Paul B
NJRC Member
The Benefits of Parasites.
For much of my 60+ years of fish keeping, I have always wondered why we have so many problems with fish diseases, especially parasite-caused diseases.
Today, in my Mailbox, I received a "Discover" magazine that I have been reading for decades. This month's issue (Sept/Oct 2024) had something on the cover that caused me to read the article immediately. It was titled "The Problem with Parasites" by Kate Golembiewki. The article initially sounds like it is against parasites and the diseases they cause, but just the opposite is true. It focuses on the work of Chelsea Wood, then, in 2010, a budding parasitologist pursuing her Ph.D. in Biology at Stanford University.
Wood is now an associate professor at the School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences at the University of Washington.
She studied parasites in fish from uninhabited Islands and areas that were overfished. What she found shocked her.
Against what I have been saying for decades, most people feel parasites are harbingers of doom in an ecosystem that causes distress. Even many researchers and Scientists feel that way. We associate parasites with badness, destruction and doom. But we are wrong.
About 40% of all species on Earth are parasites and are here for a purpose.
Many people think that when something happens to screw up the ecosystem, parasites move in to colonize the weak animals, but just the opposite is true.
Most healthy animals, or in our case, fish, harbor parasites.
Probably every fish in the sea has some parasites, which are there for a reason and not to kill the fish as that would be counterproductive for the parasite.
Normally, parasites go through their life cycle in cycles and one of those cycles is to suck some blood from the fish, then move on, reproduce and start their cycle over again.
This does no harm to the fish, just as we Humans have parasites on and in us that cause no harm, and we are not even aware of their existence.
Quote: "A world with fewer parasites, perhaps ironically, means a world with less healthy ecosystems, as parasites help keep the populations of their hosts in a delicate balance". Un Quote
It's not the parasites that are making your fish sick. It's that your fish are not in optimal enough health to repel parasites. (That is also in this article by Wood and the book I wrote)
Parasites have a difficult time going through their life cycle, and many parasites are actually in decline and in danger of becoming extinct. First, they have to find a suitable host in a limited time. Then, after they find a host, they have to contend with its immune system that tries to repel them before they can multiply in massive numbers. In a healthy ecosystem, the immunity of the animals will have no difficulty repelling or even killing the majority of parasites, but the few that do live long enough to suck some blood and re-produce are needed to keep the fish healthy by allowing its immune system to continue to make antibodies to that particular parasite.
As I said, 40% of all creatures are parasites, and there are many different types of parasites. The fish's immune system has to make antiparasitic substances for all of them, and healthy fish do just that. The more parasites in an ecosystem, the stronger and better equipped the fish's immunity will become to repel the parasites.
If we remove all the parasites on a reef or in a tank, the immunity of the hosts will quickly wane because immunity for a fish uses up the majority of calories a fish has at its disposal. Much of a fish's immunity is located in its slime, and it is energy-consuming to constantly produce that slime because it is water soluble and continually sloughs off the fish.
The problem arises in our tanks because we add fish to an established tank that is not in excellent health due to its collection, storage, and shipping. Hence, the fish's immune system is not up to par as stress severely weakens the immunity.
So, killing the parasites is counterproductive, but keeping fish in a state of health as they were in the sea is key. To accomplish this, we need to give fish a stress-free environment as much as possible. I don't think fish are that smart so we can replicate their environment so that they are not stressed. Of course, we can't remove all the stressors, and fish species react to their environment differently. Some fish never settle down to captivity, and because of that, their immune system will always be compromised, making it difficult to keep them. Great White Sharks can't be kept in captivity but we don't keep them in our home tanks very often and even if we did it would be expensive to keep feeding them accountants.
Some other fish that don't acclimate well are boxfish, puffers, tangs, and Moorish Idols. I have dove with all those fish, and tangs live in schools where they follow each other and exist to do exactly what their schooling members do. They get stressed if we take them out of their school, as they have few coping skills on their own.
Many puffers, especially the larger ones, never settle down and constantly swim up and down the glass, often causing an eye infection. They just can't get used to glass and want to go through it.
Besides a stress-free environment (as much as possible), we need to feed correctly, and that means not relying "100%" on store-bought food. (Sorry, stores) I myself use store-bought frozen food for 90% of my fish food, but I feel it is lacking the correct gut bacteria fish need to stay immune. Fishes' immune systems need gut bacteria, and we can get that from live or "freshly frozen" food such as shellfish or live worms, even earthworms, as gut bacteria controls our fishes immunity, and almost all medications will kill gut bacteria as a fishes gut is open to the water.
My own fish have been seemingly totally immune to all diseases for at least 40 years and I never medicate or quarantine as I also feel that is counterproductive. Of course, all new tanks will not have the correct amount or correct types of bacteria to keep new fish immune so it is difficult to add new fish to a new tank, but feeding living gut bacteria will go a long way to keep pathogens from killing our fish.
