SICK PARADISE FISH

[nebs]

Hi I needed some input into a sick paradise fish that I own. He has been sick for about 3-4 weeks now and what ever it is it is slowly progressing. He lives in a tank approx 190 litres with 3 other paradise fish 2 silver sharks a black knife ghost fish and a couple of male guppies suprisingly all fish get on very well. I have the water tested on weekly basis through my local aquarium shop and has always been fine the tank has been set up for about 12mths. I have had this guy for about 6mths now and never had a problem with him until this I noticed a band of scales just behind his right pectoral fin almost seemed to be contracting that is the only way I can discribe it as they are not sticking out the following day he started hiding in the corner and not doing really well I started treating tank first of with Melafix and he improved slightly but the next day he seemed to go down hill very quickly he sinking to the bottom head first and was being attacked by the other fish I moved him into an isolation tank expecting him to die overnight. Suprises suprise the following morning he seemed to of recovered and was swimming around showing no signs of illness except the unusual scales so I ended up putting him back in the main tank as he was getting very stressed. Since then he basically hangs up in the top corner of the tank next to the heater and very rarely moves from there he comes out to eat then goes back into hiding again. For the past 3 weeks I have been treating the tank with Melafix on a daily basis and have added in Promethasul once a week which was recommended I have since stopped using that and over the last week have been using Tetracyline HCL but none of these seem to be working I did try to get some medication that I could feed to him but was told that it has since been band in Australia. Over the past couple of weeks the band of scales on his body has approx doubled but is only on right side of his body they look like they are tightning up and he developed what looks like shaggy scales on is face on the left side. A couple of days later it looked like his face had started to bleed underneath the scales then the day after that I noticed that on his underside fin that where the band of contracting scales were that the bones in his fin were actually sticking through. I have taken photos of him to about every aquarium shop that I know gone through about every disease book with them and have not found anything even remotely like it the scales on his face look bacterial but the body has us totally confused. All of my other fish seem to be doing OK and show no signs of it. Please if anyone has any ideas of what this might be I am desperate for help as. He has now lost most of his top and bottom fins and his bones are sticking through top and bottom. I have been told in the past that his head looks like some sort of injury but I can assure you that it is not injury related I spend hours each day checking and watching him and it is has been very sad watching him go through this. His days are numbered but would love to hear if anyone has any idea on what it is the only thing I keep on coming back to if fish TB but I don't really think that is it either. Please any input would be greatly appricated.I have loaded about 15 pictures of him on my home page I hope the link works they are from the first day it was noticed right up to the current day hope this helps and we can find out what it is. If you have any other questions just let me know. Sorry to of made this post so long but though a lot of information might help. Thanks http://members.optusnet.com.au/~pearson ... llery.html

[Caryl]

That is the oddest thing I have ever come across and not seen anything like it before. I can only think it is some sort of cancer perhaps. If it was infectious I would expect the others to show similar symptoms by now.

Sorry I have no suggestions for you except I would be inclined to euthanase the fish.

[fishboi]

hello i am no expert but looks to me like a non-infectious disease called lesion caused by saprolegnia which commonly known as a fungus disease. it happens more common to goldfish.

what happens is the fungus attack from under the gill and spreads and causes necrosis [cell death] which is what i think has happened to ur paradice fish to cause the dieing and contracting of the scales as for the fins i guess its just because he is so weak and has caught fin rot.

i have a book here on fish diseases by DR. Mark Dulin and it says u can treat it by sworbing the lesion with malachite green solution [1] but at this stage i would think its too late.

[DiverJohn]

Something you didnt mention in your post was the fish in question was an albino. So can i offer this explaination... ( & i might be COMPLETELY wrong)

Its been a while since I was at uni, and i ll try and explain it easily.

I recall that albinoism is often a recessive trait, requiring the same recessive gene from both mother and father. If you were to cross a "pure gold" male with an albino female, you would never get an albino, as the father will ALWAYS contribute 1 gold gene which will show out because it is dominant over the recessive (albino) gene. The only way you get albino's is by having an albino gene from both male and female.

clear so far???

I am guessing that the albino was breed and then rebred, rebred etc to keep the recessive, or weak, "line" pure. Unfortunatly, down side is that constant in-breeding leads to genetic weakness, increase chance of abnormalities, cancer etc...

Which points to Carlys answer that it it is something "specific" to one fish and not treatable by using additives in the tank.

But fishboi could be right, someone else might have another idea, but atleast your getting some opinions.

Sorry that none of them are good news tho

Hope that helps some

John

[Caper]

I am so sorry I can't help...what about a vet, could you take him or pics to a vet to see if they can offer anything???

[nebs]

Hi everyone and thanks for your input but unfortunatly I had to euthanase this little guy last night there is only so much you can watch our little fishy friends go through. It was a bit like watching the living dead. Sorry about not mentioning he was an Albino sort of forgot but the Albino idea was something that was always in the back of my mind with him after studying Animal Science and being a vet nurse for a couple of years I saw many albino animals suffer from genetic disorders. This guy has has basically totally consumed me for the past month trying to find out what is wrong with him but for all the sadness of watching him go through something like this I did enjoy my time watching my tank almost constantly and watching the behaviours of the other paradise fish around him and considering these guys are made out to be aggressive especially the males towards one another I have to say they protected this guy like I have never seen before there have been times when I have seen the other 3 males in the tank push him into the corner with one pushing his body with there body into the corner and what I would call covering him while the other 2 defended of the other fish that where coming in to either have a go at him or just to have a look I actually watched them do this for over 2hrs one day it was just amazing and when I took him out of the tank last night the 3 remaining males went crazy and one of his favourite places beside the thermometer they spent hours last night racing up to it and tail flicking it in the end I had to take it out because it was driving me insane. I guess we dont realise how much of a community these guys form until something like this happens. Anyway once again thanks everyone for your help I am going to miss my little guy he was a real character

[Caper]

Sorry Nebs...but you did everything you could

It was amazing to read how the other fishies tried to help him...my heart was breaking

[nebs]

Hi sorry didnt see the last post in regards to vets I had tried to contact quite a few vets to see if they could help and was absolutely amazed and some of the answers I got I do understand fish are not the usual for vets but most of them said the best thing for him was to euthanase him with out even looking at him I even got "it is just a fish" I was totally dumb founded by it. I also tried contacting our local fish authorities but they were not interested in looking into it because he was not from a fish farm I even emailed some international disease research places to even just look at the pics but no one seemed to be to interested or didnt even respond so I was left to fly blind and try and work it out for myself. I think it will be left as a mystery now that he has gone. The amazing thing is I have had tanks for 12yrs now and can almost count on one hand how many times I have had to deal with disease I am very careful with my tanks even to the point that when I do water changes I have a smaller tank that I fill the day before with fresh water and treat and let it filter for 24hrs before my water change and only add the fresh filtered water to my tanks have found that it stops some fish going into shock from water changes so it was a real suprise to see something like this happen.