Extnsive disease photo gallery & ID site--seeking more pics

[Pandora]

Hello... I haven't been here in a long, long time. I apologize if I am in the wrong forum, please move it if this is considered advertizing, that is not my intention. I'm the moderator of several other forums, but I couldn't find a place for a thread such as this here otherwise.

I am seeking any and all (relatively clear) photos of diseased fish for an archive I am compiling. It already has over 20 disease categories and over 60 privately submitted photos in it, and is growing everyday with the help of hobbyists like you. I am also someone who has done research in fish pathology and immunology, so I added many comments and facts on the site also. Please help us help others if you have a sick fish & a camera. All photos are taken by permission only, and fully credited to the original photographer on the site.

Below is one example of a photo of HITHD affecting an oscar, contributed by WorldCichlid's webmaster. It shows how it will be marked, and the relative quality of the picture I am seeking:

http://www.fishpalace.org/hith2_adamworldcichlids.jpg

The main site is just nonprofit and just set up to help others identify diseases and problems.

http://www.fishpalace.org/Disease.html (http://www.fishpalace.org/Disease.html)

Please email photos to ceciliaxchen@hotmail.com

Thank you for your time!

[valerie]

I like the site. Good pics to compare with when you have a problem. I don't have any pics to contribute but i will book mark the site for future use. I had been looking for a disease site with real people pics not jsut drawings or discriptions.

[Pandora]

Thanks for your compliments, valerie. Have gotten a good response in the past few days and added 4 new photos just today.

[Tiger15]

The idea is good but may not work. We can send you pictures of the deseases, but without proper training and access to pathology lab, we can't be sure what deseases we claim are. There are so many caustive agents of similar symptoms.

[Pandora]

Very good point Tiger, and if you read what I wrote in the paragraph of my page down and under "External Bacterial Infections", I make emphasis of the same. There is no conclusive diagnosis of many diseases without lab culture or microscopy in many cases. In my 3rd paragraph, I talk about the overlap of disease signs and about those that are not true diseases with a single etiology (dropsy is one example), but rather a collection of pathological signs that point to a common-appearing problem.

HOWEVER that being said, this is meant to be used as a general guide for the hobbyist, to avoid having them say "oh, my fish must be sick, I'll keep trying to dump in different kinds of ick meds until he gets better" (I do know of beginners who do this). There are definitely some diseases which have characteristic presentation which can be recognized from experience, such as ich, argulus, camallanus worms, or lymphocystis. What I cover on my page are primarily those, and I do confirm my sources. As I said, I have some background in fish pathology and parasitology myself and added comments on when to generalize and when not to. Where I do not know the diagnosis for sure, I have put them into the categories "Unidentified Growths & Cysts" and "Other". I do want people just to familiarize themselves with what some things can TEND to look like, and leave them resources where they can find out more, and that is the only primary focus of the site, not confirmed diagnosis, which should technically done by a vet or necroscopy lab.

[OrionGirl]

It would be really useful if you would also identify what kind of fish is pictured...Some fish shapes are odd, and it would be a mistake to assume they are sick when it's the natural shape. For example--I know the cow fish pictured in cloudy eyes is normally shaped (except for knocked off horns and popeye--not a good aquarium fish), but others might think something else was wrong that caused the square shape.

[Pandora]

Great idea, Orion! I considered that also when I first designed it, and again when I was thinking of the cowfish, exactly what you said. Many FW hobbyists have no idea what a cowfish is, much less what it's eyes should look like, normally. Unfortunately, med school has started up for me again, so I'll be quite busy (I do all the hardcoding by hand, so I'd have to go through each of the 70 or so captions to do this), but I will probably try next time I update.

Thanks for the suggestions, keep 'em coming.