One fish dying after another!!! HELP!!!
- Thread starter kjr928
- Start date
Great, thank you so much H3D. You don't know how helpful you've been. I'll let you know what happens.
Fish Tuberculosis (TB)
Mycobacterium marinum
Contageous to HumansFish Tuberculosis (TB)
Mycobacterium marinum
Contageous to Humans
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Caused by Gram positive rods. The most common signs are anorexia, emaciation, vertebral deformities, exophthalmus, and loss of normal coloration.
Information from this link.
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The symptoms of Fish TB are usually wasting, lesions on the body, skeletal deformities (a few of mine developed curved spines), and loss of scales and coloration. This is a relentless disease. I have read that it is not considered treatable.
Text excerpt taken directly from:
Fish Tuberculosis by Leslie Keefer
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More Reference Links:
Fish tuberculosis
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I am sorry to say but it sounds alot like what you had. With this type of problem you will have to break down the tank and sterilize. This is not to say that this is it but the over all is close. I do know that you have Dropsy in your tank,so do a google and see if there are articles that you can use. Very sorry for your fish loss.
Here is one article:
http://www.fishjunkies.com/Diseases/dropsy.php
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Mycobacterium marinum
Contageous to HumansFish Tuberculosis (TB)
Mycobacterium marinum
Contageous to Humans
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Caused by Gram positive rods. The most common signs are anorexia, emaciation, vertebral deformities, exophthalmus, and loss of normal coloration.
Information from this link.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The symptoms of Fish TB are usually wasting, lesions on the body, skeletal deformities (a few of mine developed curved spines), and loss of scales and coloration. This is a relentless disease. I have read that it is not considered treatable.
Text excerpt taken directly from:
Fish Tuberculosis by Leslie Keefer
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
More Reference Links:
Fish tuberculosis
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I am sorry to say but it sounds alot like what you had. With this type of problem you will have to break down the tank and sterilize. This is not to say that this is it but the over all is close. I do know that you have Dropsy in your tank,so do a google and see if there are articles that you can use. Very sorry for your fish loss.
Here is one article:
http://www.fishjunkies.com/Diseases/dropsy.php
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Last edited:
I agree there is no need to "start over". People are always concerned that their tank has become "contaminated" with this pathogen or that pathogen. They think of thier tanks as this sterile glass box when in fact it is full of bacteria and fungi (99% of them harmless) and dirt and impurities just like any pond or river. Except in very rare cases (virulent viruses) fish that are healthy don't get sick and if they do, they get over it on thier own. The other thing to accept is that usually by the time we realize a fish is sick it is too late to "treat" whatever the fish has.
I would continue to do whatever water change schedule you can stick to (I as well as most of the others here do 50% weekly). Wait for two weeks. If the fish you have are fine at that point then it is safe to add more fish SLOWLY. If one of the remaining fish dies reset the clock and wait two weeks. Pathogenic organisms whether they be fungi, bacteria, viruses, or what have you are not evolved to go long periods without a host. You will sometimes here people refer to "cooking" a tank that has totally crashed. You turn the temp up (speeds up life cycle of most pathogens), you continue to add food to maintain the cycle and you wait a couple weeks. Do a big 75%) water change and you're ready to roll.
Good Luck.
ps buy an inexpensive airpowered sponge filter and keep the sponge somewhere in your tank where water flows over it (if you have an eclipse you can use the filter tray. Just remove those wasteful cartridges and rinse the sponge out in old tank water during water changes (it will do the exact same thing as the cartridges but you will never have to replace it) When you need to QT a new fish you can use that sponge in any contianer (rubbermade storage bin) along with an inexpensive heater to qt the new arrivals.
I would continue to do whatever water change schedule you can stick to (I as well as most of the others here do 50% weekly). Wait for two weeks. If the fish you have are fine at that point then it is safe to add more fish SLOWLY. If one of the remaining fish dies reset the clock and wait two weeks. Pathogenic organisms whether they be fungi, bacteria, viruses, or what have you are not evolved to go long periods without a host. You will sometimes here people refer to "cooking" a tank that has totally crashed. You turn the temp up (speeds up life cycle of most pathogens), you continue to add food to maintain the cycle and you wait a couple weeks. Do a big 75%) water change and you're ready to roll.
Good Luck.
ps buy an inexpensive airpowered sponge filter and keep the sponge somewhere in your tank where water flows over it (if you have an eclipse you can use the filter tray. Just remove those wasteful cartridges and rinse the sponge out in old tank water during water changes (it will do the exact same thing as the cartridges but you will never have to replace it) When you need to QT a new fish you can use that sponge in any contianer (rubbermade storage bin) along with an inexpensive heater to qt the new arrivals.
From the pictures I can tell you that I am certain my fish did not have dropsy. They were in no way swollen or puffed out. The pictures of columnaris were more on target, only my fishes cloudy spot was in no way that severe. I do believe they had that columnaris disease or something similar to it.
If it is columnaris, what can I do to make sure that any future fish I put in there don't get it?
If it is columnaris, what can I do to make sure that any future fish I put in there don't get it?
I don't plan on treating the tank at this point. When I get home from my parents house on Saturday I will do a 30-40% water change. I think I will find a small 3-4 gallon tank for my remaining platies and keep them in it.
I would like to start my 12 gallon over with something more interesting. I was thinking about getting a couple of dwarf puffers. I've always loved those but I never got one because I knew they would just gobble up everything in the tank. I know they are brackish and I will be prepared to make that change. I will wait a while before getting any though because I want to make sure my tank is disease free first. Suggestions or opinions anyone?
I would like to start my 12 gallon over with something more interesting. I was thinking about getting a couple of dwarf puffers. I've always loved those but I never got one because I knew they would just gobble up everything in the tank. I know they are brackish and I will be prepared to make that change. I will wait a while before getting any though because I want to make sure my tank is disease free first. Suggestions or opinions anyone?
