I posted this someplace else and decided to put it here, because I like it. If you don't want to read it, I think Oprah is giving away free Cadillac's to homeless cats.
I have killed so many fish that I probably have helped with the extinction. Why do you think we thought Coelacanth's were almost extinct? It was me. When the hobby started (and I have written extensively on it and dedicated a chapter in my book about it) aquarium keeping was a challenge, but it was a challenge that was good for the hobby as that was when much of the critical knowledge was gained as there was no internet, so no wrong information. No information at all as a matter of fact but what we did know, we learned from trial and mostly error. Very early in the hobby, so early that it was in my fresh water phase, or "bait" as I like to call fresh water fish, I learned the biggest secret of the hobby. The secret that overshadows all other things in the hobby. Much bigger than Obama's college records or where Brian Williams gets these stories. The secret (which I have also written about ad nausea) is still helping me today and it is the one thing that is so important that everything else in this hobby falls by the wayside. No one wants to use my secret so I stopped mentioning it. People would rather take a fish from the sea, put it in a small, bare quarantine tank for 72 days. Try sitting for 72 days in a small room with no friends and not even a Supermodel or reality show to look at. So in 72 days the fish is so stressed that it is thrilled that now it is put in a tank of creatures it has never met and we feel it is just going to forget what we did to him and go about his business of living a happy healthy life.
Unfortunately that fish in many cases will be fed a diet of flakes, pellets and frozen whatever that is supposed to keep him healthy. Of course many times, in spite of all that quarantine time it comes down with parasites and we read:
OMG, I quarantined everything including my Old Aunt Ester, put my quarantine tank 157 yards away from my reef so the ich didn't get in from osmosis and the fish are still dropping dead from the disease. You know I am right as you can easily search and find dozens of those threads right on reef Central. Now why is that? Maybe 72 days isn't long enough, maybe we should quarantine for 3 years. Maybe we shouldn't have reef tanks, just large quarantine tanks. Would that stop the dreaded ich?
DSBs, SSBs, no sand bed, reverse UG filter, starboard, Dutch Mini Reef, Jaubert system, the fish don't care and it doesn't matter what type of substrate we have. There are all sorts of successful tanks and it has nothing to do with substrate. Yes, I do joke around (a little) because, to me, this is a hobby and supposed to be fun. But all we hear is problems. Why is that?
It's because many people don't use my secret. No, I am not lucky. My fish don't live long enough to get social security because they are lucky. It's not even because of my UG filter although I would like it to be. It is not because of quarantining or not quarantining (but that does have something to do with keeping fish healthy and not because of what you think, just the opposite)
I don't go on so many threads on here any more because of the arguments and I am old and tired. It is so simple but people refuse to take the time to do it.
The secret is live worms.
That's it. Live worms every day will keep the fishes immune system so fine tuned that you could put the fish in a meat grinder and he will come out fine. OK, maybe not. Now I realize many, or most, OK, "all" of you think it can't be worms. The old guy is nuts. He is senile. Maybe so. But I am right now looking at my tank. I am watching the 24 year old fireclowns playing with each other and the other 15 or 20 fish that have never been quarantined, have no DSB, have never even had a headache but all of them eat some live worms every day with their regular meal of mostly clam. They also know I don't have test kits or a hospital tank and they are not worried. They know that if they are in my tank, most of them will die of old age.
I bought them all and after a little acclimation, threw them in my tank (gently). Even if they had parasites because they are a non issue. Even in spite of the mud, amphipods, flounders, worms, crabs, shrimp and seaweed I collect from a bay and dump in with no fanfare.
I wrote an article about slime and the fishes immune system but I am not allowed to link it here. It is in my book that is not out yet but I probably can't link anything from it here either. But the main thing is live worms. Not bloodworms, not freeze dried worms, not mealworms but blackworms (or earthworms). If you remember your fresh water days, if you wanted to spawn fish the first thing you read was to feed live food. Many of us forgot that bit of advice. We prefer to read the ingredients on a can of flakes and see all the wonderful things they put in it (before it was processed, baked, dried and canned) Live worms have one ingredient, worms. That's the secret. Take it or leave it.