Viral hemorrhagic septicaemia (VHS) is a disease caused by a negative-sense single-stranded RNA virus of the genus Novirhabdovirus. Infected fish suffer from haemorrhaging of their internal organs, skin and muscles. Symptoms that can be observed from the outside includes reddened eyes, gills, skins and fin, opens sores, a bloated abdomen, and bulging eyes, but some fish show no outward signs at all.

The virus can spread through water transfer and through the consumption of infected eggs or fish, which means that baitfish can introduce the fish to new localities. A fish that manages to survive the disease can become a lifelong carrier of the virus, excreting it through its urine and sperm or ovarian fluids. In Europe, the gray heron is known to spread the virus without being infected; the virus appears to remain inactive as long as it resides in the digestive tract of the bird.

Different strains with different properties

Historically, VHS was associated with Western Europe where it was documented as a pathogenic disease among cultured salmonids as early as the 1950s. In 1963, the viral cause of the disease was discovered by M. H. Jenson. Until late 1988, VHSv Type I was the only known strain of the disease and it appeared to be contained within freshwater fish farms in continental Europe, affecting primarily rainbow trout and only occasionally brown trout and pike.

In 1988 the first case of VHS was reported from the United States and the culprit turned out to be a distinct, more marine-stable strain of VHSv than the European variant. The virus was present in salmon returning to Washington State from the Pacific Ocean. Today, we know of four different main strains and except for type IV, all of them are endemic to Europe.

The type IV virus can be divided into two subtypes: IV-a and IV-b. IV-a has been reported from marine fish living in the Northwest Pacific, along the North American north Atlantic coast, and along the shores of Japan and Korea. IV-b is the type causing problems for freshwater fish in the North American Great Lakes region.

The IV-b strain was first isolated from fish living off Canada’s Atlantic coast where it did not cause any high mortality rates. This strain is capable of infecting not only salmonids but a long row of warm-water freshwater species previously assumed to be resistant to VHS. The European strains are particularly deadly do rainbow trout, but the IV-b strain only have a mild affect on this species. It is on the other hand capable of killing fish such as chinook salmon, lake trout, steelhead trout, gobies, emerald shiners, yellow perch, walleye, muskies and whitefish.

The low temperatures that’s been holding the state of Florida in a firm grip this winter is causing troubles for tropical fish raised in outdoor ponds. Aquarium fish farmers report losing up to 50% of popular tropical species to the cold, and a severe guppy shortage has already emerged – boosted by the fact that Americans are more inclined to purchase guppies and other aquarium inhabitants during the winter season.

Roughly half of the tropical fish sold in the United States is raised in Florida, a state heavily dependant on its warm climate. The fist fish farmers showed up here as early as the 1930s when it was still possible to purchase cheap land around Miami, but nowadays a majority of the fish Florida farms is found in the lake-rich part of Florida located between Tampa and Orlando. Up until a few years ago, the number one cargo shipment out of Tampa International Airport was tropical fish.

Fish native to tropical parts of the world normally find it difficult to stay alive if the water temperature drops below 60 degrees F (15 degrees C) and even temperatures around 70 degrees F (20 degrees C) may have a detrimental effect on their immune system. It is therefore easy to imagine what happens if the air temperature suddenly drops below the freezing point – as it has done in Florida this winter.

And even in situations where the cold isn’t severe enough to instantly kill the fish it can send them into a sedentary state where they fail to hide from predators like hungry birds, especially if living in unplanted ponds offering few places to hide. Many fish eating birds have been forced to see their normal hunting grounds being sealed off by ice and fish farms struggling to keep the water temperature up constitute a highly appealing alternative when the hunger sets in.

In desperate attempts to save their fish from freezing to death or being eaten by predators, Florida farmers have been covering their ponds with plastic sheets and pumped in warm water. When the cold turned out to be more than just a short dip, those who could scrambled to get as many fish as possible indoors. Many farmers have been forced to prioritize older fish close to the size needed for shipping, leaving younger fry behind to die.

Farmers that have lost more than 50 percent of their fish are entitled to financial relief from the Department of Agriculture if they file a crop insurance claim.

Below you will find my review of the Reef One  60L/16 gallon BiOrb. The orb was provided to me by the company, but this is not paid advertising space. If I’ll end up hating the orb, you’ll know about it. Other companies that are interested in having their product reviewed here are welcomed to contact me, provided that they understand that giving me something for free doesn’t guarantee a positive review.

