A To Z Of Tropical Fish Diseases

[fish man]

lots of good post here not much for me to say really, the most obvouis way to care for your fish is your water as most fish keepers should no! the one thing i have lernt in just over 5 years of fish keeping is how often i should clean my fillters NOT as often as you would think with a larger tank like my rio 400 i have 2 fluvalm 305 externals runnung and i found that i only have to clean them on a rotor basis once every mounth somtimes if the flow is still strong o will leave it a little longer as long as the water changes are regular every thing stays just fine, as i should no not losing any fish in over 2 years now....

 

[kathym1977]

Hey guys. I would love to know how to treat a fish with swim bladder. i caled my local aquarium shop and they said to drop it into boiling water. i was horrified naturally! So I tried another and they said to feed it live brine shrimp and that would clean it out. So I really have no idea and need to know what to do
Heeeeeeeeeeeeeelp!!!!!

 

[Bergeo]

Fish Tuberculosis

My goldfish tank got tuberculosis from a contaminated holiday food block. One of the fish was blind and not getting enough to eat so I'd been putting blocks in to feed him up a bit. Anyway, I was away for two days and when I came back ALL my goldfish had tb. I treated them with a 50% water change, aquarium salt, and melafix. Two died, two survived. I'm not sure if this was the best way to treat tb, but that's what I did...

How did you diagnose T.B.?

 

[OrganizedChaos69]

Hemmorhagic Septicima:

Transmitted easily from goldfish to cichlids among other fish. Goldfish seem to have a greater resistance, so don't mix these coldwater fish with warm water fish. The colder the water, the slower bacteria infect and multiply, being introduced from coldwater to a warm troical tank causes this silent disease to flourish. Bloody streaks begin to appear on the fishes fins. Also random bloody streaks, "cuts" and marks will appear over the main body. There are sometimes multiple factors that cause hemmoraghing, like fungus and bacteria, but normally it is caused by bacteria eating away at the skin. If left untreated, it will be fatal and is fairly contagious. If you have one fish infected, I personally reccoment treating the entire tank, taking care if you have any scaless fish (loaches/knife fish) or invertabrates which can be killed by the medicines themselves. It is definately curable, but find the medicines that specifically say they treat Hemmoragic speticima or similar bacterial diseases, and read the warning labels to see if your invertabrates are in danger.

 

[dwhite]

No, no. I meant which of the diseases you needed a source for. But, then again, it would be nice to have sources for all of them.

Hi, I am new to forums but have been a hobbyist for 8 years. I have questions about my Lionfish wanting to eat but can't open his mouth. He has not eaten in 4 weeks, but tries to really hard. I have researched for weeks and can't find anything. Have even talked to large public aquariums. I am not sure how to post a question.

 

[Jono81]

Might sound a bit thick here but i'm abit worried about one of my Tiger Barbs. What are the symptoms of White spot.

The Tiger Barb is showing discolored skin the dark stripes are looking grey/light green (Just of white really).

Any help would be greatly received

Thanks Jono

Whitespot (ich) lives in the water so if your fish get it, you need to treat the whole tank and not just the affected fish.

When my fish have had ich I have done a fairly big water change, say 50% and then dosed them with King British White Spot Control. There are many ich meds out there but this is the one I used. Also raise the temperature a little if you can because this will speed up the ich lifecycle.

The important thing about treating whitespot is that you need to have patience. There is no quick cure. Once your fish have the spots there is nothing that can be done about them, what you're trying to do is kill off whats in the water.

Treatment should continue for at least 4/5 days after the spots have cleared to make sure that the ich in the water is once again dormant.

 

[Turquoiseguppy]

In reply to the Internal Bacterial Infection:


I have a turquoise guppy and two neon tetras that have been in my 2.5 tank for about a week. The filter is working properly, and the water is fine. However, one of my tetras was not sociable, hiding in the corner all day, and eating very little, in addition to darkening, and the guppy had a long string of poo--which are the symptoms that Skimpy has listed.

This morning I did a 30% water change and added a few granules of salt.

The guppy did not act sick, other than the feces, so I'm not sure how he is doing as far as the infection goes.

The tetra already seems to be doing better--he is not as dark, and he is moving around much more than he has the past two days.

 

[adam98150]

Whitespot (ich) lives in the water so if your fish get it, you need to treat the whole tank and not just the affected fish.

When my fish have had ich I have done a fairly big water change, say 50% and then dosed them with King British White Spot Control. There are many ich meds out there but this is the one I used. Also raise the temperature a little if you can because this will speed up the ich lifecycle.

The important thing about treating whitespot is that you need to have patience. There is no quick cure. Once your fish have the spots there is nothing that can be done about them, what you're trying to do is kill off whats in the water.

Treatment should continue for at least 4/5 days after the spots have cleared to make sure that the ich in the water is once again dormant.

