- Have you tested your water?
- Yes
- If yes, what is your ammonia?
- 0
- If yes, what is your nitrite?
- 0
- If yes, what is your nitrate?
- Varied, 15-30
- 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
- What percentage of water do you change?
- 11-20%
- How frequently do you change your water?
- Infrequently; more than a month between changes
- 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.
Has anyone lost any fish to whirling Disease? I wanted to share my experience. Please understand that this is not one of my better examples of good husbandry. I feel embarrassed that I didn't discover the cause earlier than I did. But now I'm here 12 months later and haven't lost a single fish to this and I'm pretty sure I understand the cause.
Note that I'm only sharing observations and my suspected cause. I'm not a biologist but have kept fish for 35+ years at the hobby level. I never once encountered this disease until about 2 years ago.
I set up a new 75 gallon community tank. Small cichlids, swordtails, etc, with moderate hardness and neutral pH. Over about a 9 month period I killed DOZENS of fish unwittingly and spent at least $100 in Meds. Nothing worked.
Symptoms:
The fish would suddenly emaciate and start swimming in uncoordinated, panicky circles. They would die in a day or two. The emaciation was surprisingly quick. Usually happened in groups of 2-5 over the course of a week or so.
I also noticed that recent additions to the tank were more likely to display symptoms, leading me to think perhaps my water was contaminated. I am on city water and none of my local friends had these issues. I started doing large water changes, frequently with RO water that I mineralized up to the proper gH/kH.
Having never seen this disease , I struggled to find this online. I did find a lot of documentation on trout and salmon showing these symptoms as a result of parasites ingested via live tubifex. Bingo.
en.m.wikipedia.org
Except.... I never fed live tubifex. I occasionally fed frozen blood worms but those are larvae. I never even fed live blackworms. I feed a variety of pellets and flakes, along with fresh mullet fillet, shrimp, and fish eggs (from wild caught whiting).
I only fed freeze dried Tubifex periodically. I had one small can of tubifex cubes that lasted me 9-10 months and when I started suspecting it as the vector, I discarded it, and it was still easily half full. I used it so sporadically that I kept thinking the medicated food I was using worked.
This was a global, very well known brand of fish food that you can buy at basically every LFS on the planet. I did stop feeding the tubifex, and the deaths stopped happening.
So, I cannot legitimately say with certainty that the disease came from those freeze dried tubifex. I also don't know for sure that it was Myxobulus cerebralis. However, I'm quite convinced of it personally. I do not believe the freeze drying process is a guarantee that they are truly sterile. I know for certain many bacteria survive it, I see no real reason to suspect a cycst or whatever from higher parasitic forms cannot survive it.
My personal policy now is that I will not ever use Tubifex in any form, regardless of how it was processed.
Fish I lost to this over a 10 month period. I am not proud of this list at all, but I kept thinking it was cured because I'd go a month clean, and the suddenly lose 4-5 fish in a week.
2 red tail sharks.
2 pearl gourami.
5 adult sailfin mollies and at least a dozen offspring
4 Apistogramma caucatuoides juveniles who were a gift from a friend.
3 angelfish.
2 German rams
At least a dozen adult swordtails and countless offspring. Swordtails seemed especially susceptible.
That was by far the worst experience I've ever had keeping fish. I'm embarrassed that I took that long to discover the culprit. I nearly sold the tank, several times. I was definitely on the verge of giving it up entirely for a while. But I'm a troubleshooter by nature and now have much healthier tanks, and I haven't lost a fish to whirling Disease in over a year.
Note that I'm only sharing observations and my suspected cause. I'm not a biologist but have kept fish for 35+ years at the hobby level. I never once encountered this disease until about 2 years ago.
I set up a new 75 gallon community tank. Small cichlids, swordtails, etc, with moderate hardness and neutral pH. Over about a 9 month period I killed DOZENS of fish unwittingly and spent at least $100 in Meds. Nothing worked.
Symptoms:
The fish would suddenly emaciate and start swimming in uncoordinated, panicky circles. They would die in a day or two. The emaciation was surprisingly quick. Usually happened in groups of 2-5 over the course of a week or so.
I also noticed that recent additions to the tank were more likely to display symptoms, leading me to think perhaps my water was contaminated. I am on city water and none of my local friends had these issues. I started doing large water changes, frequently with RO water that I mineralized up to the proper gH/kH.
Having never seen this disease , I struggled to find this online. I did find a lot of documentation on trout and salmon showing these symptoms as a result of parasites ingested via live tubifex. Bingo.
Myxobolus cerebralis - Wikipedia
en.m.wikipedia.org
Except.... I never fed live tubifex. I occasionally fed frozen blood worms but those are larvae. I never even fed live blackworms. I feed a variety of pellets and flakes, along with fresh mullet fillet, shrimp, and fish eggs (from wild caught whiting).
I only fed freeze dried Tubifex periodically. I had one small can of tubifex cubes that lasted me 9-10 months and when I started suspecting it as the vector, I discarded it, and it was still easily half full. I used it so sporadically that I kept thinking the medicated food I was using worked.
This was a global, very well known brand of fish food that you can buy at basically every LFS on the planet. I did stop feeding the tubifex, and the deaths stopped happening.
So, I cannot legitimately say with certainty that the disease came from those freeze dried tubifex. I also don't know for sure that it was Myxobulus cerebralis. However, I'm quite convinced of it personally. I do not believe the freeze drying process is a guarantee that they are truly sterile. I know for certain many bacteria survive it, I see no real reason to suspect a cycst or whatever from higher parasitic forms cannot survive it.
My personal policy now is that I will not ever use Tubifex in any form, regardless of how it was processed.
Fish I lost to this over a 10 month period. I am not proud of this list at all, but I kept thinking it was cured because I'd go a month clean, and the suddenly lose 4-5 fish in a week.
2 red tail sharks.
2 pearl gourami.
5 adult sailfin mollies and at least a dozen offspring
4 Apistogramma caucatuoides juveniles who were a gift from a friend.
3 angelfish.
2 German rams
At least a dozen adult swordtails and countless offspring. Swordtails seemed especially susceptible.
That was by far the worst experience I've ever had keeping fish. I'm embarrassed that I took that long to discover the culprit. I nearly sold the tank, several times. I was definitely on the verge of giving it up entirely for a while. But I'm a troubleshooter by nature and now have much healthier tanks, and I haven't lost a fish to whirling Disease in over a year.
