Parasite Infection

[bikerfish]

Hi ALL
This may seem like a stupid question but where do fish get internal parasites from ?  If you wash all  live plants with tank water before being added .  Is it from frozen food ( brine shrimp, bloodworm ) or from live food like brine shrimp ? if your water quality is good and regular weekly clean .
Another question please , I have noticed on here that some reg worm there fish ? why , is it just a certain type of fish like cichilds ? does this stop them from getting parasite problem? or is this different ?
Still fairly new at this and thought I would ask

cathy
 

 

[techen]

I think the chances of a fish catching a worm is rare nowadays. A lot of people will deworm fish in the marine side as they QT fish up to 2 months before adding them to there main tank.
 
Worms can carry over from substrates, Food, Plants, Snails, fish. Anything really, It's just chance if your fish happens to catch one.

 

[bikerfish]

Hi Again what about parasite infection as my friends fish is having meds for this at mo ?
cathy

 

[techen]

Worms/Parasites pretty much the samething, Sorry XD

 

[snazy]

There are always pathogens present in a tank. It's when the fish's immune system gives up, that the pathogens take over.
This could be due to bad water quality, overcrowding, bullying, or generally any stressor. These are enviromental diseases and some of them are quite nasty(columnaris for example)
 
There are also those type of parasites/bacteria that aren't normally part of the enviroment and one can bring them home with other fish, plants, etc...Fish wouldn't be able to deal with them as they haven't build up immunity against them, or are just too weak to fight them.
 
That's why sometimes when one brings a new fish home, the fish gets a disease and dies. This could be because that fish isn't capable of fighting pathogens already present in that tank, but the rest of the inhabitants have buld up some sort of immunity against it.
The other scenario is possible, when a seemingly healthy fish causes a disease outbreak as your old fish aren't capable of fighting the pathogens that fish introduced.
 
And then again, there are other types of diseases that are not part of any healthy enviroment and when introduced, they'd make any fish succumb to it.
 
As for your friend's fish having a parasite infection, it's impossible to say anything without knowing the background of the tank. It's even impossible to know if it's parasites that the fish have just from looking at them. One can only guess and hope the treatment works.

 

[bikerfish]

Hi cheers for answering sort of got it now
cathy