Entropy Central

When I discovered that my fish had a parasite in the form of camallanus worms, I also quickly discovered the information on treating this pest is scattered and mostly unreliable.

To combat that problem, I decided to start a web site dedicated to consolidating that information into one place where aquarists can look up common problems without having to sift through a lot of chaff to find it.

It’s going to take me time to put this together, particularly when I have other projects on my plate at the same time. But I will make progress.

If you’d like to take a look at the site, follow this link to www.fishyfishy.info. There isn’t much content yet, but it’s a start.

Progress report. I have read every entry to the anthology and eliminated stories that don’t match the theme well or just aren’t written well enough to compete with what’s left. Now comes the hard part.

I’m doing my second read through all the stories and ranking them in three categories. First, they get what I call a “shades of gray” ranking. It’s an intuitive measure of how dark or light I feel the story is.

Second, I am ranking the stories from 1 to 10 on how well I like the story as a stand-alone unit. Also very subjective.

Finally, I am ranking them from 1 to 10 on how well I feel the stories match my idea of the anthology theme.

I have 28 stories left in inventory and I need to cull about 40K of word count. Every one of those stories has potential to make the final table of contents, and almost all have the potential to be cut. There are about four stories that I have already decided will definitely be in the anthology, but I am waiting to notify the authors until I can do it all in one sitting.

Sorry for the long delay between posts. Yesterday, I returned from a week at Camp Geronimo with my son’s boy scout troop.

I’m still a bit sore and fatigued. We had a LOT of rain, with a good 30-45 minute hail storm. Mud, mud, mud, but everyone managed to finish their merit badges. The boy completed 5! Mammal Studies, Fish and Wildlife Management, Swimming, Lifesaving, and the historical merit badge Carpentry, which was resurrected for this year only in honor of the 100th anniversary of the Boy Scouts in the United States.

Somebody must have sold a mailing list of writers. I got an offer for Writers Digest and Poets and Writers in the same day. I haven’t heard from either one in years, haven’t subscribed for even longer.

Writers Digest I stopped buying because I got nothing out of it. It’s really meant for beginners. Poets and Writers I stopped buying because the information inside targets writers more literary than me.

Having been on the receiving end of literary snobbish sneers–genre? eew!–I find the pull quotes on the insert of the P&W mailing amusing.

My rebuttals:
Quote:
“I’m very tolerant of stillness. I’d rather not move my hands just to move them. I’ll wait for the right thing.” – novelist Jonathan Lethem.

Rebuttal:
While waiting for the muse might be the right answer for some people, in others it would mean productions stands still. Sometimes you just have to force it in order to get through a logjam.

Quote:
“If you have a story to tell, the most important thing is the story, not the form you use to shape it.” – poet Patricia Smith

Rebuttal:
Of course form matters. A story in poetry is far different from one in prose, and both are different from one on the stage or screen. In any case, if this were believed, then genre fiction would be on equal footing with literary fiction in terms of respectability and selling 5 copies of a book would not be worn as a badge of pride.

Quote: “My advice to writers would be to aggressively seek the truth–forget about your ego–and do one more draft than your agent tells you to.” – Jonathan Karp, publisher of Twelve.

I almost didn’t respond to this one. Karp and I agree on 2/3 of this quote, and looking at the website for Twelve, I kinda dig the business model. Still, I was unable to find submission guidelines nor payment policy. (Twelve publishes novels). However, I do take exception to the last phrase in the quote.

Rebuttal:
Who has the ultimate responsibility over the fiction? Whose name goes on the cover? The agent may suggest or ask, but may not tell you to do anything. The agent works for the writer.

Quote:
“Poetry is when the animal bursts forth, inflamed. It ain’t always pretty.” – poet Dean Young.

Rebuttal:
Honestly, I don’t know what that means. Literally inflamed animals bursting forth isn’t just not pretty, it’s rather disgusting. But what I suspect he means is that raw emotion on the page delivers a message to the reader, but you don’t need poetry for that. It can exist in any form. And often is pretty.

Quote:
“I think you’re an artist because you have to be an artist. I don’t think it’s ever been easy.” – literary agent George Borchardt

Rebuttal:
But why is an agent saying this? Of course it isn’t easy or everyone would do it. But it isn’t necessarily art. It’s also a science. It’s also being a smart businessman. It’s being a craftsman–and there is a difference between an artist and a craftsman. It’s all of these things and more. Every writer and every writer’s process is different. And besides, in some cases it’s not a question of must be artist, often it’s the tenacity of want to be artist.

