Fish TB
FISH TUBERCULOSIS(CURVED SPINE)
Symptoms:
Curved or Crooked Spine Skeletal deformity.
Lesions on the body.
loss of scales.
Loss of appetite.
Body wasting Progressive thinness.
Dis-coloration.
Sluggish movement
Folded fins
Eye protrusion
Dark coloration and granular appearance of the cornea.
Hanging at the surface
Skin defects, including blood spots and open wounds that may ulcerate
Black spots, or overall dark coloration (in Cichlids particularly).
Treatments:
Effectively, there is no sensible cure. The only way to cure the infected aquarium is to immediately remove infected fish as soon as they show any symptoms. Ideally all other susceptible fish should also be removed. Once the fish became emaciated I had no luck saving them. Traditional tricks for curing diseased fish, such as adding salt and raising the temperature, are ineffective and in the case of the raising temperature may even be detrimental. The bacteria grow better in warmer water; their optimum temperature is 30°C. They have no problem with salt either; they can infect saltwater fish as well as freshwater. I have read cases where treatment of the open wounds with penicillin ointment have effected a cure. As the disease is bacterial, antibiotics should work, but in general these are only available on veterinary prescription and injection of infected fish may be required, so such cures are hardly useful,to the average aquarium keeper.
Fish Tuberculosis (Curved Spine) Prevention
Prevention is key to avoiding this disease since it is so difficult to cure. The immune system is usually enough to prevent an infection in healthy fish. Stress, which suppresses the body's immune system, and/or wounds in fish are most likely to allow an infection to take hold. Therefore, eliminating stress is paramount. Although aquarists don't frequently get this disease, using gloves when cleaning infected tanks is highly recommended. Starting a siphon by mouth is also a good way to expose yourself unnecessarily to the bacteria. If a tank has been infected, it is considered best to bleach it well and dry it out before restocking it. Bacilli may be in the faeces, scraps of skin or burst abscesses and can be ingested by healthy fish. If infected fish die and are eaten by others (as we have all seen, on occasion, in a poorly attended fish retailer's stock tanks) then an overwhelming infection may result.
