A friend of mine is having a little trouble

silver

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You know where the fin areas turn red, the gill areas......??

Anyone know about this illness?? I've heard about it here and there but don't know what it's called or how to treat it so I'm not much help to her!!




Silver
:blink:
 
I found this disease:

Columnaris
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A bacterial disease caused by the bacteria Flexibacter columnaris. This disease is usually associated with some kind of stress condition such as high water temperature, low dissolved oxygen concentration, crowding, or handling. Symptoms of this disease include grayish-white spots on some part of the head, fins, gills, or body usually surrounded by an area with a reddish tinge. The columnaris lesions on different species of fish vary in size, location, and appearance. On fingerling rainbow trout, a lesion usually originates on the back of the fish and progresses down each side resembling a saddle. On crappies, the lesions are generally confined to the fins and gills and rarely extend to the body. The lesions on bullheads generally appear as small circular areas with sharp distinct outlines. Although columnaris most commonly involves external infections it can occur as an internal systemic infection with no visible external signs. Scrapings from a columnaris lesion placed under a microscope will reveal long, thin, rod shaped motile bacteria. The bacterial clumps form microscopic columns or dome shaped masses, hence the name columnaris.


Says it is surrounded by an area with a reddish tinge, and can attack just the gills. Only other gill disease I know is gill flukes.
 
Red streaking on fins or gills can sometimes indicate ammonia poisoning.
 
Before doing any kind of treatment, could you or have your friend use (or buy) a water test kit and check for ammonia, nitrites/nitrates, & chlorine. The reason I ask is, depending on the fish, the redness could be due to traces of ammonia. I believe chlorine levels can do the same as well.

Have your friend test the water. If the ammonia levels are high, then have them perform a gravel cleaning and water change (at the most about 30%). Do not remove too much as this can be dangerous introducing new waters to the fish. Then for the next couple of days, do a 10-15% water change and make sure they do a gravel cleaning on a weekly basis.

Instruct them to not overfeed as well, since excess food can also be a source for high ammonia.

It does not sound like columnaris though.

What kind of fish is it? What are it's tankmates?
 

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