the fish, its immune system works with anti-biological, anti-viral, and anti-parasitic substances.


Imparting immunity


These substances, just like in us, depend on an earlier infection so the immune system can recognize the offending pathogen. Some of this immunity comes from the mother and is transferred to the fry as it is developing in the womb. If this were not so, baby fish would have a very hard time surviving in the sea, as their slime coat is very thin.



Also, like us, some of these pathogen fighting substances depend on occasional meetings of the fish and these offending pathogens, which is the reason we humans need occasional injections of anti-viral or bacterial serums to protect us. Before we discovered anti-tetanus shots, many people died from minor injuries. Fish in the sea are constantly exposed to these pathogens, but in a tank, they are not, which is the reason for all the posts in disease forums. Unfortunately, there is much more energy going into curing fish than protecting fish from disease in the first place.



Slime varies


Before I end this long rant, I would like to say that different species of fish exhibit different benefits and detriments from slime. Not all fish are the same, and virtually all fish studies are done on food fish. Fish such as sharks were designed very differently from bony fish. Rays, which are in the shark family, have highly designed slime, and some have toxins in their slime for disease prevention and to avoid being eaten.


Seahorses and pipefishes don’t have smooth skin or scales. Instead their skin covering is composed of calcium-based denticles, and they were once considered insects instead of fish. Some fish are scale-less, and for some reason, freshwater fish produce more slime than saltwater fish. But fish are very good at protecting themselves with little “help†from us.


The correct diet will protect fish from almost everything—except a frying pan.


References:
Me :wavehand:


 

MIKE NY

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Great write up Paul very informative!..BTW your one of the few that have fish longer than me....over 20 with a reef and over 50 with fresh....
 
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Paul B

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Thank you.
Hey Mike I see you are in Franklin Square. I get my blackworms from Manny in Pet Barn on Franklin Square
 

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About the Author

I may have to do that but I am writing a book. In the meantime you can read about worms. The best thing that has hit this hobby since water
https://www.reef2reef.com/forums/reef-aquarium-discussion/116280-worms-food.html


Hi Paul,

I was hoping that you could please give us some background information about yourself (education, research, publications, methods, experience in the hobby, etc). I didn't see any evidence or references to support the claims made in your post and I was hoping you could explain how you reached these conclusions.

Thanks!


Ben G.
 
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Paul B

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Ben G, nice to meet you and a very good question. I have come to the medical information about the slime from reading as I am not a researcher. But I have come to the conclusions about immunity from experience as I have had fish every day of my life from about 1952 or so and salt water fish from the week they were imported into this country (in New York City anyway) in 1971. My reef is still running since that time and has never been taken down, emptied or crashed. I have no credentials about fish, just possibly the longest running reef tank in the US. I also have 2 United States patents on fish related Items. Of course that does not mean I am the God of fish or the most knowledgable or even have the best tank. I also speak and write on the subject as my tank has been featured in magazines for many years. You can google my name for articles (Paul Baldassano) These forums, as you know are about opinions and I write about my opinion as you can also write about yours or about if you disagree with mine. I don't list references because I do my own research, much of it from diving and the rest from experience. I can find where I found the information about what is present in fish slime if you like but all I did was google immune characterists in fish slime and came up with a few scientific papers where I found some things that I thought would be interesting.
I write about blackworms also from experience as virtually all of my paired fish are spawning including clown gobies, watchman gobies, bluestripe fipefish, threadfin cardinals and 24 year old fireclowns. I don't have to quarantine and have not in 35 years.
Here is a link to a thread about my tank, but it is a few years old.
 
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3.14

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Ben G, nice to meet you and a very good question. I have come to the medical information about the slime from reading as I am not a researcher. But I have come to the conclusions about immunity from experience as I have had fish every day of my life from about 1952 or so and salt water fish from the week they were imported into this country (in New York City anyway) in 1971. My reef is still running since that time and has never been taken down, emptied or crashed. I have no credentials about fish, just possibly the longest running reef tank in the US. I also have 2 United States patents on fish related Items. Of course that does not mean I am the God of fish or the most knowledgable or even have the best tank. I also speak and write on the subject as my tank has been featured in magazines for many years. You can google my name for articles (Paul Baldassano) These forums, as you know are about opinions and I write about my opinion as you can also write about yours or about if you disagree with mine. I don't list references because I do my own research, much of it from diving and the rest from experience. I can find where I found the information about what is present in fish slime if you like but all I did was google immune characterists in fish slime and came up with a few scientific papers where I found some things that I thought would be interesting.
I write about blackworms also from experience as virtually all of my paired fish are spawning including clown gobies, watchman gobies, bluestripe fipefish, threadfin cardinals and 24 year old fireclowns. I don't have to quarantine and have not in 35 years.
Here is a link to a thread about my tank, but it is a few years old.



Thanks Paul,

It seems like the majority of information on fish and coral is mainly compiled of hobbyist claims based on their uncontrolled observations and personal observations and experience rather than evidence based research founded on controlled situations. Unfortunately this disconnect seems to be the root of varied results, inconsistent claims, and large amounts of misleading information. It seems that these conjectures create contention in the hobby rather than unity; harming its progress instead of unifying hobbyist results, experience, evidence, and observations. Do you think there is a way to unify the information, combat conjecture, and simplify the methods so that more people can be successful in the hobby?

