Poorly Black Moor

[Assaye]

Tank size: 290 litres
pH: 7.5 (normal)
ammonia: 0
nitrite: 0
nitrate: 20
hardness: hard
tank temp: 23C

Fish Symptoms (include full description including lesion, color, location, fish behavior):

Lethargic, hanging near the surface. He's covered in tiny white fibres (worms? Parasites?). I considered ich but they're not like grains of salt, more like he's covered in tiny hairs. NOT fungal, that much I can tell. No wounds or lesions. Tattered fins but I think he rips them on the plants, plus the water is hard. Finds it hard to eat due to eyesight but is handfed or isolated for feeding. Not interested in food much today. I have given him a salt bath today and yesterday. Tank is being treated with anti-external parasite meds due to new addition and risk of fish-lice (as the shop sometimes has an outbrake).

Volume and Frequency of water changes: 25% every 1-2 weeks

Chemical Additives or Media in your tank:

Just water conditioner.

Tank inhabitants:

2 other fancy goldfish

Recent additions to your tank (living or decoration):

New goldfish (Samwise). Samwise seems very healthy. That was 3 weeks ago? Maybe longer.

Exposure to chemicals:

None that I know of.

Digital photo (include if possible):

No camera.

 

[Assaye]

Please, pleae help =( he's looking awful. The fibre things are spreading over his eyes. I'm worrying it could be a fungus or columnaris now but he doesn't have any wounds (which would tend to rule a fungus out) and it doesn't look anything like the columnaris I'm used to as he doesn't have a saddleback lesion and it doesn't look much like cotton wool, more like hundreds of tiny worms or fibres.

I'm preparing another salt bath for him now but I'm stuck on what to do.

 

[WILDER]

Do the thread like strands have a y shaped tail.

You will have to find out if it's a parasite or strands of cotton on the fish.

Is he gasping.
Is the fish darting, erratic swimming, excess mucas, flicking and rubbing, red sores or pin prick marks on the fish.
What do the gills look like.

Fish lice are disc shaped with legs. So it dosn't sound like fish lice unless you can see disc shaped moving objects on the goldfish.

Some info on anchor worm.


Anchor Worm (a.k.a. Lernaea)

Symptoms:

Infected fish can be seen with whitish red worm-like threads, about � inch long. Trailing at the rear of female parasites are two long, tube-like egg sacs. The parasites can be found anywhere on the body of the fish, including the eyes, gills and fins. Raised ulcers may appear at the site of attachment. Consequently, secondary bacterial infections may occur. The tale-tale sign that your fish is infected will be if you notice it rubbing or scraping against objects in the aquarium. It does this in an effort to remove the parasite.


Cause:

The parasitic crustacean Lernaea. Lernaea burrow into the muscle and gill tissue of fish, often times reaching as deeply as the internal organs, causing severe damage. Heavy infestations can cause significant weight loss and death.


Treatment:

You should kill all visible worms by dabbing them with a cotton swab, dipped in Potassium Permanganate or an anti-parasitic medication. Then you should carefully remove them from the fish with tweezers. You should kill the parasites before removing them because if they have burrowed deeply, removing them alive could cause the fish pain and significant physical damage. Once you�ve removed the parasite, you should then dab the wounds with Methylene Blue to prevent secondary bacterial infections from occurring. It is highly recommended that you feed the fish with medicated food. The tank will also need to be treated to kill any unseen, free-swimming juvenile parasites. You can use Fluke Tabs, Clout, Paragon or Trifon for this.

 

[Athena]

Oh dear! Without seeing any pics its quite hard to say exactly what the problem is but it does sound suspiciously like a fungal disease as that can cause cotton-like threads, or a fuzzy appearance on the fish. They don't need an open wound in order to contract a fungal disease. Stress can be the underlying cause.

do you have any fungal meds?

Athena

 

[WILDER]

I agree athena. it columnaris or anchor worm. But I never know anchor worm to cover alot of the fish.

 

[Assaye]

Do the thread like strands have a y shaped tail.

You will have to find out if it's a parasite or strands of cotton on the fish.

Is he gasping.
Is the fish darting, erratic swimming, excess mucas, flicking and rubbing, red sores or pin prick marks on the fish.
What do the gills look like.

Fish lice are disc shaped with legs. So it dosn't sound like fish lice unless you can see disc shaped moving objects on the goldfish.

I know it isn't fish lice but I was treating for that anyway before Pip become ill as the shop I got Samwise from often has fish lice outbreaks and I wanted to be sure the tank wouldn't get infected.

The threads are so tiny that I can't tell if they have a 'y' shaped tail or not.

He's not gasping, not darting, not swimming erraticly, not flicking, not rubbing and I can't see any red marks or pin pricks. His gills also look fin.

Some info on anchor worm.


Anchor Worm (a.k.a. Lernaea)

Symptoms:

Infected fish can be seen with whitish red worm-like threads, about � inch long. Trailing at the rear of female parasites are two long, tube-like egg sacs. The parasites can be found anywhere on the body of the fish, including the eyes, gills and fins. Raised ulcers may appear at the site of attachment. Consequently, secondary bacterial infections may occur. The tale-tale sign that your fish is infected will be if you notice it rubbing or scraping against objects in the aquarium. It does this in an effort to remove the parasite.


Cause:

The parasitic crustacean Lernaea. Lernaea burrow into the muscle and gill tissue of fish, often times reaching as deeply as the internal organs, causing severe damage. Heavy infestations can cause significant weight loss and death.


