[tommo]

Some pictures from work

A mantis shrimp, possibly a new species or an abberant form of a Raoulserenea sp, unusual in that it only has a single ocellus on its back and has unserrated raptorial appendages!!!!



An Orodoris miamirana, apparently quite rare in the red sea, nobody quite knows what it eats, My vote is diatomaceous and filamentous algae, as this is what i found it amongst it was a beast at 13 cm



My pico tank early stage (pre post larval fish introduction)



A couple of pics of a horrific necropsy on an asfur angel, which had managed to obtain a bacterial infection possibly as a aresult of a lengthy infestation of capsalid flukes (i will get pics of these later) notice screwballed kidneys and full gall bladder





Finally a picture of an overexcited sea hare, in this case the unusual Aplysia kurodai which i decided to poke with a net just for your viewing pleasure. Im not sure if these were ever used to dye clothes but what a good idea that would have been. There are purple splodges all over the outside concrete where i collected this and all over a pair of socks. it appears to be non toxic



More will follow when i get back to saudi

Tom

[ben]

great pics tom. nice to see something different, thanks

[tommo]

Ive got loads of little creatures all over the show, provided they are all still alive by the time i get back there should be a massive array of pictures

Most recent acquisition was a tropical conger eel Conger cinereus, which i set up a display for the day i left for the airport to fly to Hamburg

Tom

[lindsay]

Nice pics tommo,how big is the conger?.

[tommo]

Its about 18 inch

I spotted it at the fish station, normally they are collected for the indian guys to eat if they are collected at all so it had a lucky escape

It ate within a second of going into quarantine on some shrimp i put in to distract a niger trigger, they are horribly instictive but very graceful when no eating and interesting to watch

I have fears that the display will be wrecked by the time i get back so im praying at the moment

Tom

[lindsay]

Cool,how big do they get ?.

[tommo]

Apparently the largest get to about five feet total length! cant wait for him to grow!!!!

some more here of a shark acquisition in this case Stegosoma fasciatum, a zebra shark

Arrival



Unpacking and an injection of dextrose to prevent dehydration and batryl to prevent infection from shipping and because these are hook caught



Finally release into the second largest of the lagoons (we have a caged off section for new arrivals



This particular shark was about 40 inch long


Tom

[jason@jasonsaquatics]

Top Pics Tommo

Be good to get a breakdown and pic of the fishes organs and what diseases affect them ,maybe a good idea to list symptoms fish get with each disease or infection .

With each disease there are obviously different ways to treat the fishes so a list of the different treatments for different diseases would be a bonus

If you do get time to do this maybe we can lock the topic so it becomes an info area on the forum

Nice pics Tommo


jas

[tommo]

BTW these were meant to be babies!!!!!!

[tommo]

I might be able to find time to pull some info together and do a guide to fish necropsy with diagrams

Angels are a bit weird in respect to placement of their organs

Tom

[Matt G]

Fantastic, great pictures and a really interesting thread.

More please when you have time.

[bobba fett]

Fascinating,

I never got to see your introduction post, what is it you actually do? Is it a commercial aquarium or a lab facility?

[tommo]

Here is a necropsy from one of the sharks i think i mentioned in the fuzzy dwarf lionfish feeding thread. They could be one of two species, Chiloscyllium griseum or C. arabicum It is likely to be the former as we think these were sourced from Sri Lanka.
The fish were externally exhibiting signs of distress, a progressive intensifying of colour, a red blotchy appearance underneath their bodies and constantly swimming in the stream of an airstone. After trying all the usual water quality routes one died. This was the one you see here.

Here is a pic of the freshly opened up shark just as i began teasing its innerds out




And secondly a picture of the afflicted area, the kidneys, which run either side of the spine, these should be a neat pink colour instead they are yellow and swollen i do have more of this one, but photobucket is being a tttttttt..... (leave the rest to your imagination




The end diagnosis was bacterial infection of the kidneys, attributed, in absence of cause, to poor quality unclean diet. Lack of vitamins wont have helped immunity either! previous to my arrival and basically it had been resident for quite some time. the fish had low appetance and previous batches which got tot the same stage prior to my arrival were poorly responsive to several antibiotics which were administered in bath form, and with one group tiny batryl injections! Because of their tiny size (20-23 cm) i decided the antibiotic should be administered orally and i chose one specifically designed for the oral use of cattle. This was a combined Neomycin, oxytetracycline mixture and was used at a rate of just over 50 mg/kg of fish (difficult to measure). The biggest issue was that of appetite. We have injectable B12 on site but due to the small sixe of the fish i deemed this to be a ridiculous suggestion. As luck would have it we had on site also some TMC lipovit which is also nice and heavy on the B12 and although the sharks werent eating much, they were eating a small amount so i fed them clean fresh shrimp chopped and coated with this. The response to food the next couple of days was impressive to say the least, thus i began treating the fish by coating the food in lipovit and then further in the antibiotic being careful to measure out no more food than the fish would eat at a sitting. This was done for ten days. Within three there was a marked difference in colour and behaviour of the fish and they began to act totally normaly resuming a benthic lifestyle and the blotches disappeared after the full course. Apparently so far there has been no resurgence of the infection, which im pleased about

Hope u like

Tom

[tommo]

I work in Saudi Arabia for a private public style aquarium that belongs to someone very rich bobba (well not at the moment, im looking after a private aquarium on a yacht that belongs to someone else very rich)

Tom

[BOM8ER]

Great reading tom

[tommo]

I thought id archive the others, these do exist on another thread somewhere!

Here is the 130 cm tiger shark we recieved, hook caught and in the same format as the zebras (big fishbag) It was released once recovered as a result of having nowhere big enough and empty enough to put it. It was one scary animal that watched every move you made, far less robotic than any other shark, these i recon must be the most intelligent of them!



Here is a ridiculously deformed Ctenochaetus striatus that came from a lagoon emptying session, still healthy, unimpeded and apparently happy, i released this, when in reality i should have kept it for its novelty value DOH



Tom

[bobba fett]

Great shots and nice work if you can get it I guess!

[tommo]

I have offered necropsy services at every shop i have worked in in the past. Its a great little earner and really helps the customer i found. As long as the fish is fresh dead you can find allsorts of beasties and infections

You will also be rather shocked by how many aquarium fish have goosed internal organs as a result of improper diet (then we wonder why things die mysteriously or start eating corals

Its also impressive how many internal parasites can be found in some fish, acanthocephalans in copperbands and tangs, various tapeworms, hence my recommendation that these be wormed in quarantine using either praziquantal or flubenol

Tom

[chriss]

WOW, A fantastic insight!

Begs the question, what can we do, diet wise, to maintain our fish in the best of health?

Chris

[Social D]

Great read Tommo really interesting, What a great job you have!