Introducing wildcaught fish?

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Jan 28, 2015
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Would it be a bad idea to catch a large mouth bass from the local pond and try adding it into an aquarium after QT ?( inhabitated by arowana, rays)
 
QT is never a 100% guarantee that a fish is free from all parasites & pathogens. So you need to weigh the risk, and make a call. Personally I would pass, and keep the aro/ray tank as it is.
 
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I just added a number of wild caught fish to a tank.
I would venture to guess 9 out of 10 had at least one parasite, anything from ick to Lernea.
None of these would be lethal in nature, but in tank, can easily become epidemic.
In order to get rid of the ick and lernea, I treated with salt, and also had to remove the adult female copepods by hand.
The salt treatment to get the ick and larval Lernea lasted about 6 weeks, the females had to be removed by hand because on the fish, they are immune to treatment, protected by the fish slime coat and skin..
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One Lernae was so embedded pulling it off took almost half the caudal.
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Interesting take duanes, do you think things would be any different if it were a larger bass in that scenario? and there’s also the challenge of acclimating an adult bass to eating in a tank.
 
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Lmb aclimate well to captivity, I'd look for a younger bass as they aclimate to new foods easier.
 
Doesn't have to be old to be big, you could aclimate a older one if you wish, but he may only eat live and dead whole fish, he should be fine with rays and aros, although newborn rays may be eaten by lmb
 
Should be fine with rays? You know a lot of people that have LMB with rays? I would love to see some examples from MFK members.
 
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I'd treat the fish in quarantine by 3x baths of potassium permanganate for everything external every day in a row or every other day (or alternatively with Dimilin X and Microbe Lift Broad Spectrum Disease Treatment, separate treatments, per labels) and with a mix of praziquantel, metronidazole, and fenbendazole for the internal parasites, better through feed (might use a syringe to load a feeder fish, IDK...).

The only chance I can imagine to get it to accept prepared feed is by tongs training:
  • live feeder,
  • then live feeder in tongs,
  • then the same feeder but dead in tongs,
  • then anything else you want to offer in tongs,
  • then try throwing that "everything else" in the tank without tongs.
 
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