Do fish have immunity?

[mindme]

I have to say that NSA has to be THE absolute worst idea on the planet. Looks great for the humans but is absolutely terribad for the fish.

I assume you are talking about my tank, and while you can't really tell from the photo, 90% of the rocks are lifted and the fish are able to go under them and hide in other places. Even in the places where you can see the sand touching the rocks, such as the picture with the watchman goby in it, that whole rock he is under is lifted up, and that entire arm half way across the tank is above it is as well. And there are many other caves and areas that you can only see from the sides. There is a cave tunnel under the rock with the leptastrea on it for example, but the duncan coral blocks a good bit of the entrance, so only smaller fish can get through.

It's done that way specifically to give the fish places to hide, while also giving them lots of swimming room.

 

[HuduVudu]

 

[HuduVudu]

@Paul B do fish have any other defenses other than their slime coat.

My thought is that if the fish loses it's slime coat it becomes like a human that is immuno compromised.

Is this a valid train of thinking?

 

[Paul B]

No, not really. The slime is only the first line of defense. Fish also have an immune system like all other animals. One difference in fish is they don't have bone marrow like we have so they have to make their antibodies in other places such as their kidney and spleen. Here is an article I wrote about it on this forum

A discussion on immunity

I have been thinking about this for seven or eight years and finally, through scientific research and my experimentation I think I have figured out something that may change the way we run aquariums. For many years I have been feeding live blackworms, live amphipods and live new born brine...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[GARRIGA]

Let's put it to the test. Let's take a fish that's known to have velvet, put it in your tank and see what happens.

Because for 10 years I added fish without doing QT and had no troubles. And then I lost $300 worth of fish to velvet.

That’s different than a fish in the wild exposed but able to shed and not get exposed again as would happen in a fish tank. Immunity is acquired through exposure at levels that won’t kill the host yet allow it to build an immunity. Something that likely won’t happen in a display tank but highly likely in nature.

This is how antivenin is produced. Animal is injected with low repeated levels of the toxin until it builds an immunity. Versus one large single dose capable of killing it.

 

[Backreefing]

Do fish have immunity? Yes is they are healthy.
However Tangs are the exemption: they are always sick with ick . In fact they have a specialized ick gland underneath the scales so as to kill them selfs even when everything is good and well feed . And the more expensive the tang the more likely it is to off itself with as many tank mates as possible.

 

[Paul B]

I have 2 tangs but they haven't found that switch yet. Maybe in the next 50 years it kicks in.