Getting healthy marine livestock, is one of the greatest challenges we face as aquarists. To a point, it’s not really the fault of anything but distance, which makes acclimating new acquisitions so difficult. Often, our aquariums are located thousands of miles from a specie’s natural home. Sometimes, when I consider the journey my aquarium residents have taken, it’s shocking that they even made it here alive. Even the closest coral reef, for those of us on the north east coast, is far south, stretching from West Palm Beach Florida, down to the Florida Keys. For people who live smack dab in the center of the United States, it’s much farther. When you consider that most of the species we seek out, come from tiny islands in the remote South Pacific, or Indian Ocean, you can understand why aquarium fish arrive to us, in such a stressed out state. Traveling is stressful, even on human beings. For fish, who are suddenly plucked from a rich, diverse habitat, and tossed into a tiny container, trekking thousands of miles across the planet, it’s a total change of lifestyle, within a matter of seconds. Instead of try to offer pointers on how to spot a good livestock vendors, (which requires a post of its own) I’d rather point out some often overlooked realities about marine fish, that can help us ease some of that stress, making the transition to a captive life a bit smoother. New arrivals need to be quarantined, it’s a basic premise of being a successful aquarist. During transit, specimens have been exposed to pathogens, and often arrive under-fed with a weakened immune system. Quarantine is as much about getting the animal’s health back up to par, as it is making sure they aren’t carrying disease. Fish require osmoregulation, which is a balancing act, keeping internal pressure on par with the surrounding water, and breaking down excess salt from the water, as it enters the body. Under full salinity conditions (SG 1.026) there is more salt in the surrounding water, then in the fish’s body. This means their kidneys, (and other organs) must constantly break down the excess salt. Of course, this process requires energy. Switch to hypo-salinity, (SG 1.013-1.010) and the surrounding water has nearly the same salt content, as the fish’s body. It saves a lot of energy and organ stress, not having to constantly dilute salt.… More:
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