This is a review of some NGT disease
http://aquaticpredators.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=25259
Hi guys:
I finally can stomach talking about this enough to try and share some knowledge of this devastating disease. For those of you who do not know, "Datnoid disease" is a weird disease brought into the countru by a bad batch of New Guinea Datnoids that came into several wholesalers and sellers. The few of us unluky enough to purchase such animals found the hard way that this disease will not only affect NGT's but will also spread to datnoids and other fishes in the perch family.
My ordeal was quite simple; two NGT's came into my posession and they infected my whole colelction. Between deaths due directly to the disease, deaths due to treatments and simply spontaneous deaths I lost 75 % of my datnoid population as well as several catfishes, bichirs, arowanas and loaches.
The disease starts as a small peach-colored sore and then develops into a full blow abscess. It seems to attach itself to bony parts of the fishes like gill plates, fins and even the gills themselves. It forms abscesses with large amount of cheesy material in them and they erupt to the outside of the body. It debilitates the fish until they die. Affects all datnoid species and some perch species. I lost all my New Guinea datnoids, all my Silver datnoids, all my Thin bar datnoids, 40% of my Wide Bar datnoids and a few Indonesian datnoids. I also lost all my Tigrinnus, 50% of all my Polypterus, all my african aros, my arapaima (it jumped), several plecos, my silver aros, Irwini cats, and a few more I am sure I forgot already.
This was so brutal that I couldn't even bring myslef to take pics of the fishes when they had the disease. Now I wish I had taken good pics but too late for that. I am sure some other members that suffered the disease can post their pics if they still have them.
I sent a few fishes to be analyzed at the state lab and the results were that it was a very strong bacterial infection. No virus or fungus was isolated or found. The bacteris responsible were Pseudomonas, Klebsiella and Proteus. Not really organisms that are hard to control so I knew there was something else that was missed. A protozoan was also found but they couldn't identify it and it was then that I knew we had a mix infection. It appears this is the work of a disease called Australian Epizootic Ulcerative Syndrome which is found or seen in fishes from Australia and New Guinea (New Guinea Dats). There is no known treatment and it is usually fatal. The description is on the book Fish Disease by Edward Noga. It seems that people in Thailand advocate "improving water quality" and that is exaclty what I did. The protozoan usually associated with this disease is Pfeisteria sp. (usually pisicicida) and it is a toxic dinoflagellate. The book even goes on to say that the pirmary cause of the sores is unknown but it provides a festering environment for the bacteria to thrive and kill the fish.
Treatment? Well here is when it gets tricky. Treatment is none according to literature but this is what I did to save my fishes.
1- Daily water changes of 50% at least.
2- Added as much salt as I felt like. I didn't care if I killed them by making brackish water as long as I could kill the organisms.
3- Dosed properly with Formalin as a precaution for its antiprotozoal activities.
The animals that survived but still had sores, started to imporve dramatically and eventually ended up looking quite good. I also saw some slight improvement with very acidic water but can't stand by this because I didn't get the chance to explore this option.
It is a horrible disease that is still present in some tanks. t takes time and dedication to eliminate but it can be done. If you buy datnoids, especially New Guinea Dats, that have been recently imported make sure you quarantine them for at least 1 month in a tank that follows the recommendations I gave above. I would place Thin Bars, Silvers and New Guineas in quarantine for sure and be a bit more lax with Indos and Wide Bars. Why? Some of my best sources of inormation tell me that over the years they have seen the first 3 species come in wioth small sore like that but that they never thought anything about it. Now we can really think a lot about it because it is a danger to all of us that keep dats.
Take my word when I tell you that you don't want to find your 18 inch Wide bar dead right next you one of your 17 inch Indos. I had to endure that, so hopefully none of you ever will.
Ivan
im scare now, I didnt quarantine my NGT
