What is a healthy fish?

As a new reefer I am grateful for this point of view. I know how much of a rabbit hole things on forums can be, and this alleviates a lot of the stress of worrying if I'm doing the right thing. Thank you for this.
Prefer to listen to my vet who has a completely different view. He went to school for 8 years for veterinary medicine.

Ich kills fish all the time. These boards are filled with those stories. It’s pretty insane to think that fish with ich parasites are “healthy” and that confined glass boxes filled with parasites are somehow “healthy environments”

I get that many people are successful in keeping tanks with ich in them. But be honest about it. You are just managing a disease that is insanely simple to cure.

I’ve also seen tanks that managed ich for months or years and then one day They are completely wiped out by one small trigger that brings on a ich-pocalypse. That’s not healthy either.

Be honest thread.
  • Like
Reactions: Shmollica
Brew12
Brew12
I never made any recommendations about treating or not treating Ich. This tells me you came with a very biased opinion and an agenda.

I also don't think your vet would appreciate your throwing him under the bus by saying he claims a fish with Ich cannot be healthy. A simple google scholar search of "immune response to cryptocaryon irritans" will quickly show that he is denying science.

Final thought in light of the recent Columbus Day holiday. A bunch of healthy Europeans came to the new world and brought with them smallpox and other diseases that devastated the native populations. Despite what you and your vet think, this did not make the Europeans unhealthy.
Great article @Brew12. Easy to understand and very informative.
  • Like
Reactions: Lasse
You can’t just throw out the first part of a definition of a word and claim that sick fish are somehow “healthy” because they partially meet the things in one of the lower definitions.

Most people don’t consider a fish with marine ich as “envincing good health” just like most people wouldn’t think a dog with heartworms is “healthy” even though they might look fine. Their bodies are battling a parasitic invader in both cases.
  • Like
Reactions: Shmollica
Brew12
Brew12
I the requirement for healthy was not fighting off parasitic invaders no one would ever be considered healthy. Our intestines are full of parasitic invaders that our immune system keeps in check.
Your heartworm example falls short as it is not a parasite that a dogs immune system can manage in a way that doesn't harm the dog. Cryptocaryon Irritans can be kept in check by a fishes immune system.
Thank you for writing such an informative and very comprehensive article.
  • Like
Reactions: Lasse
Very good written - could not write it better myself

Sincerely Lasse
  • Like
Reactions: Brew12
Great job discussing, without judgment but still factually focused, a controversial subject on R2R.
  • Like
Reactions: Brew12
Back
Top