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Sick hedgehogs with a variety of illnesses, including acariasis, dental problems, pneumonia, gastric ulceration, neoplasia, and hepatic disease, often present with nonspecific clinical signs such as lethargy, weakness, and anorexia. This frequent presentation serves to emphasize the importance of diagnostic testing, even if anesthesia is required.
Dilated cardiomyopathy (see Cardiomyopathies) is common, although the etiology of this disease is not known. Affected hedgehogs are typically ≥ 3 yr old, although it may occur in animals as young as 1 yr of age. Signs include dyspnea, decreased activity, weight loss, an auscultable murmur, ascites, and acute death. Radiographs typically demonstrate varying degrees of cardiac enlargement, pulmonary edema, pleural effusion, hepatic congestion, and abdominal fluid. Pulmonary and renal infarcts may occur in some affected animals. Normal echocardiographic measurements have not been published, but a subjective evaluation of wall motion and chamber size is often sufficient to confirm the diagnosis. Hematologic and biochemical testing are useful to screen for concurrent problems and for monitoring the effects of therapeutic agents. Therapy with digoxin, furosemide, and enalapril may be helpful, but the longterm prognosis for hedgehogs with congestive heart failure is poor.
Saddle thrombus and pulmonary thromboemboli have been observed. Myocardial mineralization and splenic extramedullary hematopoiesis may exist in pet hedgehogs with concurrent diseases; the clinical significance of these lesions is unknown.
Enteritis may be caused by Salmonella or other bacteria. Salmonellosis in hedgehogs may be clinically silent or may cause diarrhea, weight loss, decreased appetite, dehydration, lethargy, and death. Diagnosis should be confirmed with fecal culture. Although treatment is indicated in animals with clinical signs of disease, owners should be advised of the zoonotic potential and the risks of creating antibiotic resistance. Alimentary candidiasis (Candida albicans) and cryptosporidiosis are other reported infectious diseases. Although numerous species of nematodes, cestodes, and protozoa have been identified in wild hedgehogs, their significance in pets appears to be minimal.
GI obstructions are most often caused by ingestion of rubber, hair, or carpet fibers. Signs include acute anorexia, lethargy, and collapse. Vomiting may be present but often is not. Diagnosis of obstruction is complicated by the fact that gaseous dilation of the GI tract can be a nonspecific finding in ill hedgehogs. A fatal intestinal mesenteric torsion has also been reported. Alimentary inflammation, including esophagitis, gastritis, enteritis, colitis, and gastric ulceration with perforation, has also been seen. Most of these animals had nonspecific signs such as decreased appetite and weight loss; vomiting and diarrhea were not observed.
Diarrhea also can be associated with some commercial diets or inappropriate foods such as milk. GI neoplasia, particularly lymphosarcoma, is relatively common. Other considerations for GI signs include dietary change, toxins, and hepatic disease. Hedgehog digestion does not rely on bacterial fermentation, and there is no evidence of antibiotic sensitivity as is seen in herbivorous mammals.
Hepatic lipidosis is relatively common and may be a sequela of cardiomyopathy, neoplasia, starvation, obesity, toxicosis, pregnancy, or infectious disease. Signs may include lethargy, inappetence, icterus, diarrhea, and signs of hepatic encephalopathy. Treatment for hepatic lipidosis is similar to that in other species. Other important causes of liver failure include primary and metastatic hepatic neoplasia. Hepatic necrosis caused by human herpes simplex virus 1 was reported in a hedgehog that received dexamethasone.
Acariasis caused by (Caparinia spp) is very common. Signs include lethargy, decreased appetite, hyperkeratosis, seborrhea, quill loss, loose quills, and white or brownish crusts (mite droppings) at the base of the quills and around the eyes. Hedgehogs may scratch or rub themselves, but many individuals do not have obvious pruritus. Some animals have subclinical infestations. Diagnosis is confirmed by skin scraping. Treatment consists of ivermectin or a combination of ivermectin and amitraz. All bedding must be removed and cage furnishings disinfected or discarded. During treatment, the cage is lined with paper that must be changed daily. All hedgehogs in the home should be treated concurrently.
Pet hedgehogs may be infested with fleas; shampoo and powder products that are safe for kittens appear to be safe for hedgehogs. Tropical rat mites, Ornithonyssus bacoti, may also cause flaky skin and loss of spines; fipronil spray is an effective treatment.
Dermatophytes (Trichophyton erinacei, T mentagrophytes, Microsporum spp) cause crusting, usually nonpruritic, dermatitis, especially around the face and pinnae. Some infections are secondary to other dermatophathies, such as acariasis or trauma. Diagnosis is confirmed by culturing spines in DTM media. Treatment consists of topical antifungal agents, with systemic griseofulvin or ketoconazole if needed. Lyme sulfur dips may also be used. Other hedgehogs in the home may be subclinically infected, and treatment of all animals is recommended.
Skin neoplasia is common; squamous cell carcinoma, lymphosarcoma, and sebaceous gland carcinoma have been described. Papillomas of suspected viral etiology have been reported; recurrence in other sites after excision is common. Cutaneous and subcutaneous nodules may be also caused by abscesses, mycobacteriosis, and Cuterebra larvae.
Contact dermatitis may result from unsanitary bedding. Cellulitis has been linked to secondary myositis and sepsis; the primary cause in most of these cases was trauma. Allergic dermatitis has been anecdotally described; restricted antigen diets, antihistamines, and glucocorticoids may be helpful. Pruritus may occur with the development of new spines, as occurs in young hedgehogs. Pemphigus foliaceus has been reported; loss of spines, flaking skin, moist erythema, and epidermal collarettes were observed. Dexamethasone injections were reported to be an effective treatment.
Myositis secondary to cellulitis has been reported. Osteoarthritis has also been observed. Fractures occur when a limb becomes entrapped in a wire cage or exercise wheel. Splinting can be performed for distal limb fractures. Surgical correction may also be performed, but any fixation device must be able to withstand the strong rolling-up mechanism. Lameness may be caused by ingrown toenails, arthritis, nutritional deficiencies, pododermatitis, constriction of a foot or digit by fibrous material, neurologic disease, or neoplasia.
Neoplasia in African hedgehogs is very common in both sexes. A variety of tumor types affecting every body system have been reported. The most common tumors are mammary gland tumors, lymphosarcoma, and oral squamous cell carcinoma. The median age at time of diagnosis is 3.5 yr, although tumors may occur in animals as young as 2 yr old. In one survey, > 80% of the tumors were malignant. Proliferative uterine tumors or polyps are common and are associated with vaginal bleeding, hematuria, and weight loss. Ovariohysterectomy allows prolonged survival of hedgehogs with uterine tumors. Some sarcomas have been associated with retroviral infection.
Signs depend on the location and severity of disease, and may include palpable masses, weight loss, anorexia, lethargy, diarrhea, dyspnea, and ascites. Diagnosis is based on cytology or histopathology. Diagnostic imaging and blood testing may be useful in determining the extent of the disease and establishing a prognosis. Treatment generally includes surgical excision and supportive care, although other treatment modalities may be helpful. Not every mass in pet hedgehogs is neoplastic; for example, abscesses, bone cysts, papillomas, and uterine polyps occur.
Neurologic signs, particularly ataxia, may be caused by torpor, demyelination, neoplasia, hepatic encephalopathy, trauma, toxins, infarcts, or malnutrition. Hedgehogs kept in cold (or sometimes excessively high) temperatures may enter a state of torpor or dormancy. In this state, the animal has a greatly diminished response to stimulation, decreased heart and respiratory rates, and possibly increased susceptibility to infection. Dormancy can last for several weeks, during which the animal may have periods of activity with ataxia.
Vestibular signs may be caused by otitis media or central neurologic disease. Hypocalcemia may result from postpartum eclampsia, malnutrition, or for unknown reasons, and usually responds to calcium supplementation. Intervertebral disk disease has been reported.
Demyelinating paralysis (wobbly hedgehog syndrome) occurs in as many as 10% of pet hedgehogs. Onset can occur at any age, but is more common in animals <2 yr old. An early sign is the inability to close the hood. This progresses to mild, intermittent ataxia. The signs gradually increase in severity and include falling, tremors, exophthalmos, scoliosis, seizures, muscle atrophy, self-mutilation, and severe weight loss. The paralysis usually ascends from hindlimbs to forelimbs and usually leads to complete paralysis within 9–15 mo after the onset of signs. Death occurs within 18–25 mo. Appetite is usually normal until the terminal stages, when most hedgehogs become dysphagic. The diagnosis is confirmed at necropsy. Histopathologic lesions include vacuolization of white matter, axonal swelling, degeneration of spinal cord ventral tracts, and axonal and myelin degeneration. Peripheral nerves may also be involved. The etiology is unknown, but a hereditary basis is suspected. Numerous treatments have been attempted without success. Euthanasia is recommended when the quality of life is compromised.
Obesity is common. Healthy hedgehogs should be able to roll up completely, without any fat deposits protruding. Treatment includes reducing high-fat foods, rationing the main diet, and increasing exercise. Weight reduction should be gradual to prevent hepatic lipidosis, and owners should monitor their pet's weight. Nutritional excess or deficiency may occur with unbalanced diets; for example, calcium deficiency may result from a diet consisting mainly of invertebrates.
Hedgehogs are prone to corneal ulcers and other ocular injuries. Diagnosis and treatment are as for other species, although administration of topical medication can be difficult. Blind hedgehogs navigate their captive environments with minimal detriment to their quality of life. Ocular proptosis is relatively common and carries a poor prognosis for viability of the eye.
Oral neoplasia, particularly squamous cell carcinoma, is common in hedgehogs. Dental disease, including calculus, gingivitis, and periodontitis, is also common. If advanced periodontal disease requires extraction of all the teeth, hedgehogs can be maintained on soft food. Tooth fractures and dental abscesses also occur. Actinomyces infection has been reported; anaerobic culture and treatment should be considered for dental abscesses in hedgehogs.