I'd just like to point out that Ick is never dormant, it is a common mistake. There is a similar parasite which has a dormant stage, this is why many believe it to be true.

 

[terryandsandy]

My tropical fish seem to be coming down with this "disease", I think. They appear to be healthy, but practically overnight, they are afflicted. The most distinguishing sign is that their mouths are stuck open. They don't appear to have any fungus coming out of their mouths, it is just like their mouth is stuck in the open position. Shortly thereafter, they die. I have had this happen to 2 white clouds, 1 serpae tetra and a cardinal. I thought that perhaps they were getting mouth fungus, but there aren't any filamentous fungus strands coming from their mouths. I don't know if this is a disease, or what. I don't know how to "cure" them, because I have never seen this before. Has anyone else had this happen to them (well, their fish actually)? If you need any additional information, you may have it, I just don't know what else to describe. The rest of the fish in the tank (125 gal., serpaes, neons, black skirts, mollies, pictus cats, white clouds, zebra danios) are all doing fine and eating like pigs. But then all of a sudden, one of the fish is at the surface of the water, with his mouth wide open (like he can't close it) and then within hours he/she is dead. And the pictus seem to be eating them willy nilly, but they aren't getting sick. What to do? Thanks, Ken

 

[terryandsandy]

Help.

I know your problem was a while ago now, but I wonder if you ever got to the bottom of it.

My tank is showing all the same symptoms and I've already lost several fish (Boseman's rainbows, tetras, danios). They start by swimming around with their mouths open, then they go to the top of the tank, and then they die - very quickly.

I'm really worried about my other specimens. Any ideas?

 

[kalt110]

IN DESPERATE NEED OF HELP
I brought a bosemani rainbow about 2 months ago when i got my new 150 litre tank. about a month ago he developed this redish lump on its side near the tail.I gave it a dose of melafix and it seemd to go away but recently the lump has grown and then one week ago the back half of him turned black where it used to be yellow. when i looked at him today his front end on the side with the lump has now gotten darker so he goes black, very pale bluey grey, dark blue on one side and black, light blue grey on the other.This has not seemed to affect any other fish and so i have no idea what it is please help!!

 

[Johnnyboy]

Hi all,

Can anyone advise me but one of my neon tetra died last night. It was gulping constantly (not at the surface nor the bottom) before it expired. My tank is 2 weeks old and I've been doing daily or twice daily water changes (about 50% a time). My ammonia tests were OK (not completely free of ammonia but that's to be expected so soon after starting the aquarium). I've got a filter that's 2 weeks old (part of the aquarium start-up).

thanks!

 

[macdonald20]

Red Pest

Our Bala Shark has died from Red Pest. Didn't know what it was until it was too late.

Symptoms: red bloody-looking streaks through fins and tail also may look like blood under gills. Fish seems to lose energy and may have rips in tail.

We used a medication for it. (sorry, can't remember the name of it) But there is a treatment for it. Just as long as you treat it as soon as possible. If left too long, it will kill your fish.

 

[Diesel Trout]

My tropical fish seem to be coming down with this "disease", I think. They appear to be healthy, but practically overnight, they are afflicted. The most distinguishing sign is that their mouths are stuck open. They don't appear to have any fungus coming out of their mouths, it is just like their mouth is stuck in the open position. Shortly thereafter, they die. I have had this happen to 2 white clouds, 1 serpae tetra and a cardinal. I thought that perhaps they were getting mouth fungus, but there aren't any filamentous fungus strands coming from their mouths. I don't know if this is a disease, or what. I don't know how to "cure" them, because I have never seen this before. Has anyone else had this happen to them (well, their fish actually)? If you need any additional information, you may have it, I just don't know what else to describe. The rest of the fish in the tank (125 gal., serpaes, neons, black skirts, mollies, pictus cats, white clouds, zebra danios) are all doing fine and eating like pigs. But then all of a sudden, one of the fish is at the surface of the water, with his mouth wide open (like he can't close it) and then within hours he/she is dead. And the pictus seem to be eating them willy nilly, but they aren't getting sick. What to do? Thanks, Ken

I have just noticed this problem with one of my black phantom tetras. Yesterday it looked like he had a white spot on the bottom lip, then today the mouth is wide open. So far he can eat, with difficulty, but most of the time the food flakes go in and then come back out. Seems to be swimming fine, but maybe hiding a bit more than the others. All other fish appear without this condition.

Is this a disease of some sort, or is it some damage/injury from a rock or other obstacle? I don't know whether to isolate him or see if it goes away on its own.

Please advise!

 

[Diesel Trout]

Nevermind, Frank's dead. I guess no one patrols this thread.

Anyway, looks like Frank must have run into a rock in the dark or something. Eventually the white spot went away but so did Frank's lips. In the end he couldn't eat and died.

RIP Frank.