"The Truth About Fish Slime Coatings"
When the scientists associated with Kordon were first working on the problems with water quality from public water utilities in keeping fishes alive and safe, it became apparent that a key factor was in the fish's protective skin slime. If this was reduced, interfered with, or wiped away, the fish were much more exposed to stress and infection that affected their health and survival. Therefore, there was a real need for ingredients in a water conditioner that took care of this very real problem in fish keeping.
After considerable experimentation it was found that there were polymer colloids that could safely layer onto the skin of the fish that were compatible with the natural slime coating of the fish, enhancing its ability to resist infection, and providing the fish with reassurance that they had improved environmental protection.
Early on it was discovered that one polymer colloid was not sufficient. There needed to be several different colloids involved, that layered onto each other. This involved the difficulty of determining which polymer colloid did the best job of harmlessly anchoring into the skin of the fish onto which the other polymer colloids would attach. This was solved. the next was to find polymer colloids that would attach to each other and the "anchoring" colloid. This was solved. The results were integrated into all the Kordon NovAqua, EZ4U Instant Water Conditioner and Fish Protector (formerly PolyAqua) water conditioner products.
In fact in the early 1970s these products were the first ever developed for this purpose, and through improvements over time have retained their leadership as being the foremost in providing protection for aquarium and pond fishes, equally for both fresh and salt water fishes. Also through this time new polymer colloids were being commercially developed. The effectiveness of several of these new polymer colloids were found to greatly improve the ability to have slime coatings that protect fishes from infections, including those that repel infecting viruses and bacteria. Therefore, the Kordon products now containing the new recently developed polymer colloids are entirely different from anything in the past, and so far as known are unlike any other aquarium or pond products on the market. They are presently in 12 Kordon aquarium and pond products, variously in liquid and tablet form, the tablets dissolving in the aquarium water.
The way the polymer colloids work is that the key polymer colloid, that acts as the "anchor" into the skin of the fish, does so up to three cell layers deep in the fish's epidermal cell layers, without any harm or stress to the fish. The other polymer colloids layer on top of the "anchor" polymer colloid layer, integrated into the skin slime of the fish. Without the all-important "anchor" layer, none of the other polymer colloids will have anything to do with the fish or its slime coating, remaining free-floating in the water.
The way that all this is seen to be taking place is by using electron microscopy at 2000x magnification and by having tracer elements imbedded in the polymer colloids to tell where the colloids are going and how they are reacting. When there has been microscopic examination of other products on the market claiming to be slime coats for fish, we have seen the colloids free floating in the water, but none attaching to the skin of the fish. We have not seen the evidence that others have achieved what has been done by Kordon over the years, particularly so for the new improved NovAquas, EZ4U Instant Water Conditioners, Fish Protector products, and the Betta and Goldfish Tabs.
Kordon Water Conditioner Products Containing Fish Slime Coatings
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