Excessive tooth wear occurs in older hedgehogs, and animals with this condition should be fed a soft diet. Hedgehog teeth do not grow continuously and should not be trimmed. Hedgehogs are susceptible to wedging of hard items (eg, peanuts) against the palate. Stomatitis may occur in males that bite their mates; treatment is with soft food and antibiotics.
Pinnal dermatitis is common; skin crusts, accumulated secretions, and a ragged pinnal margin may be observed. Dermatophytes and acariasis are important causes; other possibilities include nutritional deficiencies, dry skin, seborrhea with hyperkeratosis, and extension of ear canal disease. Ear mites (Notoedres cati) are occasionally seen; signs, diagnosis, and treatment are as for cats (see Otodectic Mange). Bacterial or yeast otitis externa also occurs; these infections are often secondary to acariasis or another cause of chronic inflammation. Signs include purulent discharge, odor, and sensitivity of the face and ear. Otic cytology, skin scrapings, cleansing, and topical antimicrobial/anti-inflammatory therapy are used as for other species. Otitis media/interna can also occur.
Posthitis may be caused by substrate entrapment in the prepuce. Hemorrhagic vulvar discharge is often caused by uterine neoplasia or endometrial polyps. Pyometra and metritis have been reported. Dystocia also occurs and is treated as in other small mammals. Premature births occasionally occur; the prognosis for young without a suckling reflex is poor. Agalactia may be suspected if neonates lose condition within 72 hr after birth. Diagnosis may be confirmed by attempting to express the mammary glands; however, this usually requires anesthesia and may cause the dam to abandon or cannibalize her young. Causes of agalactia include malnutrition, stress, lack of oxytocin, inadequate mammary development in young females, and mastitis.
Predisposing factors for upper and lower respiratory tract infection are sub-optimal environmental temperature; aromatic, dusty, or unsanitary bedding; concurrent disease causing immunocompromise; and aspiration of material from an oral infection. Signs include nasal discharge, increased respiratory noise, dyspnea, lethargy, inappetence, and sudden death. Radiographs, hematologic testing, and culture of tracheal or lung lobe aspirates are useful in diagnosis. Treatment includes antibiotics, nebulization, supportive care, and correction of underlying problems. Differential diagnoses for dyspnea are pulmonary neoplasia and cardiac disease.
Cystitis and urolithiasis occur and may cause changes in urine color, stranguria, pollakiuria, inappetence, and lethargy. Urinalysis with culture and radiographs should be obtained. Renal disease is also common and in many cases may be secondary to systemic disease. Nephritis, tubular necrosis, nephrocalcinosis, glomerulosclerosis, infarcts, polycystic kidneys, neoplasia, and various glomerulonephropathies have been identified. Signs associated with renal disease tend to be nonspecific, although polyuria and/or polydipsia may be noted. Treatment consists of correcting the underlying cause, fluid therapy, and supportive care.
Several strains of Salmonella occur in pet hedgehogs. Many cases of transmission to humans have been documented, particularly in young children. It should be assumed that all pet hedgehogs can carry and transmit Salmonella. Because infected animals may shed intermittently, a negative culture cannot rule out the carrier state. Treatment aimed at eliminating the carrier state is unlikely to be successful and may lead to antibiotic resistance.
Wild African hedgehogs are susceptible to foot-and-mouth disease. To prevent introduction of this disease to the USA, importation of African hedgehogs was banned by the USDA in 1991. Rabies has not been reported in wild or captive African hedgehogs, but the salivation that occurs during anting is occasionally mistaken as a sign of rabies. Human dermatophytosis from pet hedgehogs is also well documented.
Last full review/revision July 2011 by James W. Carpenter, MS, DVM, DACZM; Evelyn S. Ivey, DVM, DABVP
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Was driving west on Aboite Center Road around 4:45 p.m. 1/1/12 and pulled into the Jorgensen YMCA parking lot to grab this quick cell phone photo. Wish I had a better camera to do it justice. The crepuscular rays were prominent with a huge spread and the oval hole in the clouds was well-defined. My son calls it God Light. I tend to agree!
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In this lesson, students learn about scarcity, alternatives, choices and opportunity costs by reading So Few of Me. The class participates in an activity to help Perdita figure out her morning schedule at summer camp. The students identify Perdita's alternatives, choose activities for her and identify the opportunity costs of those choices. Then, students work in groups to make choices and identify opportunity costs for Juan's after-school schedule.
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Hi Tony
Will need to ask my bossman about that and off course he would want to get involved!!??!!
Not BETT this year - too much to do
Hi Tony
Will need to ask my bossman about that and off course he would want to get involved!!??!!
Not BETT this year - too much to do
Last edited by ASJ; 3rd January 2011 at 11:33 PM. Reason: typos
GrumbleDook (3rd January 2011)
We have just further optimised ICA/Xenapp performance - if you download the latest f/w from our website you should see a noticeable increase in performance (again!)
(Sorry - was meant to be a PM to Imiddleton as a response to post he left above - please ignore if not him - or not an Axel ICA user!)
Last edited by Axel; 5th January 2011 at 03:16 PM.
Dave O - Just wanted to say I really appreciate you taking the time to write that original post. A lot of the things you've said reiterate what I've been trying to get across to management for a long time, so it's nice to hear it all from someone who's clearly 'been there'.
I don't 100% agree with all the VDI stuff you've said, but then I haven't deployed it myself, only played around with it. I did test one (nameless) thin client solution and was not at all impressed so I can 100% see where you're coming from. On the flip side I've tried the Sun/Oracle VDI stuff from Cutter that others have mentioned and I've been really impressed (especially when coupled with Sun SGD) so I still think it has potential as a solution.
Sounds like you've had a rough two and a half years, props for sticking with it.
Fantastic post and thread. I've got more to say on the matter but have not got time!!
Thanks for this post, very interesting, have shared with the rest of the PT techs. Thanks again
VDI update
Time having passed from my original post I will, therefore, update you on our present position. The truth is nothing much has changed. The HyperV solution is working well. The refactored ESXs (IBM x3650s) are as solid as ever, the fibre attached SAN spins on. The advent of Windows 2008 R2 SP1 and VMM 2008 R2 SP1 have allowed the server count (mainly terminal servers) to go up, which I'm not sure is a good thing. DPM continues to back up effectively. Actually tested the DR routine with a machine I built on the HyperV and it worked there's a first. I can now officially say I'm impressed with HyperV. I would'nt use it on mission critical services but it has it's place.
Licensing with EES has made things a lot simpler. Took a while to squeeze the Sharepoint and Exchange forefront license keys out of Microsoft but we got there in the end. A year of stability has turned my attention from the backend platform to a much more worthwhile venture into documentation and VLE stuff. If I say so myself my ability to write IT related policy documents, strategic plans etc is awsome (OK its maybe just alright). The VLE/MLE/learning plaatform whatever they call it nowerdays is coming along nicely. I get a lot of stick about our "website" from the other techies in Rotherham, all I can say is that it will be up when we're good and ready.
I should probably start the VLE stuff on a different thread but hey.
Sharepoint 2010, Exchange 2010 fully integrated, Salamander Soft (Richard Wills) for site management, class site creation, SLK customisation, calendar integration, exposing SIMS data through bespoke webparts and general making stuff work. If you have read my other threads you will know my views on so called experts and consultants in the case of Richard W he actually is one! and a nice chap too. If you get the chance have a look at SalamanderSoft it does what it says on the tin.
The other members of my team are retro-gamers and have organised a week long event promoting the UK gaming industry. Speakers from the industry are coming in to help give students an idea of what is needed to get involved including coding, narrative and art work. Looks like it will be a good week. Have a look at Games Britannia
I'm rambling and going off topic now. Not sure I will be able to offers anything else to this topic but I hope my experiences will help you.
On that note, I was wondering if people would be interested in me doing a presentaion on this and other virtualisation topics, hosted at my school, half/full day, with a chance to have a look at all of our gubbins. Let me know what you think on this thread.
Dave O
Last edited by Dave_O; 8th May 2011 at 08:14 PM.
Embazzy (12th May 2011)
@ Dave
What a refreshing and honest response from someone who made the same mistake as me. VDI is 'the way to go' as to speak. However, rushing into things and enabling a mindset that it will cater for everyone's needs is naive to say the least. Been there and done that. Trying to explain to teachers that they can no longer play DVD's very well was the first blow. Having to then justify to the geography department that they can no longer run Google Earth Pro on this new flashy and expensive system was the next. Ultimately it created more problems than it solved. Especially as regards to supporting the product once installed by the specialists. We all know the score here, being in IT, you are expected to become a master of citrix and Vmware overnight!
I'd suggest VDI is the way forward, but careful planning and training of support staff needs to come BEFORE its introduced to the network.
Reading back on some of the threads on VDI an old Edwin Starr song sprang to mind to mis-quote if I may "VDI, what is it good for? Absolutely nothing..."
OK. That's not strictly true, staff external access yes, in school via thin clients and old boxes... a waste of time, money and effort. Another year on and I do have to say that the thin clients have been no problem at all... when running Terminal services. VDI is still not there by any stretch of the imagination. VMWare were pretty cheesed off when I terminated my SnS just over a year ago. I did ask about new features etc in the coming year (they could not really quote anything major) and my decision has been vindicated, what have they given us since last year? 5.1 (I'm on 5.0) wow massive improvement.
As for virtualisation generally I have a couple of question
1) I don' t understand the arguments about stuff having to be physical. Why does SIMS have to be physical, DC physical etc? Is it performance? Do you really think in a school environment (we have 1450 students and 180 staff) that SIMS will be pushed to the absolute physical (excuse the pun) limit? I have sat and watched SIMS over many hours (years), IOPS, network, processor, memory and cannot figure out why it has to be physical? Please someone enlighten me!