For much of my 60+ years of fish keeping, I have always wondered why we have so many problems with fish diseases, especially parasite-caused diseases.
Today, in my Mailbox, I received a "Discover" magazine that I have been reading for decades. This month's issue (Sept/Oct 2024) had something on the cover that caused me to read the article immediately. It was titled "The Problem with Parasites" by Kate Golembiewki. The article initially sounds like it is against parasites and the diseases they cause, but just the opposite is true. It focuses on the work of Chelsea Wood, then, in 2010, a budding parasitologist pursuing her Ph.D. in Biology at Stanford University.
Wood is now an associate professor at the School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences at the University of Washington.
She studied parasites in fish from uninhabited Islands and areas that were overfished. What she found shocked her.
Against what I have been saying for decades, most people feel parasites are harbingers of doom in an ecosystem that causes distress. Even many researchers and Scientists feel that way. We associate parasites with badness, destruction and doom. But we are wrong.
About 40% of all species on Earth are parasites and are here for a purpose.
Many people think that when something happens to screw up the ecosystem, parasites move in to colonize the weak animals, but just the opposite is true.
Most healthy animals, or in our case, fish, harbor parasites.
Probably every fish in the sea has some parasites, which are there for a reason and not to kill the fish as that would be counterproductive for the parasite.
Normally, parasites go through their life cycle in cycles and one of those cycles is to suck some blood from the fish, then move on, reproduce and start their cycle over again.
This does no harm to the fish, just as we Humans have parasites on and in us that cause no harm, and we are not even aware of their existence.
Quote: "A world with fewer parasites, perhaps ironically, means a world with less healthy ecosystems, as parasites help keep the populations of their hosts in a delicate balance". Un Quote
It's not the parasites that are making your fish sick. It's that your fish are not in optimal enough health to repel parasites. (That is also in this article by Wood and the book I wrote)
Parasites have a difficult time going through their life cycle, and many parasites are actually in decline and in danger of becoming extinct. First, they have to find a suitable host in a limited time. Then, after they find a host, they have to contend with its immune system that tries to repel them before they can multiply in massive numbers. In a healthy ecosystem, the immunity of the animals will have no difficulty repelling or even killing the majority of parasites, but the few that do live long enough to suck some blood and re-produce are needed to keep the fish healthy by allowing its immune system to continue to make antibodies to that particular parasite.
As I said, 40% of all creatures are parasites, and there are many different types of parasites. The fish's immune system has to make antiparasitic substances for all of them, and healthy fish do just that. The more parasites in an ecosystem, the stronger and better equipped the fish's immunity will become to repel the parasites.
If we remove all the parasites on a reef or in a tank, the immunity of the hosts will quickly wane because immunity for a fish uses up the majority of calories a fish has at its disposal. Much of a fish's immunity is located in its slime, and it is energy-consuming to constantly produce that slime because it is water soluble and continually sloughs off the fish.
The problem arises in our tanks because we add fish to an established tank that is not in excellent health due to its collection, storage, and shipping. Hence, the fish's immune system is not up to par as stress severely weakens the immunity.
So, killing the parasites is counterproductive, but keeping fish in a state of health as they were in the sea is key. To accomplish this, we need to give fish a stress-free environment as much as possible. I don't think fish are that smart so we can replicate their environment so that they are not stressed. Of course, we can't remove all the stressors, and fish species react to their environment differently. Some fish never settle down to captivity, and because of that, their immune system will always be compromised, making it difficult to keep them. Great White Sharks can't be kept in captivity but we don't keep them in our home tanks very often and even if we did it would be expensive to keep feeding them accountants.
Some other fish that don't acclimate well are boxfish, puffers, tangs, and Moorish Idols. I have dove with all those fish, and tangs live in schools where they follow each other and exist to do exactly what their schooling members do. They get stressed if we take them out of their school, as they have few coping skills on their own.
Many puffers, especially the larger ones, never settle down and constantly swim up and down the glass, often causing an eye infection. They just can't get used to glass and want to go through it.
Besides a stress-free environment (as much as possible), we need to feed correctly, and that means not relying "100%" on store-bought food. (Sorry, stores) I myself use store-bought frozen food for 90% of my fish food, but I feel it is lacking the correct gut bacteria fish need to stay immune. Fishes' immune systems need gut bacteria, and we can get that from live or "freshly frozen" food such as shellfish or live worms, even earthworms, as gut bacteria controls our fishes immunity, and almost all medications will kill gut bacteria as a fishes gut is open to the water.
My own fish have been seemingly totally immune to all diseases for at least 40 years and I never medicate or quarantine as I also feel that is counterproductive. Of course, all new tanks will not have the correct amount or correct types of bacteria to keep new fish immune so it is difficult to add new fish to a new tank, but feeding living gut bacteria will go a long way to keep pathogens from killing our fish.
