Fish Tuberculosis?

mishi8

mishi8

Go fly a kite!
Jan 13, 2005
768
0
16
Alberta
Out of 4 platies, 2 are showing health symptoms that have me concerned. One has been sick for quite a while now...has gotten very thin, spends most of the time just bobbing at the top of the tank, with fins clamped. There is a slight s-curve of her body from side to side. She wants to eat, but has trouble keeping the food down. The other platy spends most of the time hiding in the tiniest, darkest spot she can find. She hasn't lost weight yet, and does appear to be trying to eat...comes out of hiding when the food floats by her. She seems to also have a bit of a s-curve. When she's not hiding in the dark, she's swimming erratically.

All four of my platies used to be in a 10g, along with about 10 fry (separated). I moved all the adults to a 20g, and left the fry in the 10g. The sickest platy was showing signs of illness just before I moved the adults over. The fry started dying one by one. The bigger ones were showing signs of curved spines before they died. They would have trouble swimming and rest on the gravel and decor often, and then would just disappear. Once all the fry died, I moved the sickest platy over to the 10g, and then moved the next sickest one. The other two platies seem to be okay at this point. The illness seemed to come on after having problems with stable temperature this summer. It went from being too hot, to too cool.

The tank parameters are 0NH3, 0NO2 and 10-15NO3, pH is between 7.8 - 8.1, KH and GH are high, and stable as always. I've tried raising the temp and adding salt, and lately have been using Melafix and Pimafix in the 10g (now my quarantine tank.)

So I'm trying to figure out what these fish are afflicted with. Could this be TB or am I way off the mark here? Could it be something else?
 
Kasakato said:
I had the exact problem. All of them that have had that, die with in 1 week for me. I believe its internal parasites.
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Oh, I hope you're right. I don't want to see my fish die, but I also don't want to face disinfecting two tanks because of TB. :( What should I try to help them with? I'm hesitant to use antibiotics when I don't know what the disease is. Is garlic in the food worth trying? (If they're able to eat, of course!)
 
Well its not TB. With TB you would have open bloody looking sores on the fish.

If it is internal parasites here is what I use to get rid of them your gonna need to make your own food however.

1lb shrimp uncooked, de shell it and throw it in a meat grinder
2gram of Panacur (Granulare form, its sold as a horse dewormer)
1800mg multivitamins no Iron (crush this up into a powder)

Mix this all together, make a flat out of it in a zip lock bag, and throw it in the freezer, then make a second batch, cept this time instead of panacur use Metro again in a crystaline form. Same dosage level.

Feed the Panacur mix for 5 days, 2-3 times a day, go two weeks, and repeat the 5 day treatment, then another 2 weeks and do it again

after that treatment is done, do the same schedual with the Metro mix. The fish MAY stop eating during the panacur treatment, when they do consider that the end of that round of treatment and go on to the next.
 
So they'd have open sores? Three of the four ifsh did have some of what looked like fin rot early on, and the sickest one did have some missing scales (and was being picked on by the male, and always has been), but I immediately treated with salt and heat, and it cleared up quite quickly. I should mention, too that all my fish were very healthy for months prior to this.

It's been tough finding good info on TB, everyone has a slightly different description, and it seems symptoms can vary quite a bit. Unless there are clear outward symptoms (like ICH or fungus), it's so hard to diagnose what is going on!

Your recipe sounds very involved. Is it easy to find Panacur? And what is Metro, and is it easy to find? Could there be a pre-made fish food, with similar ingredients, to treat with?
 
TB shows up as a bloody looking sore and is EXTREMELY rare.

Fish can have internal parasites and look just fine untill it gets to a point where it starts effecting them.

http://www.bigalsonline.com/catalog/product.xml?product_id=28213;category_id=3463;pcid1=2233;pcid2=

Thats Metro.

http://www.heartlandvetsupply.com/cart/product_info.php?products_id=626
Thats Panacur

No there is no commercially available food for this, it will take an hour or so to prepare both mixes. Its not a bad idea to periodically de-worm/de-parasitise your fish a couple times a year anyway. If it was winter I would have no problem shipping you some food to use but during the summer its not worth the risk.
 
TheMightyQueenPixie said:
Mishi, you may want to check out this article..."fish TB" is dangerous to humans also... http://www.aquarticles.com/articles/management/Keefer_FishTB.html

Another reason why it is so important to use and anti-bacterial soap before and after contact with your tanks or fish.
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Thanks for the reminder, TMQP! I've been making sure that I wear gloves when handling anything in the tank, and am vigilant about washing my hands. :)
 
Thanks for the links!

NatakuTseng said:
No there is no commercially available food for this, it will take an hour or so to prepare both mixes. Its not a bad idea to periodically de-worm/de-parasitise your fish a couple times a year anyway. If it was winter I would have no problem shipping you some food to use but during the summer its not worth the risk.
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Summer, what summer? We had no summer here. Today is a high of 14C, and we had frost overnight!

I appreciate the thought about shipping food. Even in the best weather, though, I wouldn't be shipping raw shrimp through the border. Never know when it will get stuck in customs. :D

I'll see what I can do to make up the recipe. It won't be happening until sometime next week though (I'm going away this weekend). Is there anything I can do in the meantime to help the fish?
 
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