I've often wondered why we see so many posts that say:
"I bought fish XYZ at my local fish store and it looked healthy and was eating. I brought it home and within X days it started showing ich/velvet/brook/uronema/sores. Its the only fish in my tank".
Presumably this fish would not have shown these symptoms had it stayed at the LFS for the same X days.
Some of the LFS run low levels of copper. One conclusion is that the low level of copper is enough to suppress all symptoms and keep the fish "healthy" for an extended time, for an illness that would otherwise kill the fish in days.
But not all LFS run copper and this happens to fish from those stores too. Presumably these fish would not have died in X days at those stores too. It would be far too coincidental that everyone buys their fish "right before" the fish is going to start showing symptoms. So another conclusion is that the stress of bringing home and adding to a new environment caused the symptoms. If that's the case, then low stress allowed the fish to successfully fight these otherwise rapidly deadly diseases.
Are there other explanations for this apparent phenomenon?
@Jay Hemdal - What do you think? I know its a very complicated topic but I find it hard to believe that all of the fish getting sick and dying on these threads would have suffered the same fate if left at the LFS. Maybe all LFS are really running low levels of copper or something else? I've only had two cases of infection in 23 years. One you helped with where the QT vendor said the clown was fine and then less than 24hrs later it was covered in brook. The other were a couple anthias I got at the LFS. Within a few days in observation they showed uronema and died soon after.
"I bought fish XYZ at my local fish store and it looked healthy and was eating. I brought it home and within X days it started showing ich/velvet/brook/uronema/sores. Its the only fish in my tank".
Presumably this fish would not have shown these symptoms had it stayed at the LFS for the same X days.
Some of the LFS run low levels of copper. One conclusion is that the low level of copper is enough to suppress all symptoms and keep the fish "healthy" for an extended time, for an illness that would otherwise kill the fish in days.
But not all LFS run copper and this happens to fish from those stores too. Presumably these fish would not have died in X days at those stores too. It would be far too coincidental that everyone buys their fish "right before" the fish is going to start showing symptoms. So another conclusion is that the stress of bringing home and adding to a new environment caused the symptoms. If that's the case, then low stress allowed the fish to successfully fight these otherwise rapidly deadly diseases.
Are there other explanations for this apparent phenomenon?
@Jay Hemdal - What do you think? I know its a very complicated topic but I find it hard to believe that all of the fish getting sick and dying on these threads would have suffered the same fate if left at the LFS. Maybe all LFS are really running low levels of copper or something else? I've only had two cases of infection in 23 years. One you helped with where the QT vendor said the clown was fine and then less than 24hrs later it was covered in brook. The other were a couple anthias I got at the LFS. Within a few days in observation they showed uronema and died soon after.