Hello; That the infection (fungus or whatever) was already active while the fish was still alive is an important clue. Let me start my WAG here. Using the mushrooms that seem to suddenly pop up in our yards as an example. It seems they show up overnight but were already well involved in the ground. The mushrooms (fruiting body) are only a small part of the whole organism. They pop up quickly from the larger unseen mass of the fungal mycelium under the right conditions.
At least one flaw with this idea is most fungal infections feed on dead organic material. There is a stray random thought lurking in my memory about a fungal infection that kills some insects. Not a clear enough memory to be worth much but if true does support the idea the fish was already well infused with the organism while alive so upon death could bloom quickly.
We people get fungal infections while alive but most are those which start on the dead outer layer of skin, jock itch and athletes foot come to mind. There is also a bad fungal infection of the lungs I think.
hello; Very good question and one for which some information would be nice.finding it hard to believe that a fungal infection would take hold that quickly, but then again, i’ve never had tanks kept that badly i guess
Hello; Another WAG on my part. That being if the commercial breeders of bettas (and other popular fish) use anti biotic and anti fungal chemicals as a regular part of running their breeding and grow out setups. Sort of like the way animal farmers use so much antibiotics in their live stock. Up front it sounds like a good plan to get more product to market but has helped develop some superbugs. Maybe a super fungus could be an unintended outcome??