2) Why do people think Virtual infrastructures are a bottleneck and try to scale them to be able to run the equivalent of NASA? I read on here that someone is suggesting using 10Gb connections? What the hell for!!? Now I've got 8Gb fibre which I have come to realise is actually stupid, I could have saved money and stayed with 4Gb. It never uses more than 1.5Gb even when running Veeam backups over fibre. If this is for networking rather than attached storage (iScSI) then this is even more insane. As an example, I normally have 4 x 1Gb NICs teamed for host connectivity so I disconnected 3 of these from each host and ran them with essentially just one NIC each for a week just to see what would happen and you know what? no difference. The HP switch monitoring software never registered above 60% on any of the NIC ports at any time even with 720 workstations accessing work at the beginning (read) and at the end (write).
Just in case I didn't make it clear at the beginning, forget VDI it's too expensive both for the kit and the licensing and just use terminal services, it does a good job within it's limitations. The important thing is knowing what these limitations are. Deploy in areas where these limitations will never be reached and you'll have happy staff and students.
Jamo (4th March 2013)
It's nice to find someone who shares my thoughts on this. Nothing to add really as you've pretty much covered my whole opinion on this, i get the feeling not enough monitoring and research go into a lot of the implementations/recommendations people give and receive.
The idea of "more is better" mentatlity is one that leads to schools throwing away a lot of money at unneeded equipment and configurations.
Last edited by mrbios; 3rd March 2013 at 06:13 PM.
This is a great thread. Thanks for sharing you critical review of your strategy, it has actually inspired me to step up to a challenge I can see coming at my place.
On over speccing your links. Your traffic summary is remarkably similar to mine, and I've got half the number of end user devices, a completely different architecture and and half of those are coming over a SINGLE 1GB/s link from the wireless controller. This similarity is suspicious. I wonder if the data collection timescales are smoothing out the peaks in our raw respective data sets?
You also say that reducing your bandwidth by a factor of 4 had no effect. Your only measure was traffic reported by the switches. How about client performance, log on time (under load), and UI responsiveness on the desktops?
My motivation for asking, I hope, is encapsulated in this anecdote: I once had (to my shame) all my server VM's running on one host for nearly a month. Once I realised and corrected it, I went back and looked at the data, we were trucking along at 70% CPU and RAM on the box and there was roughly the same traffic running out of one box as we had normally on two (4x 1GBe per host for iSCSI and network). When I made an off the cuff remark to one of the office team, only then did they say "well it has seemed a lot slower over the last few weeks than it was before". The trouble being that running at half capacity provided a 'just good enough' service, and the granularity of the monitoring system did not indicated that I was pushing the capacity limits of the links and CPU (oh yes for there was only one CPU running the whole server suite!).
Just to jump onto this thread late...I'm running a terminal services farm for part of my estate, somewhere around 80/90 machines in curriculum and another 50 ish in admin locations. Works generally well, and bar some issues with some wyse units I would say its ok. We have a mix of wyse and windows thin PC units.
For your traditional graphics intensive areas, eg ICT, Art, Design, Music - physical machine is still the way... with over 300 machines lurking around the site.
On the other bits of the thread...I'm also a great advocate of Salamander; as well as being a Sharepoint, Exchange and Lync integrated user
Last edited by TheScarfedOne; 4th March 2013 at 11:34 PM.
1) No, sat and watched it most of one day (mid-week) had some peaks at around 80% (which is what you would expect) but that was it.
2) When I say no effect, that means everything, login time, internet speed (Smoothwall and TMG back end firewall both virtual) file access, Sharepoint and Exchange etc etc.
Bear in mind the rest of the virtual infrastructure was working fine, ESXs SAN etc, given that there are 3 hosts, the NIC load would have been across all 3 as different services (DC, Sharepoint, Exchange file services) would probably been spread across them (don't know for sure as I let VMWare deal with all that stuff ie vmotion, load balancing etc). I probably wouldn't advocate just 1Gb NIC but certainly no more than 2.
How come you were not alerted that one of the hosts was not functioning? As for CPU, one CPU in each host is plenty. See below for CPU usage
Last edited by Dave_O; 3rd March 2013 at 09:22 PM.
I'm going to play devil's advocate for a bit... I've recently started working for a company that have done a lot of VDI installs, and I can honestly say there are 1000+ seat VDI deployments that are a huge success, and that thin clients work much better for them than fat clients did. It all depends on the scenario, the users' requirements, and what their expectations are. We've got sites where staff can walk up to a machine, plug in a smartcard, be logged on in 5 seconds, unplug the card and be logged off instantly, then go home, go to a website, and log back in to their session from home exactly where they left off. We've also got sites with machines spread out over a wide campus, and the staff on-site would struggle with managing them. With VDI everything's central, and on the very rare occasion a thin client does break, it can either be fixed from the central server or the hardware swapped out in a couple of minutes.
Is VDI suitable for everyone? No. VDI, if done properly, will lower your long term costs. Will it be cheaper in the short term? No, very unlikely. If you've got well-spec'd fat clients and are maxing out their CPU/RAM/GFX capabilities, then it's unlikely that thin clients will give you better performance. If you've got a site where the main use of PCs is Office, SIMS and browsing the internet, and they currently have very few or very old PCs, then VDI may offer a major improvement over what they've currently got. If you've got a new build and they need a huge number of PCs but can't afford to upgrade them every three years and need something that isn't going to get broken by users, VDI may be perfect.
1) Okay, using your first example of SIMS - I think most people say SIMS has to be physical is because for a long time Capita said they wouldn't support SIMS in a virtual environment, and no one wants their huge MIS system to be unsupported. Also, SIMS is largely just an SQL server, and SQL usually has fairly high disk I/O requirements (depends on how heavily you use SIMS). Disk I/O doesn't always virtualise very well, unless you have good local storage on your VMware/Hyper-V/whatever host (not recommended) or a good network link to your SAN with fast disks (expensive). Using your second example of a DC, it's more that you shouldn't have just virtual DCs, you should have at least one physical DC/DNS/DHCP server. The reason for this is simple - dependencies. Say everything goes down (long powercut or whatever) and your VMware/whatever host talks to the SAN via its hostname. You power up the VMware/whatever host, but it can't see the SAN because there's no server up doing DNS. You can't power up the virtual DC that does DNS, because to do that you need the host to see the storage. Same issue if something on the infrastructure side needs AD authentication for it to start up. You're stuck in a loop of dependencies that are very easily solved by having one physical DC. You can get around this by not having anything on your infrastructure that uses DHCP, hostnames (rather than IPs) or AD authentication, but most people just prefer to have a physical DC/DNS/DHCP server that they can power up first, and then start up their virtual hosts and storage.
2) Bottlenecks - Say I run 20 physical servers and they've all got 1Gb connections. Say they all peak at around 80%, and maybe half of them peak around the same time of day. If I virtualise all 20 of those servers and put them on one physical host with a 1Gb or 2Gb link, then at some point it's very likely I'll run into network bottlenecks that are (technically) due to the virtual infrastructure. I don't know anyone running 8Gb or 10Gb links, because in reality in a school very few of us are running that kind of network throughput. I do know people with blade chassis that have very high consolidation ratios and are coming close to maxing out 4Gb links though, and have a perfectly good reason to consider 10Gb networking.
That's my two pence anyway.
- VDI can be absolutely awesome if it's put in the right place. If someone's got high-powered fat clients and swaps them for thin clients expecting a performance increase, they're probably going to be disappointed. If they want a new, manageable, large array of desktops and don't need video editing capabilities (or similar), then VDI may be perfect for them.
- You keep some servers physical to either avoid loops of dependencies or single points of failure, or because you can't afford the hardware needed to give the required performance on a virtual server.
- You do 10Gb networking if you need it - most of us don't. If you're consolidating a lot of physical servers down onto one server by virtualising them, then you need to provide sufficient bandwidth for all of those servers. For some people that might only be 1Gb, for some people that might be 10Gb.
Like I said, just my opinion and just playing devil's advocate.
Given your in depth self critical analysis, I think that you know this probably isn't really good enough to be sure. In the same way that I know there is no excuse for my not noticing all my VMs were running on one host. (It didn't trip any of the built in alerts, and we didn't look at the console for a month because it was just working and we were concentrating on other matters). Automated Monitoring and reporting is king for enabling good decisions to be made, or past decisions effectively reviewed.
In your environment do you have heavy Multimedia file transfers, or run with roaming profiles offline files and searchindexer enabled? For us these are where we see the maximum load on the network links.
Fair enough.
You appear to have 3x 12 Core 3Ghz Xeons. This is roughly equivalent 3x the grunt of my two hosts. Mine run at substantially over 50% during peak load. If I had two of those beasties of yours I would have the capacity to not need additional upgrades for another three years at least. However, by going cheaper than you I am already over capacity, and extremely limited in what I can do next without a third server.
In other news, I've got busy week. If I find the time I will tighten up my performance stats collectors and post an analysis to a new thread, for comparison.
Damn straight! No excuse. You'll be first against the wall when the revolution comes!
Yes to multi media - make heavy use of a streaming media server, yes we use roaming profiles (kids profiles are fairly small we controll the desktop, staff profiles are large - they are crap at managing them, No to off line files, seachindexer? don't know.
As a starting point on performance, if you have a look at the thread below, I would be interested in your figures for SQI IO.
psydii (4th March 2013)
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Virgie goes to school with us boysIn the post-Civil War South, a young African American girl is determined to prove that she can go to school just like her older brothers. Virgie, youngest in a family of boys, vows that she will accompany her brothers when they walk the seven miles to school every Monday morning. All Virgie wants is to go to school with her brothers George, Will, Nelson, Val, and C. C. But they keep saying she's too little for the long, seven-mile walk, and that girls don't need school. Well, Virgie doesn't agree, and she's not gonna let anything stand in her way. |
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Review: Virgie Goes to School with Us Boys
User Review - GoodreadsThis is a great story to shows a young strong African American young girl who is determined to go to school with her brothers. She prepares herself and her family for a summer, showing them how she ...
