by Kelly Jedlicki

After returning from MACNA VIII with the feeling that successful marine tanks meant reef tanks, I was quickly reminded of the joy and success of fish only tanks. As I approached one of my large tanks, I was greeted by my puffers, trumpet fish and sharks - all going through their "acrobatic tricks" for food. As my large female horn shark sat up and begged, her deformed, but functional mouth was revealed, I was reminded of a recent success story that I would like to share in hopes that my experience will help other hobbyist and their fish.

My female horn shark had the misfortune of being in the frantic pathway of a fourteen inch Arothon Stellatus puffer during a sudden power outage. The shark lost about a quarter of her left mouth and face (muscle and flesh) as well as a third of her right side fin. As she became frantic and began to thrash around the tank with arterial blood pulsating out her mouth, I went to the nearest hardware store and purchased a sheet of Plexiglas and then went to my parents and borrowed a drill. I made a make-shift tank divider and quarantined off the shark from the others, as I did not have a "hospital tank" large enough to house her and I didn't want to add any further stress by moving her.

I then added large doses (15 -20cc) of vitamins - Selcon, Kent Zoe and Adek's (pediatric liquid vitamins) to the water twice a day along with large doses of Polyaqua added directly to the shark. She did not eat for four days (this was very unusual as she normally eats daily), but during these days, I watched the natural healing process begin - as the raw fleshy wound turned to granulation tissue and then was replaced by skin. She resumed eating squid and shrimp on day five but became agitated if the food or the tongs touched the left side of her mouth. I continued adding vitamins daily to the water along with the first piece of shrimp I fed her, because if I added them to the following pieces she would spit them out. Over two weeks her mouth healed but she did not regenerate the entire muscle mass but she has no problem eating now. Her side fin is slowly growing back.

This incident confirmed my belief in vitamins. As a medical professional I know that when an animal or human has encountered trauma, stress or infection, vitamins are lost in excessive amounts from the tissue during proteolysis. Fat soluble vitamin nutrition is important clinically because of the relationship of fat soluble vitamins to the immune function and wound healing. Vitamin A deficient animals have decreased wound breaking strengths and slow healing wounds. Vitamin A stimulates fibroblast maturation and increases wound collagen formation. Vitamin A is needed for formation and maturation of epithelia of skin. Vitamin K is necessary for normal clotting and Vitamin E helps cells mature and differentiate.

Water soluble vitamins are not stored and therefore are depleted rapidly. Vitamin B is needed for amino acid metabolism. Amino acids are a source of energy and help with growth and repair of tissue cells. Vitamin C facilitates absorption of iron, helps in converting co-enzymes, helps with structure and maintenance of intercellular material in all tissues, helps with resistance to infection, and promotes wound healing and growth.

Certain factors need to be considered when adding vitamins such as some fish will not eat food "laced" with vitamins or they are too stressed out to eat so the vitamins may need to be added to the water. While adding vitamins to the water is not optimal it may be your only choice and hope for administering vitamins. Some of the vitamins will be ingested as salt water fish are constantly swallowing the water in order to maintain hydration. When adding vitamins to the water, I suggest turning off the UV sterilizers, any extra light on the tank as well as the protein skimmer for a couple of hours as many vitamins will be oxidized or skimmed out of the water and many vitamins are light sensitive or are destroyed by UV light. Some vitamins are affected by heat and additives such as copper affects iron absorption with Vitamin C. Vitamin C has a very short active life and therefore needs to be added at least daily, but in doing so one must keep an eye on the hardness of the water as Vitamin C can cause the pH to drop. Another down side of adding large quantities of vitamins to the water is that it can increase the growth of algae and discolor your water, but that is something that one can overlook when a valued fish is saved.