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Powder Blue Tang


Fay

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Its logical...

Maybe sooner.....not too sure....

Once a tank has matures and evrything has settled in, along with parastic grow out and maturity..........plus immunity.

Just a confident feeling I have.

Everything settles down over time and reef aquariums are bloody slow to prove themselves as you know!

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Hi Fay

Its time to fess up and admit I have a PBT that is probably way too big for my tank. (Wait for the chorus of debate that my comments will start!) It was a chrissie present from wifie hence my hastiness to get hooked up with a bigger skimmer and everything else I could do to reduce the load in the tank!

Our PBT is about 5-6" long and is a pretty neat fish. Bigger than everybody else in the tank but very peaceful. Started off that the only thing he would eat was green flakes (eg spirulina) but now eats almost anything you drop in (even meaty types of food). Loves nori now.

We've had him over three weeks and he's had WS for over two of them :(

Dosing the tank with Stop Parasite and this, the cleaner shrimps, plenty of feeding, the blow of the stream, and my karma, seems to ease it. (I'm also taking a lot of optimism from people like cracker that we can get past it together!)

I wouldn't read too much in a tang not 'having' WS at a LFS - I suspect (with some degree of foundation) that tang tanks regularly have various degrees of copper treatment in an ongoing fashion.

Our 4 foot tank is okay for our PB at moment but an 6-8 footer is what him and I really need!

Hey Rossco,

If no other fish has whitespot and the PBT has no more than a general smattering.....I would stop the "medication". Not needed.

"Stop parasite" doesnt quite do it generally for PBT's.

Other fish, yes.

A couple of us have proved this.

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See Fay, I was confident that I was going to raise the normal debate about things like WS - and they haven't even raised whether you can actually get rid of it yet! :wink:

(I think you can but with difficulty as you need to be able to know when a fish is WS free. Just because its not 'visible' on a fish or in a tank doesn't mean to say its not there in a very small way - so when do we confidently know a fish, and therefore a tank once that fish is introduced to it, 'WS free' until the next tang-like creature is introduced to it to test it).

The PBT has some form of WS every day. Always worse in the morning - often by lunchtime you wouldn't know he has it behaviourally. Some days he's a sweet as all day.

Touch wood - he's had it for over two weeks and there isn't a sign on it on any of the other residents. I certainly don't have my head in a hole and know it is increasing the risk to the others but with all the views on it, its difficult to know when to take another course of action! :roll:

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Yup, we all CAN develop immunity to parasites. Yup, the parasites can still attack us but we develop resistance to the nasty outcomes. Farming relies on it. The main reason we drench stock is for the benefit of the young who haven't developed resistance to the infestation. I can guarantee there is ALWAYS some degree of parasite infestation in stock, its the environmental/individual animal's condition that determines whether the clinical signs of it are demonstrated.

"Innate Immunity

Innate immunity refers to the general response to an invading pathogen or parasite regardless of that pathogen or parasite encountered (Dickerson and Clark, 1996). This form of immunity does not rely on previous encounters and includes generalised reactions such as secretion of mucus, but may include specific host cell responses (acquired genetically).

While little formal study has been performed on innate immunity of marine fish to C. irritans, innate immunity of freshwater fish to I. multifiliis, both between and within host species suggests that the former may be possible. Collective anecdotal evidence from marine aquarists lends weight to the idea that some species, such as chaetodontids (butterflyfish) and acanthurids (surgeonfish and tangs) may be more prone to Marine "Ich" infections, whereas other species such as callionymids (dragonets) are not at all. Intraspecific differences in innate immunity would be much harder to detect through random observation.

Acquired Immunity

Acquired immunity occurs when the response is specific to the invading organism, which is recognised directly or through antigens (Dickerson and Clarke, 1996). Colorni (1987) first suggested that marine fish could acquire some immunity to C. irritans by surviving several infections. Burgess and Matthews (1995) demonstrated acquired immunity in the thick-lipped mullet, Chelon labrosus. They found that 82% of fish that had been previously exposed to high levels of theronts were immune to a secondary exposure."

I hate to say this to myself but the other fish in my tank are swimming in the same water as the PBT, getting exposed to the same theronts, without clinical signs of WS.

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Fish DO become immune to parasites.

If you remove WS from your system somehow, they're immunity will fade and they will get nailed again if introduced back into the system after about 6 months.

(Takes about 6 months to lose immunity if placed in a sterile tank).

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Yes Slappers I got him today will tell you about it on my tank thread, pics will have to what can't take half a day off from the shop at this time of the year without paying for it big time.

I have got into selling my own photos of the Port and they are going well so that’s why I went up to town today to buy a gallery hanging system will be up all night installing it and frame up more photos.

One of the ones I have sold is my avatar larger print of course :D

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