Typical symptoms of diseases or false alarms

[Phantom Thief]

Do you think your fish is diseased? Check the list and see if any of the symptoms are present in your fishes. Take note of the possible causes of it on the side

1. Heavy breathing - General symptom
2. Stops eating - General symptom
3. Discoloration - Stress, or plistophora. Other diseases possible.
4. Bumps - Cancer
5. Swelling (especially around the stomach area) - Dropsy, overeating, constipation (more on this later)
6. Ragged fins - Fin rot or being nipped by other fish (more on this later)
7. Gasping (at the water surface) - Lack of oxygen, poor water quality, gill flukes
8. Clamped fins - General symptom
9. Inactive (for normally active fish) - General symptom
10. Whitish, stringy poop - Internal parasites
11. Cotton wool-like growth - Fungus
12. Specks (not from original pattern) - White spot or black spot disease, depending on colour
13. Cloudy eye - Bacterial infection or poor water quality
14. Sunken belly - Internal parasites or bacteria (be careful, may be Fish TB)
15. Swollen eye - Pop-eye
16. Holes in the fish - Hole in the head
17. Red gills (inflamed) - Ammonia poisoning or gill flukes
18. Red streaks - External bacterial infection
19. White threads hanging from fish - Parasitic worms
20. Erratic swimming - Possibly terminal stage plistophora
21. Pine-coning of the scales (when viewed from above) - Dropsy
22. Swimming upside down (except in synodontis cats) - Swim bladder disease or internal injuries
23. Struggling to maintain buoyancy - Swim bladder disease
24. Scratching against surfaces - Usually with the specks symptom, caused by external parasites
25. Swollen gills - Gill flukes
26. Dusty covering - Velvet

If any of those symptoms are present, you have cause to be worried. But calm down, take a deep breath and relax. Don't panic, we're here to help you . Write down the symptoms you have observed or the possible diseases, and check it on this

Remember, water quality is one of the most important things. Maintain good water quality, and it is exceeding unlikely for your fish to get any disease/parasite.

Good water quality is defined as (to me) - Ammonia 0, Nitrite 0, and Nitrate 40ppm and below.

Hope this helps you, guys

P.T.

 

[Phantom Thief]

Now, false alarms

1. Swelling in stomach area - As mentioned earlier, may simply be overfeeding or constipation. Reducing the amount you feed and giving it boiled and shelled green peas will help out. Make sure it isn't another disease though

2. Ragged fins - It may be fin rot, which is caused by an infection or poor water quality. Or, it may simply have been nipped by a more aggressive fish. Watch it, and see if any other fishes are attacking it.

3. Floating at the surface, unable to swim down - May be caused by swim bladder disease, or simply that it swallowed some air bubbles while eating. If the latter, the problem should wear off within several days.

4. Exhibiting general symptoms of unhealthiness like lethargy, heavy breathing, stops eating, losing coloration, etc - If you have had that fish for a long time, a possibility you may want to consider is old age. Many smaller fishes only have a lifespan of 2-3 years, and will exhibit these symptoms at the ending of their lives.

Any more suggestions welcome, guys

P.T.

 

[Earthgirl]

Wow that is amazing, someone did their homework!
You should have this pinned!

 

[bigfish]

Thats a really helpful topic. Well done

Bigfish

 

[lizard]

Very good!

If you want pictures of Popeye/Dropsy, I think I have some.

I like your "Junior Monster Keeper" title!

Pamela
aka Married Lizard

 

[Phantom Thief]

Sure, you can add it if you want.

Thanks for the positive feedback, guys. I appreciate it

P.T.

 

[SimonA]

What your fish may look like.....

Taken from An Interpet Guide to The Tropical Aquarium bu Dik Mills



(Click to enlarge)

 

[Phantom Thief]

That is the sickest fish i have ever seen

Thanks a lot SimonA, that was very good

P.T.

 

[sunflower]

My eternal gratitude to you PT. I was worrying about one of my fish because I think it has swimbladder.

The bad news is, I'm not pretty sure it is swimbladder.
The good news is, at least I know what it is!!

Thanks alot

 

[Colin_BC]

I never saw the pop-eye pic's added, so here's mine. I doidn't treat it in time and lost the Krib within a day of it developing. Don't skip your water changes!!!

Colin

 

[Phantom Thief]

The following is contributed by Danio2004

 

[Dorkhedeos]

well, from personal experience, a early sign of dropsy is a little fuzzy like worm. all my fish deaths were related to dropsy, so i should know.

 

[crisycaro]

hi there,
can please someone help me!!!!
my fish are acting so wired. my angel fish is swimming very erratic and its stays in the botton of the aquarium.... my 2 golden pencilfish are also showing the same syntoms. what can I do?

 

[xxSarahxx]

This needs to be pinned!
Fabulous and will help many!
Excellent work!

 

[The-Wolf]

hi there,
can please someone help me!!!!
my fish are acting so wired. my angel fish is swimming very erratic and its stays in the botton of the aquarium.... my 2 golden pencilfish are also showing the same syntoms. what can I do?

[snapback]879078[/snapback]​

sounds like they have a swimbladder problem.
the first course of action is to check the water parameters
and post your results, we need ammonia, nitrIte, nitrAte & pH at the very least.