Wood Removal Following Disease In Tank?

FishForums.net Pet of the Month
šŸ¶ POTM Poll is Open! šŸ¦Ž Click here to Vote! šŸ°

Bugdozer

Fishaholic
Joined
May 23, 2012
Messages
450
Reaction score
0
Location
Hastings
I have had many fish in my tank die gradually, and I think it has been because of fish TB. Additionally, two developed weird swimming problems - one seemed to be paralysed down one side and swam with its body in a curve, another would skulk around and then do mad somersaults. All afflicted fish have been humanely euthanised and the three seemingly healthy ones have been re-homed. My tank now contains four amano shrimps only.
Due to damage to the tank glass, I am going to be replacing it with a new one. However, in the current tank is a piece of driftwood covered with java fern which I'd ideally like to transfer to the new tank. But does this run the risk of passing disease into the new tank? I'd rather not take any risks. All other pieces of decor can be cleaned but it's a bit difficult with that one.
 
Hi Bug
Ā 
Sorry to hear about the loss of fish :(
Ā 
I'm not on expert on diseases, but possibly leave the wood in quarentine for a week or two.
If you leave it in a tankĀ with clean medicated water, and provide water changes every few days, this should help to get it ready to be moved into your new tank when you get it.
Ā 
If you are certain that it is TB though, this might not help. IĀ don't think any store brought meds will help with TB, butĀ I'm not sure if this disease will be present on surfaces, or if it is only transfered to living thingsĀ 
 
There is actually no such thing as fish tuberculosis. TB is caused by the bacterium Mycobacterium tuberculosis. What fish get and gwts called fish TB is Mycobacterium marinum. While these two bacteria are closely related, they are not the same thing and do not give rise to the same diseases.
Ā 
When people who handle fish and have cuts or wounds, they may become infectwed by Mycobacterium marinum. This will manifest as a skin rash. However, it should be noted that even among those people who work with fish in any way (even selling them as food or procesing them) one has a better chance of being killed by terrorists than catching this.
 
TwoTankAmin said:
There is actually no such thing as fish tuberculosis. TB is caused by the bacterium Mycobacterium tuberculosis. What fish get and gwts called fish TB is Mycobacterium marinum. While these two bacteria are closely related, they are not the same thing and do not give rise to the same diseases.
Ā 
When people who handle fish and have cuts or wounds, they may become infectwed by Mycobacterium marinum. This will manifest as a skin rash. However, it should be noted that even among those people who work with fish in any way (even selling them as food or procesing them) one has a better chance of being killed by terrorists than catching this.
Thanks for the biology lesson, of which I was already aware. I apologise for using the "casual" term to refer to my fish having Mycobacterium marinum infection, and I note that you have offered no help to my question of whether the piece of wood might act as a vector if put into a new tank. Since you seem to know a lot about it, what is your opinion on that?
 
Unless you were looking at a nasty fungal or bacterial outbreak, I don't think you will have any issues with the wood. Ā If you are concerned, you could remove the plants and boil the wood or soak in a bleach solution, but again the plants will have to be removed.
Ā 
"...more flies with honey..."
 
Killing bacteria can be a challenge in some cases. In almost any case I can think of, bleach would be very effective. It can pretty much destroy anything organic. The problem with using this on wood is twofold. First, too strong and/or too long an exposure will hurt the wood itself. Second, the wood absorbs water, so it takes an effort to get the chlorine to evaporate completely. I am hesitant to suggest the standard bleaching technique.
Ā 
The issue I see here is knowing what will kill these specific bacteria. I can think of a few things that might work but I can not guarantee any of them for sure:
Ā 
1. Heat- either boiling or baking in an oven might work.
2. Cold - freezing also might work.
3. If these bacteria were more susceptible to antibiotics, then a good bath in a very strong dose might also work. Perhaps a combination of gram neg. and gram pos. antibiotics might work.
Ā 
The problem is I have no idea if the bacteria here can be killed by heat, freezing or even what antibiotic should work the best. I do not know how the bacteria reproduce either. It was believed that they do not produce spores and that they cannot survive heat in this article, but I cannot tell you how accurate it is https://microbiologybytes.wordpress.com/2010/01/27/do-mycobacteria-produce-endospores/ I can findother recent research which suggests they do form spores. The reason this matters is that it is much easier to kill a live bacteria than a spore.
Ā 
My best guess here is heat would be the best option since I did discover this:
Ā 
Mycobacterium ulcerans and Mycobacterium marinum are closely related pathogens which share an aquatic environment. The pathogenesis of these organisms in humans is limited by their inability to grow above 35Ā°C.
from http://iai.asm.org/content/74/11/6037.full
Ā 
The problem is the cessation of reproduction is not enough, the heat must be sufficient to kill the bacteria and any spores, if they form them. So you would be taking your best guess as to what temp. is needed to kill them. My guess, is that boiling temperatures may do the trick. I would be a bit worried about baking the wood as this might actually burn it or otherwise damage it. After you boil the wood and it has dried out (hurry drying in an oven using lower temps than would harm it but which accelerate evaporation), you can then freeze it for a while as well. Drying out, big heat and freezing are all things that are known to kill many bacteria. The odds are this triple whammy would do the trick, but I cannot guarantee this.
Ā 
If the wood in question is not something special that you really want to keep, the 100% safest bet would be to replace it. What we need here is a microbiologist who is familiar with Mycobacteria to be 100% certain.
 

Most reactions

trending

Staff online

Back
Top