Tiger barb malady

[barblover]

Hi,not posted in here for a while....but lately I've run into a problem concerning some of my tiger barbs.I did have a shoal of 10 fish about 3 months ago,but have since lost 3 fish over that period,though none of them at the same time.The symptoms seem to be a kind of splitting of the fins,scales missing and a slow but sure worsening of the fish's general health.Final stages are erratic swimming,similar to a fish that has swim-bladder failure.In the end,I have no option but to put the fish out of its misery.Strangely though,it only seems to be the tigers that are affected.I have black ruby barbs,kribs,bronze catfish,yo yo loach, zebra loach and 1 sail-fin molly,none of which have been taken ill.Any ideas?

Thanks, Barblover

 

[afireinside]

it sounds like ur fish has dropsy.

 

[tttnjfttt]

What are your water stats? (ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, pH, temp...) Also, how often do you do water changes, any other chemicals added besides dechlorinator? How big is your tank?

EDIT: What do you mean by a general worsening of the fish's health? [END EDIT]

I don't think this is dropsey. The trademark of dropsey is scales sticking out like a pinecone, not missing scales.

If I had to GUESS, I would say maybe a bacterial infection. Another possibility is a parasite, but like I said, not sure. If you got all your tiger barbs at the same time, would it be possible that they picked up some bug before you bought them, and it is finally developing now?

 

[afireinside]

scales missing. can't fish loose scales after pine coning?

 

[tttnjfttt]

i have NEVER heard of that before. I typed "dropsy missing scales" into google, and found no pages specifically describing dropsey symptoms that include missing scales. The cause of the pinecone look is because the swelling inside the fish is physically pushing the scales out.

Another possible reason for the missing scales is an injury, like if there is a VERY agressive fish in the tank, getting scraped, etc. If that were to happen and the fish were to get cut/scraped, that could possibly get infected, which could lead to death (trust me, I lost one of my tiger barbs to this on Sunday). Is there a particular hiding spot the barbs have taken over?

 

[WILDER]

For the scales to drop off with dropsy the would of have to been sticking out, and the pressure caused them to fall of, scales falling off can be columnaris or fish tb.
http/www.4qd.org/Aqua/disease/tb.html