Silver Shark Ill, Is It White Spot?

[oneblondebrow]

Hi all,

I noticed today that 1 of my Silver sharks seems lathargic, slightly gasping for air, seems to have some scales missing and 1 white spot near it's eye, Also it seems to have most of it's fins retracted, All in all does not look healthy, Oh and 1 of the neon tetra's seems to have got a lot smaller recently and may have retracted its fins slightly, Could this be White spot? if so how can i treat it?

Below are a couple of pics i took of the shark.





Sorry for the quality, Not the best at taking pics of the fish.

 

[Curiosity101]

I don't think it's whitespot. Looks more like columnaris or slimecoat disease.

What size tank is it in, what fish are there and what are you water test results?

I'm not disease expert but I know some of the questions to ask to help get you a faster/more accurate response when they do come along.

 

[Defiance]

Hiya,

As far as i can tell zooming in on your pics it doesn't look like ich to me

Seems to be a growth/bubble kinda problem

Without any other inputs i'd suggest it's a bacterial infection or fungal infection, but for my money it looks bacteral


But as for medication, your lfs etc

If no one replies with definitive help, i'd go get some anti-bacterial meds, to my thinking if it's bacteral then that's gonna get worse faster than a fungal problem so better to treat that first rather than trying a fungal med (hope that makes sense)

Hopefully some poor soul that's been in the same boat as you will reply

Tony

 

[Defiance]

Yeah i think Curiosity is right

Just been googling and it seems an accurate diagnosis

Tony

 

[Curiosity101]

I'm thinking more and more along the columnaris route. It will definitely help to know the conditions the fish is in though to see if it matches up with some of the common causes.

 

[Defiance]

Hiya,

Looks like an established tank, plants seem to look fine in the pics

Usual small algae signs which isn't too untoward

So hopefully if the op gets back you can help her (assuming going by the name)

Tony

 

[oneblondebrow]

Thanks for the reply's lads (i am also a lad ).

The tank is a 180 liter Juwel rio 180 which is established, Ammonia = 0PPM, Nitrite = 0ppm and Nitrate's = 40ppm (due for water change tomorrow), temp is at 25 degrees, Stocking is as follows, 3 x neon tetra's, 5 x black neon tetra's, 2 x silver sharks (will be moved to larger tank in the near future), 3 Peppered cory's, 3 Oto's and a Clown plec (also moving to the larger tank soon).

I have upgraded the filter media with more ceramic rings and extra fine sponges, I also have a 9w UV sterilizer which i would have thought would kill of the bacteria?

Do you think it could be columnaris?

 

[Curiosity101]

*ahem* Lady, not lad thank you very much

How old is the steriliser? I personally thought UV killed chloryphyll based life forms. Not 'all things'. Plus many bacteria don't just float around aimlessly, they can actually move. So from that I still think it could be columnaris... can't see a reason for the outbreak though...

 

[oneblondebrow]

Anyone treated columnaris? i have googled a few treatments but they vary, can i buy some off the shelf medicine for them? also how likely is it to spread to the others?

 

[oneblondebrow]

shark has died, Possibly a neon tetra will follow although all other fish seem fine and i have started treating the tank yesterday.