curved spine

[ehh]

i bought the last three tiger barbs at my lfs and one of them has bent spine. the only disease ive read about that causes this tuberculous. but ive also read they show signs of obvious illness. they bascally look sick. this barb doesnt look sick, just bent. theyve had the barbs for about two months now. i brought five initailly and theyre all doing very well.
im gonna quarantine the three.

but does anyone have any input on this?

 

[convict360]

I do, I'd suspect parasites; i'm dealing with the same thing in my danios and barbs just now; they don't show immediate sickness, but they are dropping off every few weeks.

I made a thread recently asking for advice on whether to treat with an anti-parasite as a precaution, but no-one chimed in.

 

[Fishpony]

Could you provide a photo of the fish please, I'd probably say it's a deformity. Was it always bent or it just happened?

 

[ehh]

i can post a picture tomorrow. my gf picked them up for me, she works there. one of her coworkers said its always been like that. but she sent me a video of him and i dont remember seeing one with a spine curved like that when i picked up the first five.

 

[ehh]

they havent had issues with that tank though. ive asked my gf to keep an eye on it because i wanted to bring more home. so as long as theyve been at the store they havent had to treat the tank for anything.

 

[Wailua Boy]

I would lean towards a deformity also. In heavily aquacultured species like Barbs you seem to see a higher rate of such deformities, could stem from poor breeding practices and lack of genetic diversity. None the less it could indicate a disease like mycobacterium infection but you think a fish as far advanced as to have spine curvature would be pretty sickly in other ways.

 

[ehh]

thats what i thinking. i figured it would look ill but doesnt. the color is all there and its eating. theyre still going into a ten gallon for the time being but i wanted some second opinions.

 

[duanes]

I also agree with the probability of a deformity, tiger barbs are basically mass produced, and although that particular fish should have been culled, it would be very easy to miss if the shipping had a order for a few hundred.
In any spawn, a certain percentage has one kind of mutation or another.