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Hi Randy,
Thanks for posting this detailed description. So many interesting things to explore here.
First I want to mention the pathogen. As you describe, there are lots of different types of P. damselae (including 2 subspecies with multiple strains), many of which are really nasty for a broad range of fish. It's so-named for its occurrence in the Damsel family, but the range is so broad I hesitate to say which aquarium fish it infects. I believe there are some fish disease experts on the forum though, maybe @Humblefish has some thoughts on this bug? It causes diseases called Photobacteriosis or pasteurellosis, which are widely described in the aquaculture literature but I can find little information on saltwater aquarium fish.
A few details I can contribute -
I didnt know which if any bacterial fish pathogens to expect in a broad survey of aquariums. So I searched for all the names I could find in the literature (over 40). This bug is the only known fish pathogen I've seen, and it shows up repeatedly but not universally (about 1 out of 8 tanks). Considering the range of possible effects I think its worth paying attention to, but I don't want to either falsely alarm or reassure anyone.
- This exact same bug is found in about 1 out of 8 tanks. None of mine have it so I cannot comment on effects or lack thereof. But several others have reported no symptoms in their fish. It might be interesting to compare fish lists, especially if we can find out what it infects outside of the Damsel family.
- At the DNA sequence level, this marker cannot distinguish between different strains, since it is a perfect match to multiple strains both the piscidida and damselae subspecies. I want to emphasize this point -- the data in hand can't distinguish between strains that are pathogenic for fish, humans, both, or neither.
- Some researchers consider this group some of the most dangerous pathogens in global aquaculture (source), because it is globally distributed, infects a broad range of fish, and has a high mortality rate upon infection.
While we're on the subject of zoonoses in aquariums, I always search for Mycobacterium marinum and am happy to report I have not found it yet. I've known someone infected by M. marinum (it causes Aquarium granuloma) so while it's rare its far from unheard of.
I will say, I'm the farthest thing from a germ phobe and have accidentally gargled my share of tank water while siphoning. But after spending so much time looking at aquarium microbiomes this year I am paying special attention to keep any open cuts out of the water, at the very least...
Just looking through the message boards it seems uronema marinum is so common these days. Is it possible that what people are thinking is u. Marinum is actually p. Damselae?