- Have you tested your water?
- Yes
- If I did not test my water...
- ...I recognize that I will likely be asked to do a test, and that water tests are critical for solving freshwater health problems.
- Do you do water changes?
- Yes
- If I do not change my water...
- ...I recognize that I will likely be recommended to do a water change, and water changes are critical for preventing future freshwater health problems.
First of all, what are the signs?
I have a group of swordtails that has been dropping dead. One had mouth erosion that looked like it just got its bottom lip ripped off in in injury. It may as well have been that, because it was a pretty sudden wound. All have had scale losses and skin lesions, all have become emaciated and have hunched backs. As of recently some of the individuals have been sitting on the bottom. They have all become like this and died in within the last 3 months.
Timeline went
(pulled in from pond)
2 weeks in, I notice one doesn't have a bottom lip. Attribute it to juvenile convicts being aggressive
3 weeks in, I notice one has some weird deformity of the scales near the swim bladder area. Again, attribute it to injury.
5 weeks in, small bumps show up in some of the others.
6 weeks in, all of them have white lesions of some form and 4/6 have hunched backs. The first one to show scale loss dies. Another dies a few days later.
7 weeks in, another one gets a hunched back. 2 become skinny.
8 weeks in, another one dies.
9 weeks in, another one gets a hunched back.
10 weeks in, another one dies.
They have been dropping fry throughout this process, and still eat. There is a large single sponge sponge filter, and a smaller double sponge sponge filter. There is also about a gallon's worth of hornwort in there. The water temp is 78 degrees and I do biweekly water changes. It is a 20 long. The only other inhabitant is a male ancistrus.
Now begs the questions, how does it cross contaminate? How does it get in systems in the first place? I did not add any fish to their tanks that I did not own previously. I have however moved fish out of their tank before they showed signs of illness, and some after they showed 'signs' of illness. When I started seeing signs I reached out to a more educated friend, and he said it was a disease he forgot the name of, but could pretty much only be contracted by extremely inbred/line bred fish with horrible immune systems. My giant brick red swordtails would fit that bill. Some of their fry got it too, and died pretty fast.
Only conflicting thing I can see in this is the fact that for one, it seems to kill pretty fast, unlike other instances of fish TB I've heard of, which have taken up to a year to kill fish. The other thing being that if it is indeed contracted via respiration, every fish in my house has it. I had juvenile convicts in that tank, which I moved to a tank in my fishroom, which of course shares a python pipe for waterchanges with every other tank down there. Not good practice, I know, but I never run into simple easily contractable diseases like ich or the like, and when I suspect there may be disease in a tank, I change the water separately. Also all the fish I keep take the same params, except my killis, which of course get special treatment. However nothing in the fishroom has shown signs of similar disease to the swordtails. If it is TB, does it only affect fish that have weakened immune systems? In hindsight I do notice weaker individual juvenile fish get skinny and deformed before dying. If it is TB, looks like I'm not selling any fish anymore, except from the 3 tanks in my bedroom which are all quarantined and separated.
What kills it if it is TB? Not a treatment, I mean as in bleach or something for disinfecting surfaces. How much of infected water needs to get into another tank for the tank to be infected?
I have a group of swordtails that has been dropping dead. One had mouth erosion that looked like it just got its bottom lip ripped off in in injury. It may as well have been that, because it was a pretty sudden wound. All have had scale losses and skin lesions, all have become emaciated and have hunched backs. As of recently some of the individuals have been sitting on the bottom. They have all become like this and died in within the last 3 months.
Timeline went
(pulled in from pond)
2 weeks in, I notice one doesn't have a bottom lip. Attribute it to juvenile convicts being aggressive
3 weeks in, I notice one has some weird deformity of the scales near the swim bladder area. Again, attribute it to injury.
5 weeks in, small bumps show up in some of the others.
6 weeks in, all of them have white lesions of some form and 4/6 have hunched backs. The first one to show scale loss dies. Another dies a few days later.
7 weeks in, another one gets a hunched back. 2 become skinny.
8 weeks in, another one dies.
9 weeks in, another one gets a hunched back.
10 weeks in, another one dies.
They have been dropping fry throughout this process, and still eat. There is a large single sponge sponge filter, and a smaller double sponge sponge filter. There is also about a gallon's worth of hornwort in there. The water temp is 78 degrees and I do biweekly water changes. It is a 20 long. The only other inhabitant is a male ancistrus.
Now begs the questions, how does it cross contaminate? How does it get in systems in the first place? I did not add any fish to their tanks that I did not own previously. I have however moved fish out of their tank before they showed signs of illness, and some after they showed 'signs' of illness. When I started seeing signs I reached out to a more educated friend, and he said it was a disease he forgot the name of, but could pretty much only be contracted by extremely inbred/line bred fish with horrible immune systems. My giant brick red swordtails would fit that bill. Some of their fry got it too, and died pretty fast.
Only conflicting thing I can see in this is the fact that for one, it seems to kill pretty fast, unlike other instances of fish TB I've heard of, which have taken up to a year to kill fish. The other thing being that if it is indeed contracted via respiration, every fish in my house has it. I had juvenile convicts in that tank, which I moved to a tank in my fishroom, which of course shares a python pipe for waterchanges with every other tank down there. Not good practice, I know, but I never run into simple easily contractable diseases like ich or the like, and when I suspect there may be disease in a tank, I change the water separately. Also all the fish I keep take the same params, except my killis, which of course get special treatment. However nothing in the fishroom has shown signs of similar disease to the swordtails. If it is TB, does it only affect fish that have weakened immune systems? In hindsight I do notice weaker individual juvenile fish get skinny and deformed before dying. If it is TB, looks like I'm not selling any fish anymore, except from the 3 tanks in my bedroom which are all quarantined and separated.
What kills it if it is TB? Not a treatment, I mean as in bleach or something for disinfecting surfaces. How much of infected water needs to get into another tank for the tank to be infected?