So there is today’s tempest in a teacup. <– It ain’t art but I know what I like.

The medicated feed I purchased a couple of days ago seems to be helping. The camallanus worms are starting to turn brown, but I still had the concern about newborn worms in the water.

Thanks to a little help from Bob Fenner at Wet Web Media (absolutely THE best online resource for fishkeeping problem-solving), I now have an alternative to levamisole to treat the water. Fenner recommends a substance called praziquantel as an alternative to levamisole, partly because it’s far more accessible.

While I did find an online resource for levamisole at $12 for 17 grams as opposed to the $120 for 5 grams from the local vet pharmacy, the dosing information is sketchy at best, mainly from testimonials posted in different fish forums.

This camallanus worm problem is not one that is very well known. I recall seeing the symptoms, specifically the swollen vent and mucus trails, in the tank my parents kept back in the late 70s. At that time, I had no idea this was a problem and I don’t think much was known about it by anyone outside university research labs. Certainly no treatments were available.

Today’s treatment consisted of an 80% water change and then dosing the tank at the recommended concentration. I’ll do another water change and put the activated carbon back in on friday.

I started the fish on a diet of the medicated food this morning. They all eat with the usual fervor of meal time. I’m hoping this does the trick. I found more of the worms, this time on my siamese algae eaters. I’ve had those fish for over five years and I really don’t want to see them go down to a parasite.

It has been difficult to get what I need for the tank water at a reasonable price. There are options but none that are like a quick trip down to QuickTrip.

On the editing side, the submissions for 2020 Visions have been trickling in. One more week of open subs and that window will close again. Then comes the hard part of selecting the right stories and sending other good stories away.

Yesterday I discovered something quit disturbing in my main tank. My adult mollies appear to have an infestation of camallanus worms. it’s a problem that is identified when thin, orange, hair-like worms protrude from the anus of the fish as illustrated in the picture below:

I recalled seeing the symptoms while re-reading “Manual of Fish Health,” a volume that should be required of anyone keeping even a goldfish in a bowl.

Pretty much everything you’ll find in the fish aisle is not effective against the Camallanus worm.

Upon further research, it seems that it’s a difficult condition to treat. There are a couple of recommended treatments, levamisole seems to be the preferred treatment but is difficult to find in powdered form to dissolve into the water. Fenbendazole is a food additive and is also difficult to acquire.

Fenbendazole is available under the brand name Safeguard as a food additive for canines.

It turns out that Jungle Labs makes an anti-parasite medicated fish food containing 0.5% levamisole, and that is what I purchased. I need to feed the fish this food exclusively for three consecutive days, and repeat for four weeks.

So, I’ll let you know what happens as I begin treatment tomorrow. I did a test feeding this evening to see how well the fish accept the food. Many fish will reject medicated food, but that did not appear to be the case in my tank. Of course, mollies will eat anything at any time, and my Siamese algae eaters will too.

Once again, my story finished with an honorable mention. This makes 11 for me.

The near-future anthology I have in the works right now started out as an invitation-only project. Due to the lack of optimistic stories in the group I received from the invitees, I opened the anthology up to general slush for a period of two weeks.

That isn’t to say that I did not receive any optimistic fiction. I did receive some, but one thing Chris (the publisher) and I discussed was the possibility of producing two volumes, one with an optimistic bent, and the other with a darker tone.

At this point, I located two invited stories I missed in email, and both of those seemed to fit the optimistic model, at least on some level. I also received a good one from a well-established author through slush (with a bit of coaxing).

At this point, I’m encouraged that I may yet be able to pull off a two volume project. I have a few well-established names, a few rising stars, and a lot of promising new writers that will appear in this volume.

Of course, certain stories are pretty much ringers, they will get in with no problem. The difficult part for me will be when I start culling to fit a project word count. There are far more good stories than I can use. It’s fortunate in the sense that I have a lot of material from which to choose, and that should make for a better product for the reader. It’s unfortunate in the sense that I will have to reject some very good stories.

