[Bristol]

So I finally got tired of all my fish dying. Treated with general cure and people at Rogers thought maybe tuberculosis but said best way to diagnose that is to open them up.

Well I did it tonight with a male gourami and inside found eggs. Like small round beige coloured eggs.

Any ideas? I did take photos but they are pretty gross.

I would like to know what this is as if it is TB then I need to worry about myself as well since I've had my hands in the tank.

 

[April]

Well as far as your concerned I listened to a fish vets talk
once and he said fish tuberculosis only irritates a sore if you had one. It would. Get red . Not the same as human tuberculosis. Maybe parasite nematodes.

 

[Rockman]

I did about 50 this morning. 'Pretty gross' is relative. Post the photos and I'll have a look.

 

[Bristol]

Thank you both. Of course I'm super paranoid. I'd appreciate any ideas.

I hope not all your fish that you lost :grin:

Sorry for the grossness below!

The individual "ball" is on paper towel.

 

[Rockman]

Okay. So those aren't normal. Necropsy via laptop isn't super precise; but they look like granulomas (which would indicate some kind of internal disease... although if the fish isn't fresh those can show up post-mortem as part of decomp). Looks like they're on the kidney (long organ at the top of the body cavity behind the swim bladder yeah?).

Anyway... other than that I can't be overly helpful. That is one of the possible symptoms with fish TB (although fish TB would usually involve emaciation; and possibly also skeletal deformities, skin ulcers/lesions and fin erosion); but that's also true of other diseases as well. As far as treatment goes... no idea. You could *try* some kind of antibiotic for internal infections (although that's not really the most responsible way to use antibiotics; because you'd have no idea what treatment would be effective without more testing). In a lot of ways the best thing you can do would be to make your environmental conditions as optimal as possible.

I hope not all your fish that you lost :grin:,

Work. When you ride herd on half a million fish you do tend to end up with a few dead ones :\

 

[Bristol]

The other fish that have died did have a bending spine. They looked like they were turning into a moon shape. This gourami didn't have that but yes it was located along the back where I thought the kidney would be.

I did treat the tank with general cure but didn't know where to go from there.


This fish I euthanized by freezing in water. Then once passed took him out and opened him up, I was told being a bit frozen makes it easier to see without squishing everything.

 

[Rockman]

The other fish that have died did have a bending spine. They looked like they were turning into a moon shape. This gourami didn't have that but yes it was located along the back where I thought the kidney would be.

Which would be consistent with Fish TB; although like I said I can't confirm anything. Could be other things too.

I did treat the tank with general cure but didn't know where to go from there.

General cure is good against parasites, mainly. My book suggests that erythromycin or kanamycin might help if it is TB; but no guarantees with that (it's not a cure; but it might make the symptoms go away). Some people might go with a scorched earth policy (euthanize all the fish and sterilize the tank). Although I personally would find that hard to do. I think it might be manageable if you work on water quality and consider the tank as being under long term QT (subclinical infections can apparently persist for months).

This fish I euthanized by freezing in water.

So fresh then. Probably related to the disease. Although in the future I might suggest clove oil or similar; the freezing water method is debatable as to it's painlessness.

 

[Bristol]

Thanks for all the tips

For now I don't have many fish left so will just keep water good & see how they do.

Let's say for arguments sake it is TB and I loose them all what's the best way to sterilize?

 

[Rockman]

Let's say for arguments sake it is TB and I loose them all what's the best way to sterilize?

Probably bleach. Plain, unscented bleach is aquarium safe so long as the equipment is rinsed well afterwards and allowed to dry.

 

[So_lil]

Check your Gh levels as some fish can run calcium deficient for a long time before showing signs.