Treatment:

You should kill all visible worms by dabbing them with a cotton swab, dipped in Potassium Permanganate or an anti-parasitic medication. Then you should carefully remove them from the fish with tweezers. You should kill the parasites before removing them because if they have burrowed deeply, removing them alive could cause the fish pain and significant physical damage. Once you�ve removed the parasite, you should then dab the wounds with Methylene Blue to prevent secondary bacterial infections from occurring. It is highly recommended that you feed the fish with medicated food. The tank will also need to be treated to kill any unseen, free-swimming juvenile parasites. You can use Fluke Tabs, Clout, Paragon or Trifon for this.

Too small and too many of them for anchor worm. What about body flukes? They are supposed to be really tiny, right?

Oh dear! Without seeing any pics its quite hard to say exactly what the problem is but it does sound suspiciously like a fungal disease as that can cause cotton-like threads, or a fuzzy appearance on the fish. They don't need an open wound in order to contract a fungal disease. Stress can be the underlying cause.

do you have any fungal meds?

Athena

I don't have any decent ones. I have API anti-fungal and fin-rot med but from what I have heard that's just an anti-bacterial med cashing in on the confusion between the two. I've looked at 100s of photos of fungal infections and this doesn't look like any of them. I don't have a camera and the strands are too fine to see with one anyway, unless it was a fancy SLR or something.

I've had columnaris before and this looks nothing like it. The body doesn't really look fuzzy as each 'strand' is tiny but very clearly defined. There are also no lesions, mouthrot or any other classic columnaris symptoms.

I'll continue with salt baths until we can pin this down. I don't want to overload him with meds as it'll just make whatever it is worse if we use the wrong ones.

 

[WILDER]

Is it possible to load a pic onto the site of the fish.

It dosn't sound like a parasite just yet as the fish is not showing any of the parasite signs.
Fish will produce for slime when there protecting themselves.

You can just about see flukes with the naked eye.
Does the fish swim in a jerky movement.
But the fish is not showing any parasite signs like flicking and rubbing, darting or erratic swimming,excess mucas.

Do you have any methylene blue. As I would do a methylene blue dip.

My fish has white thread-like or cottony puffs on the skin.
A: This sounds like a Saprolegnia Fungus.

Treatment: Treat the fish with Forma-Green for 5-7 days.

 

[WILDER]

Saprolegniasis

Symptoms:

Visible symptoms are white or gray patches of filamentous threads that grow from an infected fish's body. It is characterized by an external, cotton-like appearance that radiates out in a circular, crescent-shaped or whorled pattern. Infestation generally begins on the head or fins and can spread over the entire surface of the body.


Cause:

The fungus Saprolegnia. Fungal spores may be transmitted by hatchery fish, wild fish, eggs, water supplies, and equipment. Saprolegnia is considered an opportunist facultative parasite, and so poor water quality, overfeeding, and low water temperatures may also play an important role in contraction of the disease. Saprolegnia causes tissue destruction and loss of epithelial integrity. If untreated, Saprolegnia will cause death by osmoregulatory failure.


Treatment:

Perform a 30% water change to improve water conditions and then treat the water with one of the following anti-fungal medications: Malachite green, Formalin, Hydrogen peroxide, or Sodium chloride.

Malachite green is considered the most effective chemical for controlling Saprolegnia. Formalin, a solution of 37% formaldehyde, is also effective and is the only fungicide registered for use in aquaculture in the United States; however, there are concerns about its effect on both the environment and those who handle it. Hydrogen peroxide is a promising chemical for the treatment of Saprolegnia with minimal impact to the environment. Sodium chloride can also be used to control Saprolegnia as it is lethal at high concentrations (15 gm/liter).

If the patches on your infected fish appear gray, treat with a broad spectrum antibiotic, as this is indicative of a bacterial presence.

 

[Assaye]

They are like threads but don't radiate out. He's just covered in them - no pattern. No excess slime or mucus. Don't build up or anything, just tiny little threads quite flat to his body.

I can't get a photo.

Should I use meth blue or mal green then? I don't have either but I should be able to get them. Would it be better to do salt (sodium chloride) dips in the meantime? This is cooking salt, not aquarium salt.

 

[WILDER]

Do you only have goldfish in the tank. If so I would use m green. Goldfish are tough so they should handle the med.
Some brands of methylene blue wipe the beneifical bacteria out in the filter so I would go in with m green.

Look under skin disorders.
http/www.fishyfarmacy.com/

 

[WILDER]

Even though columnaris has many disguises it dos'nt sound like it.
Only thing I can think of is parasite or fungal.

 

[the biffster]

Even though columnaris has many disguises it dos'nt sound like it.
Only thing I can think of is parasite or fungal.

wilder i just wonder if a salt bath at half strength
with aquarium salt will do any help

 

[WILDER]

If the salt baths haven't helped I wouldn't bother. It's to stressful on the fish.

It's hard to say what it is without a pic.
But I would add some m green to the tank.

 

[Assaye]

Only med I have in the house that has mal green is Interpet Anti-White Spot. It has 5,000mg formaldehyde and 47mg mal green oxalate per 100ml. Worth using this? Should I treat the entire tank or use a bath? If so, how much and for how long?

 

[WILDER]

You could try a bath first. If it improves the fish conditon add the med to the main tank.

I would rather use a complete m green med.
But do a bath in the whitespot med do see if the fish improves.