The submission window closes on the 17th and I hope to have the table of contents selected by mid-August. I will need to select the lead story (or stories if we have two volumes) and get those to the artist we plan to use for the cover.

It’s not as easy as it sounds. In some cases the best story is not the best story for cover art. When I edited M-Brane SF volume 12 (also released in trade paperback as Ergosphere), I led off with a story that made a good match with the artist we used.

Not long ago, I discovered a fishkeeping forum called fishlore. A lot of knowledgable people frequent the board, and with my decades of experience, I thought I might be able to contribute. I have successfully dealt with a lot of problems: ichthyophthirius, swim bladder disorders, algae blooms, tumors, and finrot to name a few, so why not?

One particular post asking about a very ill fish led somebody to post that euthanasia might be the only course of action. Now, I have read the threads on euthanasia on that forum and never saw what is currently recommended as the most humane method of euthanasia for small fish. So I made a casual comment about it because I wanted the person who posted the question to have it as an alternative. I did not recommend euthanasia as a course of action.

The method I described is this, which I recite here verbatim from “The Manual of Fish Health” ISBN 1-55297-824-9, page 78:

Concussion. The fish is restrained out of water by gently wrapping a wetted paper tissue around its body. Rest the fish on a firm surface and strike its head with a hard object such as a hammer. The aim is to instantly destroy the brain. Although it may seem barbaric, this method is swift and effective if performed correctly. Understandably, some hobbyists feel squeemish about performing this procedure in which case they should not attempt it.

I mentioned every point in that paragraph. This post led to a large number of other participants at fishlore telling me the description was uncalled for, accusing me of being inhumane and cruel, and a number of other accusations. I should point out that a number of the “more humane” methods of euthanasia recommended by fishlore contributors in that same thread are noted in this text as no longer considered humane. The most commonly held mistaken belief is that dropping the fish into icewater is the best way to euthanize a fish, where the book specifically goes out of its way to state that this method is now believed to cause suffering. (Note: I do concede that one member with over 10 years of experienced agreed with my method.)

Upon attempting to defend what I wrote, posts were taken down without explanation until after the fact. There was at first a post stating the discussion had been moved, and I was unable to find it. When I inquired where the discussion had been moved, those questions were removed. After three or four iterations of this, a terse message stated that the entire discussion had not been moved but instead deleted. I received no other notice, and not more than a brush-off explanation.

At that time, I posted a note in its own thread that I was upset that I was unable to defend my position and angry that the moderators removed the discussion without notifying me with a private message. I also announced that I would not be back. I am sure that was deleted as well, though I never went back to check. I only went back to remove my personal information.

Fast forward a few weeks. After a google search today, I inadvertently clicked on a link that took me to fishlore and discovered that I had been banned forever for “going against a moderator’s decision.” WTF?

(1) I did not continue posting on the subject once I understood what that decision was. The decision made without explanation until after I tried to respond multiple times with posts deleted without knowing why or understanding what the decision even was.
(2) I was flamed without opportunity to respond, and without the ability to correct bad information posted by people who had been on fishlore considerably longer that I was, but with much less actual fishkeeping experience.
(3) I have documentation to back up what I wrote, as well as information to refute the other methods that are advocated on fishlore but now considered cruel by experts.

How should this incident have been correctly handled?

1) A private message to me in my fishlore account explaining the moderator’s decision. If euthanasia has caused a brew-ha-ha in the past, that should have been explained privately instead of simply deleting messages I took considerable time and energy to construct.

2) An appropriate place to have such a discussion.

My posts and my responses were not flames, I methodically defended what I wrote with carefully thought-out text. It made no difference to the outcome.

As events unfolded, the moderator blatantly silenced somebody with correct but unpopular information, and in the process drove away somebody with over 30 years of fishkeeping experience willing to research a fish health problem before responding.

In the end, although there are a lot of good resources who frequent that board, I have no intention of returning. Yes, I have the computer knowledge to get around the ban, but I have no inclination to do so. I have no interest in participating in a forum where unpopular information is silenced and moderators delete posts behind a participant’s back. If you use fishlore, caveat emptor. There is bad information mixed with the good.

All I wanted was a fair explanation from the moderators and the opportunity to respond to accusations. That was denied me, but as you can see, I also have a forum. If any fishlore moderator would like to respond here, it will not be deleted.