BiOrb 60 Classic Collection review – setting it up
I am going to start by saying a few words about Reef One. Reef One develops aquarium products sold in more than 20 countries. Their goal is to be innovative and offer new exiting products, and as a part of this quest they have developed a line of small aquariums and BiOrbs of which I will review the BiOrb 60.

This is an initial review based on my experiences of setting up the BiOrb. It will be followed by a second review when I have had the aquarium up and running for a few weeks and know how it works over time.

The BiOrb arrived as a big package in the mail; 60 cm x 60 cm (24 cm x 24 in). The parcel contains everything you need to setup a simple, basic beginner aquarium. You get a 5 stage internal filter, ceramic media, air pump, plug top 12 volt transformer, halogen light unit, water treatment, plastic plants and even some fish food. The equipment is plastic but does not feel cheap or tacky and can be used in most settings without looking out of place.

Included in the package is a manual on how to setup the tank, and I personally find the manual easy to understand and follow. It should allow even a beginner aquarist to set up his or her first aquarium without much ado. If you are an experienced fish keeper, you are probably already familiar with the steps of the manual that doesn’t specifically pertain to the orb itself.

As mentioned above, the BiOrb comes with its own filtration system. It is designed to promote biological filtration and is surprisingly quiet. Unlike many other filter systems, this one won’t be a problem in the bedroom or office. Since I haven’t had the BiOrb running for very long I don’t know if the filter system works well or not; I will get back to it in my follow up review.

The filter is designed to allow you to setup the BiOrb as a marine tank if you get the marine tank conversion kit, but I decided to set it up as a freshwater tank for this review because I believe that more people will use it for freshwater. After all, the quantity of freshwater aquarists vastly outnumbers that of marine fish keepers. If you decide to set it up as a marine tank it will give you the option to keep marine creatures that aren’t suitable for normally rectangular aquariums. Jellyfish are for instance prone to get stuck in corners, something that won’t be a problem in a sphere shaped tank like the BiOrb.

The BiOrb can be put to together in a short amount of time, but you should nevertheless wait at least a week or two before you add the fish since you need to cycle the aquarium first. This is true even if you use the included water treatment from Reef One or any other type of starter kit – regardless of what the bottles or the staff of your local fish store might say.

The tank looks good at once after it has been setup and I have at this point not found any problems with it. It seems like a good product at this point. The only thing I might complain about is that the advanced LED light that simulates real daylight isn’t included in the standard package, but that would on the other hand make the package more expensive and for most beginner aquarists the included halogen lights will suffice.

I must however admit that I might be a bit hesitant to buy this product myself for one reason and one reason alone: the price. Sure, it is a nice product, but you could get a larger tank for the same price – or the same size for a lower price – if you went for a regular rectangular or square tank. In other words; the BiOrb is a fine tank but at £164.99* it is a pricy choice. Is it worth the money? Well, that’s up to you and will depend on what you’re looking for. If you’re looking for a low-cost beginner tank, than no, I wouldn’t recommend the BiOrb. If you on the other hand have some extra cash to spend and are in the market for a sleek orb that fits your interior design in a highly visible space like your living room or corporate office, than yes, this might be the right one for you.

You can read more about Reef One and their product line on their webpage, where you can also order their products.

*£164.99 is 264 USD or 183 Euros.

The 11 year old snakehead involved in a year-long legal battle with the state Department of Environmental Conservation died Wednesday last week.

Owner Chris Deverso said he stuck his hands in Rocky’s tank when he noticed the fish struggling around 9 p.m. “By the time I found him, it was already too late,” he explained. A water test carried out by Deverso revealed nothing unusual and there aquarist had not noticed any signs of disease.

Deverso said snakeheads can reach an age of 10-15 years in the wild.

Since 2004, it is illegal to keep sneakheads in New York. In June 2009, Deverso was finally given a permit to keep Rocky provided that he kept the aquarium locked.

Deverso is now looking for a taxidermist to have the body preserved.

“This isn’t a goldfish you get at the fair and flush down the toilet,” he said. “I’ve got 11 years of stories with him. I want him to always be with me, to always be talked about.

For more info on Rocky, read our earlier post “Death sentence might be revoked for New York snakehead”.

A transparent goldfish that reveals its inner organs has been developed by a joint research team of Mie University and Nagoya University in Japan.