Review: Virgie Goes to School with Us Boys
User Review - GoodreadsTitle: Virgie Goes to School with Us Boys Focus: Narrative Features I Would Use in a Mini Lesson 1. Voice: This book is great for modeling voice. The story of Virgie is told by the brother using the ...
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African American anyway asking and asking Back Baltimore became beginning Bloody Bones boys brothers careful Civil College cooked Cornelius creek crying for Mama dark determined don't need school early Elizabeth Fitzgerald Howard Ervin established Everything ready Eyes farm field Fink folks fore freedom George Girls don't need go to school grab grandfather hand Haskins Head and Bloody heart hill John Johnson City Jonesborough keep Later learning left to right lived look Lord Main Street minds morning need school Nelson older Papa parents passed period prayer pretty prohibited Quakers Raw Head read and write scarce scared Seemed seven miles shirt sing sister slaves societies Soon stand staring step Summer Take tell told took town UNIVERSITY Virgie Virgie's walk Warner Institute week woods young


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The house served as a home, headquarters and hospital before and after the Battle of Mill Springs. The battle was the first Union victory of the Civil War. Three Generals occupied the house, General Felix K. Zollicoffer C.S.A., General Manson Malone U.S.A., and General George H. Thomas, U.S.A.
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FLEXIBACTER- COLUMNARIS & FUNGUS (Saprolegnia):
Identification (& Causes) A white spot/wound in the body maybe 3/16 inch, that within a week the white area increases to a larger strip in size. In gills, Columnaris can cause disintegration of the gill filaments. As the disease progresses the gills can change from their natural color to a light or dark brown. Since it is difficult to absorb enough oxygen from the water using damaged gills, the fish will start breathing rapidly and the fish might also swim up to the surface gasping for air. A white to grey cottony growth (that appears like a fungus) but it appears to be eating away the fish skin, as well appears the outside skin is eaten away down to the 'meat'. (The picture to the left shows necrosis of the fins, please click the picture to enlarge) Necrosis (premature death of cells and living tissue) of the fins which is accompanied by white, cotton-like accumulations of bacteria and detritus. Fin Rot is a common secondary problem of Columnaris (see the picture in the treatment section) (See the picture to the left) Ulcerations on the skin that slowly or sometimes quickly result in major tissue (epidermis) loss. Sometimes the infection where Columnaris is present is a blackish to fleshy in color. A lesion that appears like a white/grey Saddleback near the dorsal fin (which leads to the other common name for this disease: Saddleback Disease. As well the skin lesions will often appear white/gray colored with an edging of red, which will often change to ulcers caused by the bacteria decaying the underlying tissue. (The picture to the left shows white/gray fungus "like" skin lesions, please click the picture to enlarge) Occasionally Columnaris can appear as a mouth "fungus", however this may actually be Saprolegnia or even Streptococcus IMPORTANT; often Columnaris infections are present in well circulated, oxygenated tanks, unlike Aeromonas Infections which are often anaerobic and are much more common in tanks with poor circulation, high bio loads, and large amounts of organic wastes. Reference: Aeromonas, Vibrio, Septicemia, Furunculosis Bacterial Infections The bottom line is Columnaris is an aerobic bacterial pathogen that does NOT thrive on organic wastes (this despite claims of inaccurate, poorly researched articles about Columnaris such as one found at about.com!!). I want to make clear, since many web sites note that Columnaris is generally found in tanks with poor water quality, that this is an incorrect way to diagnose Columnaris (barring a microscopic slide) since this pathogen is aerobic and can become pathogenic in otherwise well maintained tanks (as per many measures of water quality), yet has other stressors that allow for a Columnaris infection such as injury from harassment. In fact since Columnaris is strictly aerobic, the addition of more aeration/circulation will do nothing to stop Columnaris other than to possibly help the fish fight this disease pathogen. Unfortunately this key point is so often missed, as this totally incorrect statement from a popular web site shows: Columnaris reproduces poorly in the presence of oxygen in the water, so keeping the water's oxygen content up by creating a current can help prevent Columnaris WRONG! Columnaris often results in wounds when stress is common in an aquarium or from handling, shipping or any other stress inducing factor for fish. So a diagnosis of a growing sore as Columnaris in a tank that has fish that are under constant harassment by other fish is often a correct assumption (common in many Lake Malawi Mbuna fish in injuries incurred). Sores, wounds, or infections that grow even while under treatment of gram positive medications such as Melafix or Erythromycin may be an indicator of a Columnaris infection as well. Unfortunately Maracyn (which is Erythromycin) is incorrectly prescribed to treat Columnaris by many that do not know that Columnaris is gram negative bacterium while Erythromycin is a gram positive antibiotic. Temperature Spikes or sustained high temperatures can often allow for a Columnaris infection to take hold in an otherwise healthy aquarium especially if other stressors are present such as injury, stress, age, etc. (in fact sudden increases in temperature is a common cause of a Columnaris outbreak in an aquarium or pond). Columnaris thrives in temperatures above 80 F (I have observed 85-90 to be a range where Columnaris is most virulent). A temperature in the 80s is more a factor in cold water fish such as Goldfish. Finally, since Columnaris is an opportunistic aerobic infection even a well maintained aquarium can suffer from a Columnaris infection with even a slight opportunity for infection (assuming this bacterial pathogen is present). A common portal for a Columnaris infection is simply an older and weaker fish. Old age allows many opportunistic infections to get a foothold in at least the fish in question. This is important to note, since treating a fish that has his/her immunity and normal body functions in decline may often be futile. This does not mean it is not worth while attempting a cure, only that an aquarium keeper should not beat him or herself up over failure to cure a favorite fish that has been well cared for since bringing the fish home. I have seen this with Bettas in particular over the years since these popular and personable fish often win us over in our hearts, but have a short lifespan even with the best of care (this lifespan can vary depending upon whether kept in an aquarium or bowl). Treatment Information:Besides the obvious first step of lowering stressors and improving water quality, additional salt is helpful too at a dose of 1 tablespoon per 5 gallons OR HIGHER.In fact a study at the Alabama Agricultural Experimental Station, Auburn University has shown increasing salt concentrations used with Channel catfish (along with heat reduction to 75 F) can treat Columnaris (Flexibacter) infections. This study flies in the face of anecdotal advice about not using salt with catfish. See the chart to the above/left for the mortality rate of Catfish with Edwardsiella ictaluri (which is a similar gram negative rod bacteria to Columnaris) treated with salt at different levels, please click to enlarge. References: *Edwardsiella ictaluri *Alabama Agricultural Experimental Station, Auburn University You can see from the diagram that the best results were achieved at a dose of 3000 milligrams per liter; based on the weight of salt this converts .67 teaspoons per liter or 2.54 teaspoons per gallon. This is Much more salt than many aquarists commonly believe a Catfish can tolerate. Please keep in mind that this amount of salt is NOT meant for long term use, rather just the duration of time it takes to reach a cure for the Columnaris infection. This amount of salt is most simply used in a 30 minute bath, however as per this study it can be used in the main display aquarium/tank. If added to the main aquarium, I recommend building up to high level suggested by this study over a 2 day period. A Fish dip or bath in Mebromin, Potassium Permanganate, or Methylene Blue (not to be confused with malachite green) has also helped speed cure in most instances for my clients fish (or my personal fish) and SHOULD BE part of most Columnaris Treatment regimens! Caution, do not use Potassium Permanganate with open sores present. Product References: *Potassium Permanganate; from AAP *Kordon Methylene Blue 4 oz, from AAP In fact with many instances of Columnaris the Methylene Blue Bath (or the even more strong, but more carefully administered Potassium Permanganate bath) was the main factor of treatment that affected a cure as per many tests. See the picture above/left for a Betta also displaying secondary Fin Rot that literally was on "deaths door" (laying on the bottom with little response) that recovered with a treatment regimen of Kanamycin & Salt as well as regular fish baths which included Methylene Blue, Salt, and Kanamycin. Please click to enlarge. The Bottom line is a Fish Bath and maybe a swab too is a MUST part of any moderate to serious Columnaris infection treatment! With Methylene Blue or Potassium Permanganate I prepare a double strength bath and place the fish in this solution for 30 minutes). I strongly recommend this bath as a FIRST course of action. Furan Two AND Kanamycin SHOULD be added to this 20-30 minute bath for more serious or stubborn cases, HOWEVER do not combine these medications or any others with Potassium Permanganate, ONLY Methylene Blue can be combined. Product Resources: *Furan 2, Nitrofurazone; from AAP *Kanamycin,; Kanaplex from AAP Please see this article for more about Baths: Fish Baths, Dips, Direct Treatment Applications As well as the above noted baths, direct applications of Methylene Blue, Hydrogen Peroxide or Diluted Potassium Permanganate to external areas of infection can help with recovery and may be your only chance to check the spread of a more serious infection of Columnaris. Reference: Aquarium Medications 3, Hydrogen Peroxide Many fish diseases, it should be noted, are caused by different bacterial or fungal pathogens that often exhibit similar symptoms, so identification of a specific bacterial or fungal pathogen is not often possible from mere visual inspection of the symptoms on the fish. By using broad-spectrum treatments such as a Furan Two & Kanamycin COMBINATION against diseases with similar symptoms affecting fish, precise identification of specific bacterial or fungal pathogens causing the disease that often display similar symptoms may not be absolutely necessary. Please note that the combination of BOTH Kanamycin AND Nitrofurazone MUST be used for effect against true flavobacterium columnare infections, otherwise the minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) values of these medications individually is too low. Other Treatments; Triple