Poisoning from Tap Water

Tap Water we all know is a deadly carrier of diseases. It has the potential to be a life giver and destroyer , depending on its form and usage.

Diagnosis·
  • When you see your fish acting differently, looking sick or still, you know that your fish are sick from some type of internal infection, harmful bacteria or parasite. Chances are that its because of poisoning from tap water. Any responsible aquarist should be armed with a water test kit. A do it yourself, kit that tests for at least four things: That being pH, ammonia, nitrite and nitrate. The instructions that come with the kits will tell you why and how to test your water. These kits are available at most stores that sell pond supplies and like we said are a must. Testing for toxicants as above is easier that testing for harmful bacteria and disease.
  • It is largely accepted in the hobby of koi and other types of fish-keeping that the majority of health problems relate, directly or indirectly, to water quality but it is not always understood why aquatic animals are so dependent on their environment and how changing aquatic conditions can affect their health.

What Fish Need
  • An aquatic environment comes with its own package of special requirements and complications. There are, as we know, many fundamental differences between life on land and life in water, differences that can lead to major misunderstandings about fish and their needs.
  • Unfortunately, there is a popular but erroneous perception of fish as a less evolved form of life that has led them to be treated differently from other pet animals. Yet when we look closely we see that the similarities between fish and other animals are greater than the differences. The differences that do exist are mainly as a result of adapting to life in water.
  • It is important to understand that even though fish are solid and covered with skin and scales they are not isolated from the water they live in. Because they are dependant on their immediate environment for many vital functions they are '"open systems' which renders them vulnerable to the surrounding water. As we all know, fish breathe through their gills. Oxygen is removed from the water by diffusion; however, uptake is significantly enhanced by the very efficient structure and mechanism of the gills. Perhaps it is now obvious that anything which even slightly adversely affects the gills will seriously affect a fish's ability to survive
  • Water is 800 times denser (or heavier) than air, so we can see that living in water presents a considerable challenge for oxygen-breathing aquatic animals.Fish live in an environment where oxygen is only sparingly available so they must use it frugally and efficiently. Secondly, they have to cope with the effects of osmosis and diffusion and to do this requires expenditure of valuable energy.
  • Animals need a constant supply of oxygen which they use in combination with food to provide energy. The availability of food and oxygen will determine the amount of energy any animal can use.The situation is different in an aquatic environment. Water has a high resistance to temperature changes so they occur slowly. So, fish are able to maintain a fairly constant body temperature without expending a lot of energy - which is just as well because oxygen and food are not so readily available.The energy and oxygen requirements of fish are substantially less than for a warm-blooded (or endothermic) animal, such as ourselves.
  • Tap water varies from area to area and may contain Chlorine, Copper, fertilizer and other pollutants.

Treatment
  • Test the water before using and filter with something like the Tap Water Purifier or use water run through an reverse osmosis filter. Common sense should dictate that the water in your pond is as important to your fish as the air you breath is to you. The main way you get a cold or the flu is from the air you breath and in turn the main transfer of disease to your fish is from the water they breath in. Also chemical and biological toxicants can be floating around in air and water. It all starts with the quality of the water. As a pond keeper you need to start with healthy water and then try as best you can to maintain that healthy environment for your fish.