The aim of the project was to create a transparent fish that makes it possible for researchers to study blood constituents and organ behaviour without having to dissect the animal. Unlike ordinary goldfish variants, this type has therefore been made really big and can weigh up to 1 kg. Up until now, the transparent fish of choice for researchers have been the see-through zebrafish, but this tiny fish only weigh abut 3 grams and is therefore much more difficult to study than the 1 kg goldfish.

The translucent goldfish was developed in just three years by repeatedly letting selected pale goldfish specimens mate with each other.

“Pale-colored goldfish have little commercial value, but their negative value has turned into a positive,” said Mie University Associate Professor Yutaka Tamaru.

The creation of a transparent goldfish was announced Wednesday last week at the annual meeting of the Molecular Biology Society of Japan.

Female scissortail sergants allow potential mates to fertilize a small batch off eggs and then monitor their parenting skills to decide if they are good enough to deserve a full clutch.

When studying filial cannibalism* in scissortail sergeants, ecologist Andrea Manica** of the University of Cambridge noticed that some females approached a male’s nest, deposited a small amount of eggs, and then left.

This aroused his curiosity and he decided to provide the males with ceramic tiles to use as nest sites. Once a female has deposited a small clutch on a ceramic tile, Manica either left the eggs alone or rotated the tiles to move the eggs.

The tiles that were left alone turned out to be popular; two-thirds of the females returned to deposit a full clutch of eggs later. The tiles that had been rotated by Manica were much less desirable and only a quarter of the females returned to lay a new batch.

Overall, this method of testing potential fathers seems to be rather rare in the population researched by Manica. Out of 421 females, only 7.4 percent laid test eggs before depositing a full batch. Manica also noticed that the method was used mainly at the onset of the breeding cycle. Later in the cycle, the amount of eggs already inside a nest seemed to suffice as indicator.

“The female fish probably use these test eggs when they don’t have much to go by. As a strategy, to me it makes lots of sense. There are probably lots of other species that do that,” said Manica.

The Scissortail sergant (Abudefduf sexfasciatus) is a large damselfish native to coral reefs in the Indo-Pacific. Also known as the Striptailed damselfish, it can be recognized on its black striped tail and sides. In this species, the eggs are cared for by the male fish who must not only resist the urge to eat his own offspring but also be brave and skilled enough to protect them from being eaten by other predators.

The study has been published in Animal Behaviour.
http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/622782/description#description

* Filial cannibalism is when an adult eats the young of its own species. In many species of fish, adults won’t hesitate to eat even their own immediate offspring.

** http://www.zoo.cam.ac.uk/zoostaff/manica.html

A bill introduced by Maui County Council Member Mike Molina may tighten up the rules for how aquarium fish is treated after being caught in Maui waters. Existing animal welfare laws only stipulate that ornamental fish collectors must maintain facilities that can keep the fish alive and “in reasonable health”.

“The reality is that the inhumane treatment is inherent in the trade,” said environmentalist and dive operator Renee Umberger. “They don’t consider them to really be animals. That’s why it’s important to change the (legal) definition of what the state considers pets.”

The new bill would piggyback on superseding state laws and is intended to make sure that ornamental fish is treated well. Molina also hopes that the bill will raise awareness about overfishing and the fragility of Hawaii’s reefs. Over the past two decades, Hawaii’s aquarium reef fish population has declined by nearly 60 percent.

According to statistics from the state Department of Land and Natural Resources, Maui fishermen caught aquarium fish valued at $32,478 last year. In the entire state, the value of all caught aquarium fish was roughly $2 million in the same period.

Robert Wintner, owner of Snorkel Bob’s, now questions why Hawaii is endangering its reef fish population for a mere $2 million a year when hundreds of local jobs in the multimillion scuba and tour sector depends on the wellbeing of the reefs.

Examples of what the Molina bill is suggesting

• Prohibition of several industry practises, such deflating the swim bladder, exposing the fish to air, and temperature changes of more than 2 degrees.
• Mortality rates and dead fish disposal methods must be documented.
• Causing the death of an ornamental fish will be considered an inhumane treatment of aquatic life.
• Violation of the law would be a misdemeanour. The fine would range between $500 and $2,000 and up to a year in jail.

Before the bill goes before the full County Council, it needs to be assigned to a committee for further discussion.

Taiwan plans to set up an aquarium fish R&D and export centre in 2011 in an effort of becoming Asia’s main aquarium fish exporter, a Council of Agriculture (COA) official said Wednesday.