Sulfa may also yield positive results for treatment of Columnaris if used early (although this is not as effective of a treatment for Columnaris as it used to be or as the Kanamycin/Nitrofurazone combination). My professional use of Triple Sulfa has found that it is occasionally a good choice along with baths and some salt for mild to moderate infections and is rarely harsh on aquarium environments including plants. I stand behind Triple Sulfa as a possible alternative treatment. This despite a rude/condescending comment brought to my attention from Guppies.com. As well, this person is incorrect as per the use a UV Sterilizer, as it is excellent prevention for Columnaris, including the fact it improves the Redox Balance. As to his condescending remarks about me personally, Yes, I have done copious amounts of research (which many are cited here, including the use of Triple sulfa), including my consulting with one of my mentors, Dr. Herzog. Product Resource: Triple Sulfa from AAP Pimafix can aid as a natural "in-tank" treatment for VERY MILD cases of Flexibacteria in combination with lower temps, salt, and baths (I would NOT recommend it for more moderate to serious cases). Do not confuse Melafix with Pimafix, as Melafix is more of an antiseptic with no effect on Columnaris whatsoever! Pimafix is sometimes effective for a broad range of mild bacterial and fungal infections that typically afflict fish and other aquatic animals (especially gram negative). Fish diseases that may be treated in accordance with this product include bacterial fish diseases, such as fin and tail rot, mouth fungus (often caused by the bacterium Flavobacterium Columnaris); fungal fish diseases (such as those caused by microorganisms of the genera Saprolegnia and Achyle) and the like. Product Resource: Pimafix from AAP Unfortunately, there is much unfortunately posted in forums or websites about the use of Tetracycline or Oxytetracyline for the treatment of Columnaris however this is based on old research and misunderstanding of the large Tetracycline class of medications. Tetracycline is primarily gram positive while Columnaris is a gram negative rod bacteria (although Oxytetracycline is more broad spectrum than Tetracyline Hydrochloride, it is still primarily a gram positive treatment). This said Minocycline is member of this class of Tetracycline antibiotics and many persons assume all antibiotics in this class are the same, which is not true. Minocycline (sometimes spelled Minocycline) is more gram negative than its cousins and has shown effectiveness for Columnaris. Maracyn 2 is a product that contains Minocycline. That said, the Tetracyline family of antibiotics should never be your first choice of medication treatment, despite some misinformed information stating otherwise (please note that I make this statement based on researched medication facts as well as MUCH practical experience dating back to 1979). References: *Aquarium Medications Part 2; Tetracycline *Aquarium Medications Part 2; Oxytetracycline *Aquarium Medications Part 2; Minocycline Additional or Follow-Up Treatments; Among other treatments I have used, especially to prevent reoccurrence once the fish are OK might include Medicated Wonder Shells, which contain Acriflavin (as well they contain Methylene Blue). Acriflavin is active against flex bacteria in mild cases. While I do NOT recommend Medicated Wonder Shells for a full blown infection of Columnaris these can be an excellent follow up treatment about 7-10 days after completion of regular treatment and baths. These are helpful in part for a Columnaris infection due to the positive mineral ions they deliver along with medication. I do suggest a water change and adding carbon to filters prior to the introduction of a Medicated Wonder Shell, or other follow up treatment. Reference: Aquarium Medications Part 3; Acriflavin Product Resource: Medicated Wonder Shell; ONLY available at AAP FINALLY, in summary of treatments; one aspect I found over and over, including when I have compared notes with other aquarium maintenance professionals is that attempting to mix a little of one method of treatment with another almost always results in failure. In other words, if you have found a treatment you have found that works that differs from what I have stated, GREAT! But do NOT attempt to mix what is suggested here by leaving out some aspects of these treatment steps (or another methods) and expect success. Also as I have already noted, do NOT leave out the importance of correct water parameters, in particular positive mineral ions play in the success of a Columnaris treatment regimen. PREVENTION & FURTHER COLUMNARIS (Flexibacter) INFORMATION:Flavobacterium columnare gained the nick name Columnaris because wet mounts of Flexibacter prepared from diseased fish appear as column-like, "haystack" colonies.Columnaris, which is a gram negative aerobic bacterium, is often prevalent in systems with poor mineralization. Reference this article: Aquarium Chemistry; The Importance of Calcium, Electrolytes and more. As well; crowded conditions (often in re-circulating systems), aggressive inhabitants, poor handling, poor Redox Balance, sudden temperature spikes (or prolonged temperatures much above 80F), and the stress from high bio loads are all conditions that can allow for an opportunistic Columnaris infection. Please note; high bio loads is more symptomatic of Aeromonas or Saprolegnia infections. Reference: Aquarium Redox Balance Columnaris bacterium have caused problems for fish farmers for many years. It is not easy to control, and because the disease is related to stress, an effort to identify and correct the source of the problem is necessary to prevent excessive or chronic mortalities. Fish are particularly vulnerable to Columnaris following handling and transport, especially since Columnaris is opportunistic warm water pathogen that is often always present in the water, it simply needs an opportunity to become pathogenic. Abrasion from nets, transport, crowding, aggression by tank mates, and adverse water quality conditions (such as lack of necessary electrolytes/minerals) create a situation which is very conducive to Columnaris outbreaks. With this in mind; lowering stress (such as removing an aggressive inhabitant), improving minerals/electrolytes, and keeping a clean well filtered aquarium are first steps in treating or preventing Columnaris. Parameters to Consider for Prevention and Treatment of Columnaris: Please note that if ANY of these parameters are "off", it may difficult or even impossible to effectively cure a serious Columnaris infection! *Decrease Fish Load, Crowding Columnaris outbreaks have been shown in University studies to be prevalent in crowded, re-circulating systems, which is a reason I recommend against these types of systems even for fish stores. This is also common in African Cichlid tanks or similar where there is constant stress due to constant battling for hierarchy. *Ammonia, nitrites; should be 0 ppm *Nitrates (long term exposure of nitrates over 80 ppm can reduce resistance to disease, under 40 is better) *Lower your temperature; under 75 F (24 C) (only during treatment). Goldfish and similar cooler water fish should always be kept under 80F (27C) whenever possible. *pH (depending upon fish kept) Stability is more important than the actual pH. In other words, do NOT chase you pH, find a KH above 50 ppm and keep your pH stable at whatever pH you get, whether 6.5 or 7.5 * KH: generally a KH of 50 + (what is best here depends upon fish kept). This is related to pH and maintains pH stability via adequate carbonates *Positive Ionic Composition of the Water & GH: this is a little more complex than this article will deal with, however this is related to both the GH and Redox. In a nutshell MG++ (positive magnesium ions) and CA++ (positive calcium ions) play a part in adhesion of Columnaris by reducing surface potential and repulsive forces. This is important, please read this article for further information: Aquarium Chemistry; GH, Calcium, Magnesium, Positive Mineral Ions/Cations. *Redox Balance; although not generally a major concern for the average aquarist, it is important to understand when problems persist especially since newer research shows its importance in disease prevention. This is an important consideration for an aerobic bacterium such as Columnaris, since often other more obvious water parameters may be good while this one is not. Redox balance is related to GH (although if all positively charges ions are lost from calcium and other minerals that make up GH, you can still have a higher GH of say 300 ppm and still have a poor Redox Balance). But the point I want to make is that websites such as Wikipedia and many others are dead wrong to imply that "The bacteria can persist in water for up to 32 days when the hardness is 50 ppm or more" is a causative factor for Columnaris. While Columnaris Bacterium certainly need these minerals, so do fish and to make the strange leap of thought to state any GH over 50 can lead to Columnaris. This is simply bad science, not to mention proves a lack of practical experience on the part of authors of these articles. The fact is 50 ppm is a very low GH, even for many soft water fish and more importantly these minerals are essential for correct osmoregulation and a supplier of essential positive electrolytes necessary for fish immunity that Redox research has proven. It is noteworthy that these mineral cations play an important role in adhesion of Columnaris by reducing surface potential and repulsive forces, so for an aquarium keeper to attempt to lower minerals and positive mineral ions is misguided at best. Please Reference: Aquarium Redox Balance; Importance in Fish Disease Prevention *Consider ALL steps outlined in this article: A Healthy Aquarium; Disease Prevention. The more steps you follow in this article, ESPECIALLY the use of a TRUE UV Sterilizer, the lower your chance of opportunistic disease outbreaks such as Columnaris (or Saprolegnia/Fungus). Unfortunately what passes for a UV Sterilizer lately (for under $50) is nothing more than a clarifier and will provide NO aid to the prevention of Columnaris whether directly or as a major aid to a healthy Redox Balance Please read: UV-C Sterilization; Facts & Information For the previous stated water parameters, water changes are often very helpful (although watch cross contamination if you have more than one aquarium). *Good filtration (two filters is always a good option), is very important for treatment and prevention. It is important to catch this disease early, as Flexibacter advances it attacks the internal organs making for more difficult treatment. The Nitrofurazone/Kanamycin combo is about the only antibiotic that will work at this time (unless you have access to Chloramphenicol). This said, circulation and dissolved oxygen do not play as big a role as with the diseases Aeromonas, Furunculosis, or Vibrio, since Columnaris is a aerobic bacterium that needs oxygen while these others are anaerobic meaning they do best in environments without oxygen. Reference: Aeromonas, Furunculosis, & Vibrio Infections Please note that Anabantids (such as Gourami and bettas) seem to be especially susceptible to this disease, which is good reason to practice good cleaning practices with these fish even though they have the ability