Slime on Rainbowfish

drgold

drgold

AC Members
Mar 1, 2006
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Wausau, WI
I have 7 adult male boesemani rainbows in a 37g tank and recently two have developed a whitish area near their tails. It looks almost like slime, but isn't very thick. It's easier to see when the fish is at a slight angle. Anyway, does anyone know what this might be and how to cure it?

I've been using melafix and pimafix for a week, and they seem to be controlling the slime, but not making it go away. Maybe I'm dealing with a parasite issue?

Water parameters are A/N/N 0/0/5-10, ph is 7.6 and temp is 80. There are a few cories and two plecos in the tank as well (L128 and L204) and I change 50% of the water weekly. The fish seem to get along very well and until recently, would hang together nearly all of the time. Since the slime, the affected fish spend less time with the rest of the group. They continue to eat well, however, but poop quality is occasionnally on the stringy side.

Thanks so much for any help!

Andy
 
the larger of the two afflicted fish would not eat tonight, if that helps the diagosis.

If I can't figure out what's up, is there a "catch-all" treatment that might help? How about quarantine with mela/pimafix, salt and rid-ich?
 
Do you have any pictures?

Pictures if possible ASAP. This is probably very serious, kay?

In the meantime, stop with the Pima and Mela, they aren't going to help. QT the bows or do a huge water change. Start treating all of them with nitrofurazone, Furan-2 is good. If that doesn't work, you'll have to use a much stronger antibiotic. Use the Furan for now since I can't rule out columnaris quite yet.

Move fast with the Furan if you can.

Roan
 
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Water parameters are Ammonia/Nitrite/Nitrate 0/0/5-10, ph is 7.6 and temp is 80. I do at least a 50% water change weekly. I did a 60% on Saturday night. I can do another one now if you think it will help. There are live plants but I sterilize them in potassium permanganate before use.

This is one of the affected fish:

Dsc02488.jpg


And this is the other:

Dsc02487.jpg


The damage is much less to the smaller fish (second one). All of the others seem unaffected. All of the other fish in the tank are fine, too. What am I dealing with here?
 
Very nice sub adult males. Are these guys new?

Their mouths are a little "white", but that's not columnaris on the tails. What I see isn't good.

In all honestly it looks like the beginnings of Mycobacteriosis and those white areas could turn into ulcers.

Is there -- for the life of me I can't remember. Hubby went to MSU and we lived in Plymouth for a time -- any department at the U of M that deals with bacterial pathology (dunno what else to call it)?

Take precautions, just in case. Don't put your hands in the tank if you have any cuts or open sores/wounds. Wash your hands well when you are finished.

Best place to get info on this in regards to rainbowfish is and the RML (Rainbowfish Mailing List) archives:

http://www.google.com/search?q=+rml...er.unmack.net&sitesearch=www.peter.unmack.net

Also search on "fish tb"

Roan
 
so....this seems like a bad situation. If it's fish tb, then what do I do? nuke the tank with bleach? how likely is this to get transmitted to me? what about the other fish/catfish?

For now, should I just keep an eye on the fish for worsening and remove/euthanize if things get worse? I could look into the fisheries/bateriology dept. at U of M but it'll take a few days. Is Furan not going to be useful in the meantime?
 
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drgold said:
so....this seems like a bad situation. If it's fish tb, then what do I do? nuke the tank with bleach? how likely is this to get transmitted to me? what about the other fish/catfish?
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At this point there is no way to be 100% certain that it is or isn't. If it is, it's in the very early presentation stage. It could be a different presentation of columnaris. I *have* seen this before, and columnaris also presented with it, but not in the same area. The hind end turned completely white and it almost looked like it had no scales. It was a very young juvenile in QT at the time and died shortly thereafter.

AFAIK the only way to know 100% if it is TB or not is to have a pathological exam of the fish done after death. For most people, having that done is extremely cost prohibitive, if not impossible.

Without that, then whether or not you bleach/destroy and start over is up to you. If it is TB, the other fish may not be affected as it often wipes out only one species. However, the other fish will certainly be carrying the bacteria. Introduction of new fish could result in deaths.

Danger to you: very minimal if you remember to wear gloves/wash up after having your hands in the tank.

For now, should I just keep an eye on the fish for worsening and remove/euthanize if things get worse? I could look into the fisheries/bateriology dept. at U of M but it'll take a few days. Is Furan not going to be useful in the meantime?
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If it were me, I would remove both fish to QT immediately and keep an eye on them. Euthanize if it gets really bad and treatments are not working.

Furan might help, especially if it's some weird form of columnaris and not TB. It certainly won't hinder in this case. I would give it a shot. I would also try erythromycin if that didn't work. The problem is that because so many antibiotics have been used on fish in the past, mycobacteria is resistant to most of them.

I'm sorry I can't be of much more help than that.

Roan
 
drgold said:
so....this seems like a bad situation. If it's fish tb, then what do I do? nuke the tank with bleach? how likely is this to get transmitted to me? what about the other fish/catfish?
Click to expand...
I did alot of research on this recently, I had a bacterial infection running through my tank, possibly tb, but probably not. I never did find anyone to run a necropsy on any of my dead fish, so I don't know what it was. The likelihood of zoonotic transmittal is slim, but can and does happen. If you have cuts, scratches, hangnails, calloused elbows, DO NOT submerse these areas into the water. The bacteria will settle into any kind of open wound it can find. Wear long fish gloves if you have to touch the water. You can get them from Drs Foster and Smith online. Do not let members of the family with any kind of immune deficiency go near the water. When doing aquarium maintenance, thoroughly disinfect the area you dump the water if you have immune suppressed people in your house. However, if you are healthy and haven't any skin problems, you can chance foregoing the gloves and thoroughly wash up with anti-bacterial soap after doing routine aquarium maintenance.
Good luck,
Mary.
 
I ran down to the LFS to see what they thought of the situation and they told me that mycobateria would be a rare case and I should treat for a general bacterial infection first. So, I'll start a round of tetracycline later today (with some zeolite in the filter in case of filter-kill). I'll post back iif anything happens (good or bad).

In any case, I'll be very careful with washing after contact.

Thanks to everyone for your help!!!!!

Andy
 
Andy,
See if the LFS has Erthrmycin gel food. You are supposed to put drops of it in the water, or mix with some fish food and hope that they ingest it. But it has a nice little tip and I actually took my sick fish out for a second and squeezed some onto their mouths. They ingested most of it at least, and my gourami seemed to appreciate the nourishment, even though the infection took him down in the end. Good product, have to keep it refrigerated though.
Take care,
Mary.
 
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