Construction is scheduled to commence next year in the Pingtung Agricultural Biotechnology Park (PABP).

Right now, the yearly Taiwanese export of aquarium fish is no larger than 3 million USD, while Singapore has an annual export valued well above 60 million USD.

Chen Chien-pin, head of the preparatory office of the PABP, predicts that the value of the Taiwanese aquarium fish export will exceed that of Singapore when the centre as been in operation for five years.

The estimated price tag for the new facility is 1.19 billion New Taiwan Dollars, which is roughly equivalent of 37 million USD.

An aquarium fish has survived seven months in a fish tank without being fed or cared for, since its owner is in police custody after being accused of killing two Chilean students and wounding three others.

When employees from Contractor’s Choice and members of the Summer Lake Homeowners Association walked into the vacant town house at Miramar Beach, Florida, they discovered what appears to be a plecostomus.

The fish was apparently overlooked when lawmen removed the other pets – fish and birds – from the home after the arrest of the pet owner Dannie Baker. The fish went unnoticed for so long because Baker’s home was closed to the homeowners association after the arrest.

“I was very upset because I thought the police had taken everything after Dannie’s arrest,” said Dianne Richmond, vice president of the homeowners association. “This poor fish has been in that boiling house with no air conditioning and nothing to eat for about seven months.”

The pleco was discovered by the fiancée of Contractor’s Choice owner, who noticed something moving in the tank and sprinkled some fish food in the water. This caused the pleco to swim out into the open to feed.

When the pleco was discovered, much of the water in its tank had evaporated and the remaining water had turned dark.

Josh Olis, an account manager at Contractor’s Choice, said he didn’t believe it when his boss told him a fish was still alive in the tank. After seeing it for himself, he and the owner refilled the tank with about 50 gallons of water. He said he will make sure the fish is fed for as long as the company is working in the home. The contractors have even given the fish a name – Theo.

“I think we’re going to accept him into the cleaning family for now,” Olis said. “He’s been living in that tank for so long, surviving off algae. I have so much respect for him, I had to name him.”

The employees at Contractor’s Choice are now looking for a permanent home for Theo.

“This poor fish has really worked for a new home,” Richmond said. “It’s a wonder he’s survived this.”

AC Comment

Although I certainly don’t recommend neglecting your plecos for seven months, I’m not very surprised that Theo was alive and kicking when they found him. Many of the catfish species commonly referred to as plecos are algae-eaters (especially when young), so if there was any light coming into the room, Theo probably had some food to eat since nobody was there scrubbing away the algae. It all comes down to how large the tank is; a big tank may generate enough algae to keep a pleco alive (albeit hungry and malnourished) for several months.

Also, the natural habitat of plecos is Central and South America, so living without air conditioning in Florida is probably not something that bothered Theo much, especially if the aquarium was placed in a location where it was sheltered from sunlight during the harshest hours of the day.

Evaporation on the other hand, that is a real threat. The build up of waste in the water was probably tolerated by Theo since the progress was slow and gradual, but eventually ending up with hardly any water due to evaporation would naturally have killed him.

Last but not least, a word of caution. Although the employees of Contractor’s Choice acted admirably and should be applauded for taking such an interested in an abandoned fish, giving Theo 50 gallons of new water was actually quite risky since such a rapid change of water quality (and probably also temperature) can be lethal to fish – especially if the tap water is also heavily chlorinated. (But this is naturally impossible to know unless you’re an aquarist so I don’t mean to sound condescending here.) If you find a neglected fish, the safest method is to gradually change water quality and temperature until conditions are ideal for that particular species.

According to Thaphol Somsakul, a civilian dive instructor with the Navy, rare marine species like Giant stingray and Ronin are becoming harder to find in their regular Thai habitats as they are sold to aquariums by fishermen.

Thaphol said he became suspicious after noticing rare species with distinctive marks at various trawler piers, and then seeing them later in aquariums.

“The decrease in number of these species coincides with the increase in the number of new aquariums opening, as well as in the number of rare species on display,” he said, citing his own experience and reports from fellow divers. “I interviewed fishermen who all said those rare species were trapped in their nets by chance.”

Unlike protected or endangered species, rare species are not protected by Thai law. A one year joint project by the Navy, PTTEP, and the NaturalResources and Environment Ministry is however scheduled to inspect 20 sites in the Gulf of Thailand and the Andaman Sea to locate coral reef sites and gather information that will be used in a coming reef conservation project.