to get oxygen from the air. Wonder Shells are great to use in Betta bowls as they add needed electrolytes and calcium and improve water quality between cleanings. Product Resources: *Wonder Shells; Unique Version from AAP *Kanamycin, Kanaplex from AAP *Genetically Weak Fish, often over breeding or exposure to poor conditions such as with "feeder goldfish" can set up a fish for an opportunistic Columnaris infection. Sadly with genetically weak fish or fish exposed to poor conditions that permanently damage internal organs often NEVER recover from Columnaris, even with the best efforts. From my experience and speaking with others in my profession, Crown Tail Bettas seem to be especially susceptible to fatal Columnaris infections. For further reading about Columnaris, please read these outside resources/references: *http://etd.lsu.edu/docs/available/etd-11112004-113024/unrestricted/Farmer_thesis.pdf *Columnaris in tilapia; Use of Triple Sulfa for treatment *http://www.ars.usda.gov/research/projects/projects.htm?ACCN_NO=409119&fy=2006 *http://www.aces.edu/dept/fisheries/aquaculture/pdf/479bfs.pdf *http://en.engormix.com/MA-aquaculture/articles/f-columnare-myxobolus-tilapiae-infection-t2134/p0.htm *Prevalence of Edwardsiella ictaluri and Flavobacterium columnaris *Influence of water quality and temperature on adhesion of high and low virulence Flavobacterium columnare strains to isolated gill arches, Decostere, A., Haesebrouck, F., Turnbull, J. F., (1999), Journal of Fish Diseases, 22:1; 1 12 Section Two: SAPROLEGNIA (Fungus):Saprolegnia (often classified as a mold; from the Genus Saprolegnia) is often confused with Columnaris and for good reasons, they can often be similar in appearance. This similar appearance is why I combined these two unrelated pathogens into this article.Close inspection though, will reveal that a fish with Saprolegnia will have hair like growth structures similar to what you might find outside growing on a decaying piece of wood in the forest. This is what differentiates Saprolegnia (referred to as fungus) from Columnaris as you will not see the thin hair like structures upon fish with Columnaris. (Please click picture to enlarge) Another consideration in differentiating Fungus (Saprolegnia) from Columnaris is that Saprolegnia & fungi often grow on dead tissue, unlike Columnaris which must have living tissue to live on. This is an important distinction, since it is often found on dying or dead tissue of a live fish, as well as the remains of a decomposing fish, shrimp, etc. One more consideration for the identification of Saprolegnia/fungi is that out breaks often occur in aquarium/pond with large amounts of decaying organic matter, with low pH and poor circulation in the area of decay. Saprolegnia is not a true fungus (fungus are from the Kingdom Fungi such as Oomycetes), while Saprolegnia are from the Kingdom Protoctista which is a catch all Kingdom for the multicellular organisms which don't fit into the Animal, Plant, or Fungus Kingdom. This includes molds, green algae, red algae and more. Please Read Reference #1 at the end of this article, as this is an important definition that so many aquarium website information articles on this subject get wrong. These organisms, considered to be saprophytic "water molds," are a normal, ubiquitous component of aquatic ecosystems (Saprolegnia are present in ALL aquariums and ponds). Saprophytes live off of decaying organic material. If you have ever seen a piece of fish food left in the aquarium and was covered in what looks like cotton, those are all fungus filaments doing their job of breaking down organics, and although they are a natural part of the aquatic environment, an overabundance of Saprolegnia (Fungus) caused by decaying matter (especially in new aquariums) can result with the Saprolegnia to start trying to break down your living fish and can also appear as cottony growths on the fish as well. The picture to the left is a double close-up of a fish tail with Saprolegnia/Fungus, with inner picture a multiple magnification of how the Saprolegnia mold looks Saprolegnia will often get started if there is a large amount of decomposition of nitrogenous organic material such as dead fish left in the aquarium or large amounts of high protein fish food such as krill/shrimp. Injured fish with open sores will amplify this potential problem. This is why I generally recommend against using raw shrimp cycling method recently re-popularized on the internet by a few websites and some forums such as Yahoo Answers. I recommend against the use of raw shrimp for seeding an aquariums nitrogen cycle as this can result (as per my own studies) in Saprolegnia getting to strong a hold in a new aquarium. Please read further about the lifecycle of Saprolegnia zoospores to also explain the risks, as well as the references. Further Reference: The Aquarium Nitrogen Cycle; Raw Shrimp Cycling TreatmentTreatment is somewhat similar to Columnaris, although Saprolegnia responds well to these chemical remedies that are not generally effective for Columnaris (as well as a few antibiotic/organic remedies):
Please note that many of the above remedies can be combined for more strength, however others cannot, such as the oxidizers (Potassium Permanganate or stabilized oxygen chlorine). Medicated Wonder Shells have several ingredients combined (Malachite Green and Acriflavin to name two) but is not as strong for serious fungus/Saprolegnia outbreaks (since these are not combined at full strength in Med. Wonder Shells) as combining other full treatments such as ParaGuard and Triple Sulfa or Acriflavin. Salt, dips, and baths are also effective (in serious cases essential) as part of a Saprolegnia treatment. I would use plain salt (non iodized) or even; "SeaChem Cichlid Salt" which is a balanced salt with other essential elements necessary for most freshwater fish (not just cichlids as the name implies). As noted earlier, a Methylene Blue or Potassium Permanganate bath used at double tank strength for 30 minutes twice per day with the bath water disposed of afterwards is also very useful for Saprolegnia (Fungus) treatment (generally Potassium Permanganate is more effective for Saprolegnia). Product Resource: Cichlid Salt; A Balanced Mineral Salt from AAP However treatments often useful for Columnaris such as Kanamycin are less effective for Saprolegnia/Fungus. This said, I disagree with some statements I have read about the use of antibiotics for Saprolegnia stating that these should not be used over concern for the nitrifying bacteria; these statements are based on gram positive bacteria such as Erythromycin which can and will harm your nitrifying bacteria, however the antibiotics which are effective for Saprolegnia and Columnaris are gram negative and would take over use to destroy you bio filter bed. As for Erythromycin, I have read many fish keeping articles (especially on Betta forums) where Erythromycin (aka Maracyn) is recommended for Fungus (Saprolegnia); This is simply WRONG! While Fungus is not a bacteria and so cannot be labeled as either gram positive or gram negative; the fact is gram positive medications do not treat true fungal/saprolegnia infections and even if this is a misdiagnosis with Columnaris, this is still incorrect since Columnaris is gram negative. Sadly this misinformation is cut and paste around the Internet resulting in many needless fish deaths based on my experience and emails!! Saprolegnia (fungus) can be even more opportunistic in poor water with stressed or injured fish than many bacterial infections such as Columnaris, so healthy water conditions are even more important for cure (& prevention) and if water conditions are poor, all the medications in world may not affect a cure! The obvious 0 ammonia/nitrites are important but so is the often forgotten GH and a stable pH (provided by a proper KH for the fish kept). Without adequate calcium (found in GH) your cure will be difficult to achieve. Medicated or regular Wonder Shells may help in this area. Reference: Aquarium Chemistry; GH, KH, pH, Calcium, Electrolytes for a healthy aquarium Also important is a clean tank without organic mulm buildup, so make sure there is NO decomposing organic debris which can by itself bring on a Saprolegnia infection, in fact I have documented this which is why I generally recommend against using raw shrimp to start your nitrogen cycle. Please see this well researched article for more about the Aquarium Nitrogen Cycle: The Aquarium (& pond) Nitrogen Cycle. This article about aquarium cleaning may also be useful: Aquarium Cleaning Prevention/Lifecycle of SaprolegniaUnderstanding the lifecycle and Prevention of Saprolegnia is probably the best cure.The lifecycle is best described this was: the asexual spore of Saprolegnia release motile, primary zoospores. These primary zoospores are active only for a few minutes before they encyst, germinate, and release a secondary zoospore. Secondary zoospores are more motile for a longer period of time than primary zoospores and as well are considered the main dispersion phase of Saprolegnia. The repeated cycles of encystment and release, called "polyplanetism", allows secondary zoospores to make several attempts to locate a suitable substrate or host. It is these Secondary zoospores which are considered the infectious spore of Saprolegnia and can reside in grave/substrate, filters, and the water column for some time until this host is found (these spores do NOT require a food source during this time as well). Repeated vacuumings and large water changes can reduce this number but not totally alleviate it unless the tank is sterilized with bleach (especially since these spores can reside anywhere in an aquarium), so denying the zoospores a host via healthy, non stressed disease resistance fish is the next step. This is major reason why the long ago discredited "Raw Shrimp" aquarium cycling method should NOT be used! Please click on the diagram for a better view/larger diagram of the Saprolegnia lifecycle. From: http://hmsc.oregonstate.edu/classes/MB492/saprokent/saprolegnia.htm Further Reference: Aquarium Nitrogen Cycle; Raw Shrimp Cycling Make sure to vacuum out ALL decaying organic matter, especially high protein organics such as uneaten shrimp or similar. I recommend treating all wounds in fish immediately when discovered, slowly increasing pH (for fish that can tolerate a higher pH, which even Discus can thrive/breed in a pH above 7.0) and finally maintain proper electrolytes(such as calcium cations) in your aquarium as well as the possible addition of salt when wounds are discovered for healthy osmoregulation. Reference: Aquarium Chemistry; Electrolytes It is noteworthy that Saprolegnia thrive in lower pH water, especially under 6.0, although any water under 7.2 provides a habitat that can support strong Saprolegnia growth. With this in mind, keeping slightly more alkaline water is both good treatment and prevention for Saprolegnia. As to correct levels of electrolytes such as calcium (which is all too often missed by many anecdotal aquarium articles), is that CORRECT mineralization induces a healthy mucous layer on the fish epidermis which is so VERY important in fish resistance to Saprolegnia infections, in fact this quote from Oregon Sate University says it best: Willoughby (1989) determined that fish have 3 types of defenses against Saprolegnia.
