Fish TB?

mandimoron

mandimoron

raving platy fangirl
Oct 2, 2005
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Toronto, Ontario
perturbedmango.net
One of my platies has been looking rather strange lately. She seems emaciated, and it almost looks as though someone took her and tried to bend her into a upside-down U shape-- from what I've read, this sounds like it could be TB. Naturally I'm worried about the little sickster, but I'm also concerned about the other fish in the tank. Is TB as contagious among fish as it is in people? If need be, I suppose I could get my betta's old 1.5 gal tank up and running to separate her, but I'd like to avoid stressing her out with a move so long as it won't endanger the other guys to have her around.

For anyone who cares to have a gander, I have a picture of the fish in question here; she's the one on the right. It's not the best picture to show what I'm concerned about, but even in that image I think she looks a little odd compared to the healthy fish next to her.

Anyone else have any experience with this sort of thing, or these sorts of symptoms in their own fish? It just seems so odd to me that my fish would get something that seems so obscure as tuberculosis, I'm kinda in denial. O_o
 
if you suspect your fish is ill yuo should move it to QT asap. As for the ill ness anything could be wrong. post a picture. that may help. TB is contagious to other fish as well as humans so be very very careful when moving him/her. if you have open sores hangnails etc use a long rubber glove.
 
another thing you want to be aware of from a fish with TB is open lesions on said fish. I saw the picture and highly reccoment you move him/her to QT ASAP. thats really not normal for a fish. at anyrate dose the QT with Marcyn II or Melafix. may help. but you may loose that fish
 
also be sure to protect yourself....i rubber gloves, make sure and open cuts or anything of the sort are sealed..... tb is transferrable
 
IF (thats a big if) the fish has tb, the whole tank should be treated. As stated already, tb is highly contagious to humans and other fish. I would also qt the one showing symptoms and treat there because of the obvious stress being caused by the other fish.

I cant tell anything from that pic. How are the rest of the fish in the tank? What are your water parameters? What size tank, what are the tank mates? Was this fish being picked on previously?


Blue
 
hmmm, I agree with what's stated in regards to wearing gloves and medicating the whole tank. Medicating with the topical meds as suggested is incorrect and won't do a bit of good for the fish and tank. Fish TB needs to be attacked from inside the fish... rather from the outside either by feeding medicated foods or soaking food in eurthomycin... which can also be injected if the fish is big enough to hold.
 
As others have said, be aware handling the water or anything from the tank with any cuts, sores, hangnails, etc. Fish tb is zoonotic and can enter people in the form of bacterial skin infections.

Having said that, fish tb is actually quite rare in aquarium fish. It is more likely what you have is "wasting away disease" or some other bacterial or parasitic infection. Please treat your fish with a gram - and gram + anti-bacterial like kanaplex (anyhow I believe it's gram - and gram +). Also, feed an anti-bacterial food. I have used erythromyacin gel food and mixed it with flakes in the past. This will attack the infection internally, as well.

From the picture posted, I think there is also a chance that it could be parasitic in nature as well, in which case the anti-biotic treatment won't do anything for the disease. And you would want to use prazi-pro or something like that to eliminate internal parasites.
Good luck,
Mary.
 
Transferable?! Gah! I've read way too many Victorian novels with people dying from that consumption crap not to find that intimidating. >_> Gloves it is, then.

I've taken some more pictures of her, some of which show her symptoms better than others:


I've taken the liberty of labelling the bits that are concerning me... this is a picture of the sick fish next to her healthier brother. Although the image is fuzzy, you can still see that there's a difference in the over all shape of the suspect fish compared to her bro-- he's all fat and round looking like all my other platies, and she's, well, not.



This is a really nice, clear image of her, but I've gotta say, the tummy thing is more pronounced in real life than this picture lets on.


Last one. This one is fuzzier than the above image, but I think it shows her tummy and weird spinal curvature a little better.

EDIT:
Yikes, lots of people posted while I was uploading the pictures, heh. >_>

Okay the tank's a 10 gal, 0 ammonia and 0 nitrite, but I'm not sure about nitrates. I tend not to worry about the nitrates much since the tank is mature and planted. Weekly 30% waterchanges. Tank is home to 7 platies and one guppy. She's never really been picked on before, but I've noticed the other guys are starting to chase her around come feeding time.

She does come up to feed with the rest of the fish, and provided no one takes it into their head to chase her away, she does eat and keep her food down. She doesn't seem to be particularly lethargic, or at least I haven't seen her lying about on the floor or anything. To be brief, her behaviour is unremarkable.

I had thought about parasites today, actually, but I'm still wondering about the shape of her back... Unless of course she only looks bent like that because her belly is sunken? O_o

I'll proceed with the QT; for now everyone else seems tip-top.
 
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If her waste looks whitish or anything but normal, it is most likely a parasite. Like I said, I highly doubt it is tb. Please answer these questions:
How long has the tank been up?
How big is it?
How many fish are in there?
Have you added fish in the last month?
What are the water parameters, nitrites, nitrates, ammonia, and ph?
How often do you perform water changes?

Without the answers, no one can give you any reasonable advice.
Thanks,
Mary.
 
mandimoron said:
Okay the tank's a 10 gal, 0 ammonia and 0 nitrite, but I'm not sure about nitrates. I tend not to worry about the nitrates much since the tank is mature and planted. Weekly 30% waterchanges. Tank is home to 7 platies and one guppy.
Click to expand...

More specifically, the tank was set up in March.

The guppy was introduced to start a silent cycle in the tank when it was set up, and the platies have all been living together since December '05 at least.

I've never measured the pH of the water, actually. >_>" I'd have to dig up the dip strips we have for the pool to check it.
 
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