Updated. Confirm? : Glofish Danios; Curved Spines, Concave Stomachs, L

[Channti]

Hello,

I've got a small school of 6 longfinned glofish danios in my community tank. The tank is a 15 gallon. Water is changed once a week, 30%, and I add Nutrafin AquaPlus water conditioner and Nutrafin Cycle. I feed the tank once daily. They get a basic tropical flake and two Wardley Algae tabs (for the corys and my swordtail;who will not eat flake)

I've had these Danios for about two months now, with no issues until recently.

I noticed the first danio, the smallest, with a concaved stomach (just behind it's eyes, about 3/4 of the way up it's body). I instantly headed to google and heard it might be an internal parasite. I've been treating the entire tank with API Pro Series General Cure Anti-Parasitic Medication, as recommended by the LFS owner. The tank just finished treatment, and I'm seeing no improvement. One of the other glofish has started to lose it's colour, fading to look much more similar to the albino zebra danios than a pink glofish. Three more have developed the concaved stomachs. The first danio to develop the concaved stomach now appears to have a curved spine, almost like a ")" (not quite as bad as the "V" I've seen in pictures).

When the curved spine developed, I headed back to google and heard that it might be Fish TB.

The Danios, while once very active, are now very calm and don't move much. They all hang around near the surface on the one side of the tank (away from the aerator). It used to be impossible for me to net the danios, but now I have no issue as they don't flee the net. They're not eating the flake. They nibble at it, pick at it, but they spit it right back out instead of swallowing it. I have been using the same food since I started the tank.

The tank is also home to 5 neon tetras, 3 peppered cory's, a black molly, a dalmation molly, and a swordtail. I have not added any new fish/plants/ornaments to the tank recently. The Danios are the only fish acting out of character. It was impossible to find glofish in my area (the pet store only got them in once, and only got in 12; I took 7 of their 12, my 7th danio died a week after I got it), and if it's possible, I want to save them before I lose them.

I can post pictures tomorrow if that would help,
Can anyone help me?

thanks,
--C

 

[xweeqtx]

I think Glofish danio's are dyed/injected in some way. Might be some kind of effect from that, I know those fish have a shortened life span etc.
And that would be the reason of colour loss as well.

Hopefully someone more knowledgable about it can help, I'm just guessing.

 

[OohFeeshy]

I think Glofish danio's are dyed/injected in some way. Might be some kind of effect from that, I know those fish have a shortened life span etc.
And that would be the reason of colour loss as well.

Hopefully someone more knowledgable about it can help, I'm just guessing.

No, they're completely normal as the colour is due to inserted jellyfish genes. Unless fish farms are trying to cash in by dyeing normal danios, but you'd be able to tell.

Sounds TB-like, unfortunately things with these symptoms can't usually be cured. It was possibly a dodgy batch, since they're the only ones affected.

 

[Channti]

So, is there any hope of saving my danios?

They're really quite beautiful... they've grown to be the eye-catcher in my community (I've got a black background, so they stand out). I really don't want to lose them....

 

[xweeqtx]

I think Glofish danio's are dyed/injected in some way. Might be some kind of effect from that, I know those fish have a shortened life span etc.
And that would be the reason of colour loss as well.

Hopefully someone more knowledgable about it can help, I'm just guessing.

No, they're completely normal as the colour is due to inserted jellyfish genes. Unless fish farms are trying to cash in by dyeing normal danios, but you'd be able to tell.

Sounds TB-like, unfortunately things with these symptoms can't usually be cured. It was possibly a dodgy batch, since they're the only ones affected.

Ahh, my bad

Inserting jellyfish genes? Jeez.

 

[LauraFrog]

It sounds like TB unfortunately. There is no cure, but sometimes you can prolong the lifespan by treating with antibiotics. Often it doesn't work but sometimes it does. You can only get antibiotics in the US (Maracyn 1 and 2) and Aus (Aquacure Tetracycline). In the UK all antibiotics are vet only meds which makes them prohibitively expensive.

Can you get a photo of your fish? The symptoms you are describing (spinal curvature, emaciation and concave stomachs, lethargy, refusal of food) all point to multiple organ failure. If these are true Glofish, the bright colours are due to genetic modification and the most likely cause of the problem is fish TB. If they are not Glofish, then they have been dyed (probably by some fish farm trying to cash in on the popularity of Glofish, as OohFeeshy mentioned.) Dyeing is an extremely cruel practise. The fish are either dipped in caustic to remove the slime coat, then in dye, then in irritant to replace the slime, or else injected repeatedly with dye under the skin. Both processes cause huge numbers of fatalaties and great suffering to the fish, and they shorten the lifespan of fish thus mutilated to a few months after the treatment. If it's dyed fish you have, then what you're seeing is multi organ failure caused by the effects of the artificial dye on the fish symptoms. (I've got photos in a magazine of the damage done to fish liver and kidneys by dye... not a pretty sight.)