I appreciate your extensive experience in the hobby and it seems like you have a great understanding of these synthetic ecosystems. I'm sure that your methods could benefit many people who are struggling in the hobby. Please let me know if you would like to get in touch and brainstorm some ideas about trying to unify the hobby, if you think its possible, and if you think its worth it etc. I've always felt that I would like to start an organization, charity, or foundation; maybe this could be a good opportunity.

Ben G.
 
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Paul B

Paul B

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Ben, I am not sure what you mean by unifying the hobby. I have my theories and experiences and other people have theirs some of which is in direct opposition. As I said, I rarely ever list references because I have been keeping fish longer than most researchers and have almost 300 hours underwater so I believe my opinions to be correct. But other people, just as smart or smarter have different opinions so I doubt it will ever be united. I am presently writing a book about this and my experiences. How the hobby evolved from 1971 until now as I have tried all the new innovations as they were devised. I have been writing on these forums since forums were invented but I am still not the God of fish.
Much of the book will be about inventions that I devised to make much of this easier, cheaper and healthier for the fish. But of course, it will all be my opinion.
You are correct this hobby is fueled by hobbiests but I try to back up what I write with pictures. I have posted numerous pictures of my fish spawning showing eggs or in some cases fry. IMO, if your fish are not spawning and you have paired fish, they are not very healthy. That is the basis of much of my theories as well as ways to get fish into that very healthy condition where they are always spawning and immune from just about everything. I want to publish this before I get to old and forget everything
 

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Paul,

I don't mean that I want to convince everyone on certain practices, I simply think that it would be great if we had a systematic way of consistently documenting methods and experiences into some sort of online universal database/website. The information gathered in the database would hopefully be able to give us trends based on large amounts of data and trials that could support the best practices out there and suggest which practices have large trends of failure. If this is possible, I believe that the hobby would be more unified and evolve much more efficiently than it does today.

It seems that most of this information is currently posted on forums. Forums seem to have major limitations-- one being that the valuable information is buried in a haystack of information between posts of "good luck" and "looks awesome".

It would be great if the database used systematic & standardized information from hobbyist's methods/products/parameters/systems etc all the way down to their results. It could also be a start to creating a nomenclature for the different methods of reef keeping and the different strategies that are used.

It would be great if we could use some of your observations of slime coat, immune system, and breeding (and trends found using the database) to offer research suggestions/hypotheses to marine biologists and research scientists at universities to further understand the trends and observations that we commonly see.

The idea/goal behind the website/database/organization that i'm talking about is an effort to get more hobbyists working together towards the ultimate goal of keeping an awesome, healthy, successful ecosystem without having to scour the forums and decipher the information. Theoretically this type of resource would be great, but my idea maybe too extreme to be reasonable.

Anyways, thanks for the information; good luck on the book---

Ben
 
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Paul B

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but my idea maybe too extreme to be reasonable.

Ben it is not to extreme but you may not have researched these forums much. Virtually everyone has an opinion and if that person started a tank last Tuesday and eliminated a tank full of hair algae by adding a snail, urchin, sea hare or chinchilla, that becomes fact in some people's mind and everyone goes out to buy those animals even though algae disappears on it's own anyway. But people won't believe that and want a quick fix. Look up ich threads. I don't go on those any longer because of all the erroneous information that people post and others take it as fact. 90% of ich information is wrong which is why after 44 years this hobby has been around, most of the posts are about ich. People still to this day add cleaner shrimp to cure ich. I bet right after this post, someone will post on here that I am wrong, cleaner shrimp are the best thing to cure ich and you won't change their mind. I also stopped posting on hair algae threads and ground probe threads. Eventually I will cease posting on all threads because it is so disheartening to see all this wrong information that keeps perpetuating. Quarantine posts are another one. My methods force fish to be healthy so they don't get ich and you don't have to quarantine but if I say that (Like I just did) I will get a bunch of hate mail so I also don't get involved in quarantine threads. But if you want to open a can of worms on those types of posts, go right ahead. Eventually you will get burned out and just don't want to argue any more.
You have a good idea, but implementing it would just cause arguments.
 

MIKE NY

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Paul Im with you 100%...proper nutrition, good water quality and suitable tank mates = healthy fish, my PBT, the so-called ich magnet, is over 15 years old and had ich only once, and just like us stress is a major contributor to decease...for me the usage of QT and hospital tanks have there place with the introduction of new fish so not to introduce parasites and deceases into our systems. I never had to use one after they are already in my system. I currently have a LFS rescued Emperor Angel in a hospital tank...it had flukes, ich, poor coloration and HLLE and some infections.... just with proper nutrition alone, freshly collected ulva etc... it looks so much better, but still I needed to medicate it.
BTW... haven't been to Pet Barn in recent years, but I know Manny since he was just a stockboy there many years ago and when they were on Hempstead Turnpike before they moved to Franklin Ave....geez thats got to be over 20 years ago.
 
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Paul B

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I know Manny a long time also, he also sells my rubber bulb feeders. I built a brine shrimp hatchery for him for his mandarins.
Proper food is all you need but most people would rather try to cure a disease rather than prevent it.
 
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