Very difficult situation

Keeping it simple, I am pretty sure my community tank (40 gal) had TB since a lot of symptoms matched and it killed dozens of my fish. I quarantined one of them when I saw TB in its early stages of infection almost 2 months ago, and since then I haven't seen any sign of them in the 7 surviving fish I have left. I don't know if it's gone though, and my health may be at risk to some degree although so far I've had no symptoms and the disease has been in my tank for years.

Also I desperately want to start my tank over, diseased or not. But I can't get rid of my remaining fish because they may or may not be infected, even though it doesn't look like it.


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Also to clarify, I don't know if it's TB. But I was certain at a time because it made the fish "waste away" and didn't respond to any medication.


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Miguel said:

Yes.

I would give the others time. Keep them as they are, quarantine type.

Then proceed from there.

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I don't know how long though. I wasn't planning for this whole disease thing to happen otherwise I would have traded in my fish for that green spotted puffer by now

Also once I do get rid of them from quarantine, idk if I should buy a new tank, since if it is TB it may still stick around in the tank which I've heard they can do. It's a very hardy disease that can even survive bleach.


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poppalina said:

Are you sure it's TB, as it's not that common these days. It is mostly seen in wild caught fish and most importers do their best to quarantine their stock before resale.

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Well. I remember a platy back in "12 looked kind of strange since the day I bought it, because it was strangely a tad but more sluggish and someone thinner than it's other. The pair gave birth and I managed to save one fry, which I raised for over a year. The fry was still about an inch after a year before he began to thin out and die. This was the first piece of evidence because parents with TB can transmit them to their offspring. After one of the parents wasted away to death, the other parent fell victim soon after and transformed from a fat healthy platy to a thin, sluggish one before death. It then infected several other platys in the tank, killing all of them but in a consecutive order (one at a time.) During this period I tried several attempts to cure it in vain, including using CopperSafe, API, aquarium salt and temperature changes. Water quality was fine. It then moved onto all my replacement fish (I bought these without expecting them to be infected as well) and had them die too. Coincidentally (or is it) TB is resistant to pretty much every medication, and not even bleach works on it. Another common piece of evidence is the fish it targets. My loaches survived the whole thing and weren't even touched by it, and strangely enough I read online of people saying their corydoras and loaches have also lived through a TB swarm. TB is also known to target adolescent fish, platys, danios (which I lost 5 of), gold barbs (I lost 3) and tetras (I lost 5.)


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poppalina said:

I question it because there was no mention of soars, lesions or any sort of deformity in the infected fish. However if you want to nuke the tank and start over bleach the tank, throw away all filter media, bleach the filters and let everything dry out. That should kill it

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This is also what's strange to me. Also I've had eczema on my arm during the TB, which had some open cuts due to scratching. I have had no signs of TB infection at all. Regarding your nuking, I wouldn't be sure what to do with my healthy fish, but I have considered it. Actually I figured I might as well pay a few extra bucks to buy a new clean tank and eliminate all risk of "missing a spot" if you know what I mean.