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| Delayed Mortality Syndrome"Delayed Mortality
Syndrome" is a disease in which the fish becomes subject to illness and even death
following a move to another environment. It is a disease well known and very familiar to
the fish shipping industry. Netting, renetting, shipping, moving, acclimation to different
water quality: ie: temperature, pH and levels of toxins and treatments all play a part in
the stress and injury of a fish even before it meets it’s final destination. The
final destination in this case will be your pond or HOPEFULLY your quarantine tank.
Many fish transport well, or may seem to have at first. Unfortunately more than 80% of all fish moved will notshow signs of a problem until more than a week to a month later. This is the delayed response. Think of it in relation to ourselves to better understand the element of stress. If you or I were in a traumatic car crash and were not seriously hurt... we can most times walk away and think we skated off without injury; at first... The next day roles around and how do we feel in the morning, quite sore eh? Many times, even a week later, we feel even worse than the day after. A spinal injury can take from months to years to present itself. So the delayed response can be a reality. Sometimes even when we follow all the necessary steps to avoid disaster when we receive a new fish, the outcome can be a poor one. In most cases this isn’t the case but when it happens you can usually attribute it to a handling problem on the other end or a genetic weakness. This is the unfortunate Mortality syndrome part of the deal. So how can we prepare for this, and avoid as much as possible the worst cast scenario? 1) Set up a quarantine area for all new arrivals 2) ACCLIMATE new fish properly keeping in mind the most important, pH and Temperature 3) Longer quarantine periods (6-8 weeks in the minimum recommended) 4) Have a plan to treat for the most common parasites while fish is in quarantine 5) Don’t be over anxious and impatient to see them in your pond For most of us, our heart is wrapped up in our pond and our fish are part of our family. So...one fish is usually not worth the gamble of everyone else’s life in your pond. Aqua-Doc from What’s up Doc. |
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