Re:Discus diet and parasites

[Paul Krombholz <krombhol at teclink_net>]

>Hello everyone,
>
>This is a bit off topic. I was reading about Jack Wattley and his
>discus. He said:
>"For the gradual elimination of internal parasites without using a
>medication. We feed fresh garlic with our frozen foods."
>This is interesting, how does it work? What is the science behind it?
>
>I also have some parasites in my tank. They look like dandruff.
>Extrememly small whitish spots darting around especially on the glass
>and bottom of the tank. There are also very small worms(1mm long)
>wriggling in the water. How do I kill them? My discus is still healthy.
>
>Any help is appreciated.
>TIA
>Wayne Wah from Singapore.
>

The treated fish have such offensive bad breath that no other fish 
will get close enough to them to pick up or pass on any parasites. 
:-)

The "parasites" that look like dandruff may not be parasites.  They 
are most likely harmless protozoa living on bacteria.  Same goes for 
the worms, which are probably non-parasitic nematodes.  (Most 
nematodes are not parasites.)  A parasite is associated with its 
host, to which it does harm.  In the early days of microbiology, all 
kinds of harmless bacteria were isolated from sick animals and called 
parasites.  Robert Koch worked up a set of postulates for identifying 
disease agents:



	The agent must be present in every case of the disease;

	The agent must be isolated from the host and grown in a lab dish;

	The disease must be reproduced when a pure culture of the agent is
	inoculated into a healthy susceptible host; and

	The same agent must be recovered again from the experimentally infected
	host.


Basically, you have to prove that the organism is guilty of causing 
the disease.  Koch's postulates are generally followed, although, 
some organisms that every one agrees are parasites can not be grown 
in culture outside of their host. 

-- 
Paul Krombholz in well watered central Mississippi, enjoying typical 
August heat and humidity.

--- StripMime Report -- processed MIME parts ---
multipart/alternative
  text/html
---