Therefore, the mucous acts as a primary physical barrier (Bruno and Wood, 1999; Pickering, 1994), by continuous replenishment of the mucous layer (Pickering and Willoughby, 1982), although not for complete, i.e., 100%, removal of fungal spores (Murphy, 1981; Willoughby and Pickering, 1977). However, a fish having an intact epidermis is probably the best defense against saprolegniasis (Hatai and Hoshiai, 1994; Pickering, 1994). Please follow this link for more from the article from which this quote came: Saprolegnia; Theres a Fungus among us . This why I cannot emphasize more the need for correct mineralization (products such as Wonder Shells are excellent for this), the use of salt when needed, possibly a higher pH or KH and over all good water quality that includes a healthy Redox Balance. See also Aquarium/Pond Chemistry As with Columnaris, the use of a correctly set up, well designed UV Sterilizer (such as the Premium TMC Vecton or Advantage UV Sterilizer) can help with Saprolegnia (Fungus) prevention. Reference: UV Sterilization; Facts & Information Product Resource: TMC Vecton or Advantage High Dwell Time UV Sterilizers For further reading about Saprolegnia, please read these outside resources: (1) " Kingdom Protoctista is defined by exclusion: its members are neither animals (which develop from a blastula), plants (which develop from an embryo), fungi (which lack undulipodia and develop from spores), nor prokaryotes. They comprise the eukaryotic microorganisms and their immediate descendants: all nucleated algae (including the sea-weeds), undulipodiated (flagellated) water molds, the slime molds and slime nets, and the protozoa. Protoctist cells have nuclei and other characteristically eukaryotic properties; most have aerobiosis and respiration in mitochondria and 9+2 undulipodia at some stage of the life cycle." From: http://www.bio.umass.edu/biology/conn.river/protoc.html (2) What is Saprolegnia? By Kent Mayer OSU Department of Fisheries and Wildlife , (3) Fungal Diseases of Fish (4) Neish, G.A., and Hughes, G.C. 1980. Diseases of fishes, Book 6, Fungal Diseases of Fishes. T.W.F. Publications, Neptune, New Jersey. 159 p. (5) The Occurrence of Watermolds with respect of pH of Water Please click on the "Buy Now" Button below for a pdf format downloadable e-book (23 pages) of this article as of 4/25/13 for $3.99 usd This includes Both the complete Columnaris/Saprolegnia (Fungus) Article AS WELL AS the Aquarium Answers "Fish Baths" article as a bonus This can be saved to your iBooks, computer, printed for easy reading Computer, etc. Please understand this fee covers the time to format and our fees to Adobe to generate this PDF article PLEASE NOTE; You MUST click on "Return to American Aquarium Products" at the end of the transaction to be redirected to your download/e-book If for whatever reason you fail to be re-directed please email us for an attachment copy of your purchase; info@americanaquariumproducts FOR MORE AQUARIUM MEDICATION AND TREATMENT INFORMATION For more aquarium information and articles (pond too), please visit this site: If you have found this site helpful (or the sister site Aquarium and Pond Answers), please consider a donation to help with the 100s of hours of research and regular updates that go into these articles: > |


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New Rehabilitation Methods for Amputees, Stroke Patients Developed
Mar. 12, 2014 When use of a dominant hand is lost by amputation or stroke, a patient is forced to compensate by using the nondominant hand exclusively for precision tasks like writing or drawing. Presently, the ... full story -
Gestational Diabetes May Raise Risk for Heart Disease in Midlife
Mar. 12, 2014 Pregnant women may face an increased risk of early heart disease if they develop gestational diabetes. Early screening and intervention is important to identify later heart disease risk for these ... full story -
Key Heart Failure Culprit Discovered in Tiny Piece of RNA
Mar. 12, 2014 A small, but powerful, new player in the onset and progression of heart failure has been discovered by cardiovascular researchers. The researchers have also shown how they successfully blocked the ... full story -
Building New Drugs Just Got Easier
Mar. 12, 2014 A method for modifying organic molecules has been developed that significantly expands the possibilities for developing new pharmaceuticals and improving old ones. The innovation makes it easier to ... full story -
'Master Regulator' of Obesity? Distant IRX3 Gene Appears to Interact With Obesity-Related FTO Gene Mutations
Mar. 12, 2014 Mutations within the gene FTO have been implicated as the strongest genetic determinant of obesity risk in humans, but the mechanism behind this link remained unknown. Now, an international team of ... full story -
Transition to ICD-10 May Cause Information, Financial Losses for Providers
Mar. 12, 2014 Health providers may experience information and financial loss during the mandated conversion from the current International Classification of Diseases to its new and improved version, report ... full story -
Microbes Help to Battle Infection: Gut Microbes Help Develop Immune Cells, Study Finds
Mar. 12, 2014 Beneficial gut bacteria are necessary for the development of innate immune cells -- specialized types of white blood cells that serve as the body's first line of defense against invading ... full story -
Majority of Transgender Patients Report Negative Experiences in Emergency Departments
Mar. 12, 2014 The majority (52 percent) of transgender patients surveyed for a new study have had negative experiences when it comes to receiving emergency department (ED) care. In total, 408 transgender people in ... full story -
Bacterium, Fungus Team Up to Cause Virulent Tooth Decay in Toddlers
Mar. 12, 2014 Early childhood caries, a highly aggressive and painful form of tooth decay that frequently occurs in preschool children, especially from backgrounds of poverty, may result from a nefarious ... full story -
Boosting Self-Esteem Prevents Health Problems for Seniors
Mar. 12, 2014 The importance of boosting self-esteem is normally associated with the trials and tribulations of adolescence. But new research shows that it's even more important for older adults to maintain ... full story -
Large Study Identifies Exact Gut Bacteria Involved in Crohn's Disease
Mar. 12, 2014 While the causes of Crohn's disease are not well understood, recent research indicates an important role for an abnormal immune response to the microbes that live in the gut. In the largest ... full story -
Blood Sugar Testing With No Sharps
Mar. 12, 2014 Measuring blood sugar when you have diabetes usually involves pricking your finger and using a glucose monitor for the test. While this approach can give people with diabetes vital information about ... full story -
Debunking Water Myths: Weight Loss, Calorie Burn and More
Mar. 12, 2014 Drinking a lot of water is often advised to those who are trying to lose weight. But a nutrition expert says, while it is important, it's not the magic bullet to weight loss. If losing weight is ... full story -
Breast Cancer Gene Could Play Critical Role in Obesity, Diabetes
Mar. 12, 2014 The gene known to be associated with breast cancer susceptibility, BRCA 1, plays a critical role in the normal metabolic function of skeletal muscle, according to a new study. Mutations in the BRCA1 ... full story -
Two Definitions for Chronic Multisymptom Illness Afflicting Gulf War Vets Should Guide Treatment
Mar. 12, 2014 Two existing definitions of chronic multisymptom illness -- one by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and another from a study of Kansas Gulf War veterans -- should be used by the U.S. ... full story -
Skating to the Puck or Avoiding the Penalty Box in Health Care? Are Financial Penalties Working for Changing Hospital Behavior?
Mar. 12, 2014 A new article questions whether the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services' use of financial penalties is the right tack for changing the behavior of hospitals. In the article, the ... full story -
Texting Program Good Option for Teen Girls' Health, Study Shows
Mar. 12, 2014 An emergency medicine physician recently led a study that found a text-message program may be an effective violence prevention tool for at-risk teen girls. The team interviewed girls between the ages ... full story -
Large Waist Linked to Poor Health, Even Among Those in Healthy Body Mass Index Ranges
Mar. 12, 2014 Having a big belly has consequences beyond trouble squeezing into your pants. It's detrimental to your health, even if you have a healthy body mass index (BMI), a new international collaborative ... full story -
Discrepancies in Clinical Trial Reporting Raise Questions of Accuracy
Mar. 12, 2014 In an analysis of 96 research trial results published in top journals, almost all had at least one discrepancy between what was reported on the public clinical trial registry clinicaltrials.gov and ... full story -
Pancreatic Cancer Growth Slowed by Blocking Key Enzyme
Mar. 12, 2014 Blocking the function of an enzyme known as Hhat slows the growth and spread of pancreatic cancer by preventing a protein called Hedgehog from stimulating nearby normal cells to help the cancer, ... full story -
Superior Visual Thinking May Be Key to Independence for High Schoolers With Autism
Mar. 12, 2014 Teaching independence to adolescents with autism can provide a crucial boost to their chances for success after high school, researchers has demonstrated. According to the researchers, independence ... full story
- New rehabilitation methods for amputees, stroke patients developed
- Gestational diabetes may raise risk for heart disease in midlife
- Key heart failure culprit discovered in tiny piece of RNA
- Building new drugs just got easier
- 'Master regulator' of obesity? Distant IRX3 gene appears to interact with obesity-related FTO gene mutations
- Transition to ICD-10 may cause information, financial losses for providers
- Microbes help to battle infection: Gut microbes help develop immune cells, study finds
- Majority of transgender patients report negative experiences in emergency departments
- Bacterium, fungus team up to cause virulent tooth decay in toddlers
- Boosting self-esteem prevents health problems for seniors
- Large study identifies exact gut bacteria involved in Crohn's disease
- Blood sugar testing with no sharps
- Debunking water myths: Weight loss, calorie burn and more
- Breast cancer gene could play critical role in obesity, diabetes
- Two definitions for chronic multisymptom illness afflicting Gulf War vets should guide treatment
- Skating to the puck or avoiding the penalty box in health care? Are financial penalties working for changing hospital behavior?
- Texting program good option for teen girls' health, study shows
- Large waist linked to poor health, even among those in healthy body mass index ranges
- Discrepancies in clinical trial reporting raise questions of accuracy
- Pancreatic cancer growth slowed by blocking key enzyme
- Superior visual thinking may be key to independence for high schoolers with autism
- Immune system's redesigned role in fighting cancerous tumors
- Chronic pain research delves into brain: New insight into how brain responds to pain
- Wishing to be another gender: Links to ADHD, autism spectrum disorders
- Back surgery offers long-term societal benefits, according to new study
- Type 1 diabetes: Gut microbiota networks may influence autoimmune processes
- Antibody could be used to target tumor-causing protein, study shows
- New biomarker holds promise for monitoring heart disease
- Diets high in animal protein may help prevent functional decline in elderly individuals
- Prosocial youth less likely to associate with deviant peers, engage in problem behaviors
- Scientists 'herd' cells in new approach to tissue engineering
- Link between missing DNA, birth defects confirmed
- Substance naturally found in humans effective in fighting brain damage from stroke
- Operating room computer program improves care, could save U.S. Health care system millions
- Lack of sleep, stress describe a mother's experience after child's ALL treatment
- Cellular alchemy: How to make insulin-producing cells from gut cells
- Free online software helps speed up genetic discoveries
- Why antisocial youth are less able to see perspective of others
- MRI to 'see through' metal screws developed to follow patients after hip fracture surgery
- Magnet hospitals have higher quality of care, researcher finds
- Improving safety, effectiveness of lithium therapy: Closer than ever
- Tracking neighborhood eating habits to promote healthier diets
- Restoring order in brain: Brain cell regeneration may alleviate symptoms of Alzheimer's disease
- Repeat emergency visits for opioid overdose raise risk of hospitalization, respiratory failure
- Higher levels of cerebrospinal fluid predict faster cognitive loss in Parkinson's disease
- What's the upside of feeling too sad for chocolate?
