Texas State Aquarium accidentally kills 100 fish

[howaboutme]

Since we're sharing stories from NY news sources....

 

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/texas-aquarium-accidentally-kills-fish-largest-tanks-article-1.2187408

 

Your accident doesn't seem that bad now, huh?

[sen5241b]

I'm really curious to know why the treatment (some anti-flatworm med) killed all the fish when it worked fine in a smaller tank. Did they try a water change as you are supposed to when using such treatments? How would you even do a change with a 165K+ tank?

 

And where was there quarantine system? How did flatworms get past quarantine?

Edited April 16, 2015 by sen5241b

[Origami]

I'm really curious to know why the treatment (some anti-flatworm med) killed all the fish when it worked fine in a smaller tank.

Depending upon the level of infestation, the flatworms may have released a toxin that poisoned the fish.

 

Did they try a water change as you are supposed to when using such treatments? How would you even do a change with a 165K+ tank?

With a very big water mixing station, I suppose. More likely several tankers of salt water standing by for the water change.

[sen5241b]

Yeah ,probably the flatworm toxin

[Keraxis]

https://student.societyforscience.org/article/killer-flatworms-hunt-poison
Five years ago, marine biologist Raphael Ritson-Williams was collecting flatworms in the waters around the Pacific island of Guam, when he found a new species. He put the oval, filmy, yellow flatworm in a container for further study.

On the same collecting trip, Ritson-Williams picked up a type of shelled sea creature called a cowrie and put it in the same container with the flatworm. He planned to give the cowrie to a friend who was studying these mollusks.

A flatworm eating a marine snail.

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

When he checked the container after a while, however, something had changed. The flatworm "was really fat," Ritson-Williams says. And all that was left of the cowrie was an empty, speckled shell—and a mystery.

The silver-dollar-sized flatworm had eaten the mollusk, but it had no teeth or any other obvious weapons. Instead, as tests showed, the flatworm contained a poison called tetrodotoxin. It's the same poison found in a number of other creatures, including puffer fish, several types of frogs, North America's rough-skinned newt, the blue-ringed octopus, and some other flatworms.

Now, Ritson-Williams and his coworkers are trying to figure out how the flatworms use tetrodotoxin. In one experiment, the scientists watched flatworms kill at least 30 different species of mollusks, including ones with protective trap doors. The flatworms appear to enclose the shelled creatures with toxin-laced water.

A newly discovered flatworm from Guam wraps its body around a cowrie in its shell, paralyzes it with a nerve toxin, and pulls out the cowrie's red body in about half an hour and leaves the shell behind.

Ritson-Williams

In another experiment to test the use of the toxin defensively, the researchers fed flatworms to wild fish. Many of the fish gobbled up the flatworms, and none seemed to get sick right away. This suggests that tetrodotoxin helps flatworms kill, but it doesn't protect adult flatworms from being eaten.

The flatworm's eggs have a lot of tetrodotoxin. Other researchers have suggested that the toxin might help defend the eggs, but Ritson-Williams hasn't tested this idea yet.

Where the poison comes from is another mystery. Some scientists suggest that the flatworms get tetrodotoxin from bacteria that live inside them.—E. Sohn

[Rob A]

Wow! I wouldn't have thought a flatworm could do that!

[ReeferMadness]

um dont most systems have flatworms in them... i used to have some earlier on but none for a while.

[nextlevel808]

Also a water change on a system like that probably isn't as bad as you think. I've been on a tour of the Baltimore aquarium and asked questions like that about their +300k gallon black tipped reef shark exhibit. Sounded like worst part was they make their own salt with mixtures from a bunch of different types. If anyone gets the time I would recommend taking the tour and they like answering questions and think they like it when they have someone that knows a little about the hobby.

[sen5241b]

Perhaps they were not aware of the flatworm poison

[Keraxis]

My guess is they were aware but had way more then they believed.