Welcome to the ward

[TheOldSalt]

Ta-DA! We now have a forum just for tackling those pesky disease issues.

No one wants to be here, because if they are they probably have problems. However, it's important that we all swing through here regularly in order to not only brush up on the things we need to know, but to help those in dire need.

This forum will of course get pretty technical at times, but don't worry. I'm sure we'll have a bunch of stickys and probably a lot of pictures and charts and such by the time we're through getting this forum fully established.

One thing I have noticed on other boards is that the disease forums tend to spark the most flamewars. It's understandable; little fishy lives are at stake, and people want to make sure that their advice ( which is of course the best ) is heard above all others. I don't think that will be a big problem here, though, since I've found the members here at FishForums to be a very agreeable lot compared to the denizens of most other boards. I'm sure that over time we'll all learn the facts as we discuss them, and be better fishkeepers for it. For example, there are about seven different diseases which we call "Ick," and as such there are different treatments for them. Some work for some but not for others, so identifying the true culprit is key. Otherwise we'll all just argue back and forth about what to do while the fish just gets sicker. That's no good. My hope is that this forum will serve as the tool which makes us all much better at figuring out the exact causes of problems and figuring out the correct course of treatment in a timely fashion.

I hope we get a disease forum for saltwater as well, since that will help avoid some confusion. ( freshwater dip for guppies? Saltwater bath for my butterflyfish? )
For now, though, this is all we have, so we'll have to pay attention. Regular readers of this forum should be able to figure out enough to keep things straight.

[fishfreaks]

nice work, shaggy!