- New gene for bipolar disorder discovered
- Cancer cells don't take 'drunken' walks through body
- Anesthetic technique improves quality of recovery for women having breast cancer surgery
- Cosmetic treatment can open door to bacteria
- Potential heart attack drug without side effects under development
- Statins may lower blood clot risk following joint replacement surgery
- Hip, knee replacements may boost cardiovascular health in osteoarthritis patients
- Detecting, testing, treating rare diseases: Technology delivers new era of personalization
- Plaques detected in brain scans forecast cognitive impairment
- Girls born small or underweight twice as likely to be infertile in adulthood
- Natural selection has altered the appearance of Europeans over the past 5,000 years
- New treatment for atrial fibrillation reduces stroke risk
- Poison centers benefit patients, reduce medical costs
- Unique individual with lupus and HIV demonstrates desired immune response to HIV
- New prostate cancer treatment convenient, less expensive, but may be riskier
- Key breaking point involved in traumatic brain injury modeled by researchers
- Serious side effect: Several FDA-approved anti-cancer drugs induce stem cell tumors
- How light affects our brain's performance: Photic memory for executive brain responses
- One step closer to ovarian cancer marker, researchers report
- Parkinson's disease: Quickly identifying patients at risk of dementia
- Spring allergy season is imminent, despite this winter's polar vortex
- U.S. cocaine use cut by half, while marijuana consumption jumps
- Social media and science: Don't choose a diet based on what's trending
- Diagnosing diseases with smartphones in real time
- Older people denied proper access to cancer care, according to study
- Pill may represent promising treatment for stubborn blood cancers, study finds
- Doctors often uncertain in ordering, interpreting lab tests
- Young skin cancer survivors at risk of other cancers later
- Feeding gut microbiota: Nutrition, probiotics key factors for digestive health
- Tricky balancing act: Antibiotics versus the gut microbiota
- Biological effects of popular artificial sweetener Sucralose
- Worldwide standard in diagnosing melanoma established
- What's new in autism spectrum disorder? Review of psychiatry presents research update
- Healthy eating may reduce the risk of preterm delivery
- Smokers' brains biased against negative images of smoking
- Dropped your toast? Five-second food rule exists, new research suggests
- Lower IQ and poorer cardiovascular fitness in teen years increase risk of early-onset dementia
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- Rare vascular disease raises stroke risk for young women
- IBS and bloating: When gut microbiota gets out of balance
- More than just bacteria: Importance of microbial diversity in gut health, disease
- Targeted drug may prolong survival of patients with cervical cancer
- Could sticky cells cause drug resistance in chronic blood cancer?
- PSA testing, early treatment decreases risk of prostate cancer death
- Optimized ski sled for Paralympics athlete
- Sweet test to reduce false-positive cancer diagnoses
- Healthy midlife diet may prevent dementia later
- Spread of antibiotic resistance understood by unravelling bacterial secretion system
- Mutations in leukemia gene linked to new childhood growth disorder
- Blood test identifies those at-risk for cognitive decline, Alzheimer's within three years
- Stem cell study opens door to undiscovered world of biology
- New tool to unravel mysteries of metastasis created
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Line 6 Thrice on Thursday
Thrice and Thursday are two amazing bands that can be considered both up and coming and established in their surprisingly short existence. Currently touring alongside... -
Line 6 and Shania Take Over TV
Be sure to tune in to NBC for a live concert event, "Shania Twain: Up Close and Personal." In her second NBC special, Shania will be playing in front of a small audience in the country... -
Line 6 Rocks the Locals
On Friday, November 14, 2003, several Line 6 employees got their bands together and converged upon a local watering hole to shake Agoura Hills up a bit. Many genres were represented in this rock n'... -
POM with POD
With a tour on deck and a new album in the can, Puddle of Mudd is poised to take the rock world by storm once again. In 2001, they released Come Clean, a platinum selling album... -
Good Mourning
Recently we've crossed paths with a great group of guys by the name of Alkaline Trio. This band is definitely making their mark with their new album, Good Mourning, which... -
Ride for the Roses
The Lance Armstrong Foundation played host to the annual Ride for the Roses Weekend October 24-26 in Austin, Texas. It is one of the most popular events in the world of cycling, last year ... -
The Power of III at Unbelievable Prices
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The POD Heard 'Round the World
In an attempt to be nestled between such great accomplishments as the world's longest fingernails and world's largest tumor, 784 guitar players gathered in Tacoma, WA to be the largest group to... -
Line 6 Monkeys Take Over Nashville
On July 18, 2003, a swarm of red monkeys invaded Nashville, TN. No one in attendance knew quite what to make of these tone-obsessed primates, but one thing was for sure, they brought some pretty...


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Camp Holly Airboat Rides
SCCU Member Discount
SCCU members receive 15% discount on an airboat ride. (Per person – Per ride)
Camp Holly – "Where Good People Meet"
Camp Holly has been open since 1923. The camp has survived the test of times. Come and spend an afternoon at one of the oldest fish camps in Central Florida. Open 7 days a week.
Enjoy the fresh air and escape to nature. Enjoy an airboat tour through the St. Johns Marsh. You will see birds, alligators and wildlife in its natural habitat, while skimming the surface of the St. Johns Marsh. Eco tours are available in the afternoons or you can always stop by for a night ride. Reservations are recommended for eco tours.
After taking an airboat ride, kick back and enjoy our lunch baskets such as shrimp, gator tail, catfish, holly burger and more. Listen to live entertainment on the rear deck every Saturday and Sunday afternoons while sitting in a hammock or just playing horseshoes. Join our monthly corn hole tournaments, which leads to the 2010 Corn hole championship at the end of the year.
Airboat rides run daily if weather permits.
Contact Camp Holly Airboat Rides:
Phone: 321-723-2179
Email: firstname.lastname@example.com
Serving all counties.
Effective date of program is September 13, 2010. Space Coast Credit Union does not endorse, recommend, or guarantee the services of Camp Holly/Camp Holly Airboat Rides. Previous purchases excluded. Program subject to change or cancellation without notice.


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Nvidia has introduced the GeForce GTX 780 GPU, designed for gaming enthusiasts, featuring Kepler architecture with 2,304 cores and 3GB of GDDR5 memory.
The GeForce GTX 780 supports Nvidia latest array of gaming technologies, including PhysX and TXAA, and works with Nvidia SLI technology for multi-GPU performance.
The GeForce GTX 780 also includes Nvidia GPU Boost 2.0 technology, which automatically increases the GPU's clock speeds for enhanced performance, while adding temperature target and fan controls, as well as extra over-voltage headroom and optimizations for water-cooling solutions.
The Nvidia GeForce GTX 780 GPU is available now from the add-in card suppliers including Asustek Computer, Colorful, EVGA, Gainward, Galaxy, Gigabyte Technology, Innovision 3D, Micro-Star International (MSI), Palit, PNY and Zotac. Pricing is expected to start at US$649.
- Trends in the upstream LED equipment and materials industries, 2H13
This report examines the outlook for upstream, which includes MOCVD equipment, rare earth materials and sapphire substrates, is also particularly significant as an indicator of trends in the LED industry as a whole over the next year.
- Global AMOLED market analysis and forecast, 2011-2015
This report analyzes the current state of development and strategies of the two largest AMOLED panel makers, Samsung and LG Display, examines the potential of the AMOLED handset panel and OLED TV markets, and takes an in-depth look at the competitiveness of S. Korea in the AMOLED sector.


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Shacknews Daily: Apr 03, 2012 - Batman DLC, Amazon video on PS3
by Garnett Lee, shacknews.com, Apr 3, 2012 2:45PM PDT
Join Garnett Lee on this episode of Shacknews Daily. Today's stories: Capcom says there's 'no distinction' for on-disc DLC in BBB response, discovered PS3 trophies point to new Batman DLC, and Amazon video services come to the PS3. Read more
Capcom says 'no distinction' between on-disc and DLC
by Steve Watts, shacknews.com, Apr 2, 2012 12:00PM PDT
Capcom has responded to Better Business Bureau complaints regarding its large on-disc roster update for Street Fighter X Tekken. Read more
Street Fighter producer steps down over health concerns
by Andrew Yoon, shacknews.com, Mar 29, 2012 12:30PM PDT
Over the weekend, Street Fighter producer Yoshinori Ono was hospitalized for reasons unknown. Today, he's confirmed that he will taking a leave of absence from his role at Capcom to focus on his recovery. Read more
Street Fighter x Tekken DLC characters to cost $20
by Andrew Yoon, shacknews.com, Mar 16, 2012 12:00PM PDT
Today, Capcom revealed that all twelve addition SFxT characters--Blanka, Sakura, Guy, Cody, Elena, Dudley, Alisa, Bryan, Christie, Jack, Lars, and Lei--will be downloadable in a $20 (1600 Microsoft Points) bundle. Read more
Street Fighter X Tekken producer apologizes to 360 players
by Steve Watts, shacknews.com, Mar 14, 2012 12:00PM PDT
Street Fighter X Tekken assistant producer Tomoaki Ayano apologizes to 360 fans for the 4-player co-op mode not working with two local players going online together. Read more