Either way the prognosis isn't good, sorry I hate giving you such bad news.

 

[Channti]

It sounds like TB unfortunately. There is no cure, but sometimes you can prolong the lifespan by treating with antibiotics. Often it doesn't work but sometimes it does. You can only get antibiotics in the US (Maracyn 1 and 2) and Aus (Aquacure Tetracycline). In the UK all antibiotics are vet only meds which makes them prohibitively expensive.

Can you get a photo of your fish? The symptoms you are describing (spinal curvature, emaciation and concave stomachs, lethargy, refusal of food) all point to multiple organ failure. If these are true Glofish, the bright colours are due to genetic modification and the most likely cause of the problem is fish TB. If they are not Glofish, then they have been dyed (probably by some fish farm trying to cash in on the popularity of Glofish, as OohFeeshy mentioned.) Dyeing is an extremely cruel practise. The fish are either dipped in caustic to remove the slime coat, then in dye, then in irritant to replace the slime, or else injected repeatedly with dye under the skin. Both processes cause huge numbers of fatalaties and great suffering to the fish, and they shorten the lifespan of fish thus mutilated to a few months after the treatment. If it's dyed fish you have, then what you're seeing is multi organ failure caused by the effects of the artificial dye on the fish symptoms. (I've got photos in a magazine of the damage done to fish liver and kidneys by dye... not a pretty sight.)

Either way the prognosis isn't good, sorry I hate giving you such bad news.

I'll post a picture in a few hours when I get home from school. Can you get Maracyn 1 and 2 in Canada?

If this is Fish TB, can it spread to the other tank residents?


EDIT:
Aus (Aquacure Tetracycline)
I've got a box of API Pro Series T.C. Tetracycline. Is this the same thing? I've been using it to treat another tank in my house for a really bad case of fin-rot. The box states that it is for Fin and Tail rot, bacterial gill disease, hemorrhagic septicemia, open red sores and body slime and eye cloud.

 

[LauraFrog]

Fish TB infects orally, which means that the main way it spreads is for other fish to eat the dead bodies of fish that have died of TB. As far as we know, it does not spread through the water, but it's possible that fish in the terminal stages of the disease spread more TB cysts that cause other fish to become infected. This is possible but not confirmed.

I THINK maracyn 1 and 2 are available in canada but I'm not sure. Hopefully someone who knows will turn up.

 

[OohFeeshy]

If they're at the curved spine stage, then euthanisation is probably best, both for the affected fish and the others in the tank. Even if they're not quite there yet, there's no real hope of recovery, and there's always the risk of passing things on to the other fish.

 

[Channti]

Here are the pictures... Photobucket was easier than resizing them. In a few of the pictures you can see the one danio who has lost colour in comparison with the one healthy danio I have left. The pictures of the other danios are slightly blurry, but you'll get the idea. The lighting in that room is REALLY bad for fish pictures. Please excuse the reflection of my shirt (totally awesome shirt!) in the pictures, again, lighting=bad!.

<a href="http/i89.photobucket.com/albums/k206/goo...pa/DSCF3395.jpg" target="_blank">http/i89.photobucket.com/albums/k206/goo...pa/DSCF3395.jpg</a>
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UPDATE: June 14th, 09, early afternoon
The danio who was losing colour has died. The other affected fish are more and more lethargic as days go on. I still haven't seen any of the affected fish eat, and I've been sat watching closely when I feed them. I have one danio who appears to be completely unaffected.

The danio who died was almost white in colour, and still attempting to swim. His spine was curved in the ")" shape and he swam in spirals, with his body sideways in the water (almost upside down). I'm seriously concerned for my other fish. After taking pictures of my healthy danio to the LFS where I originally purchased them, the store owner told me that they were unable to get any more in as they'd switched fish suppliers since then (or something like that). Is there anything I can do, or should I just put them out of their misery now?

Also, LauraFrog mentioned Aus (Aquacure Tetracycline). I've been treating another tank in my house with API Pro Series T.C. Tetracycline packets for fin-rot. Is this the same thing?


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Update: June 14th, 10:00pm

I just did a head-count in my community. All other fish are still healthy looking. Status on remaining Danios:
2 of five appear to be in late stages of the disease; probably dead by Tuesday morning.
1 of five appears to be healthy, but is swimming oddly. Not sure if he's picked up the disease or if he's just being odd.
1 of five is dead, was found in an ornament, swimming sideways, and very pale, but not as pale as the first dead danio. I put it out of it's misery.
1 of five appears to be in very early stages of the deases; stomach just starting to concave, spine still fairly straight.

Not sure what I'm going to do... I love these fish. They're dying. And there's nothing I can do to stop it...