 |
Disease
is not inevitable. However, even with consistent control over
the environments of the fish we keep, something
still comes up once in a
while. But there are ways to keep your tanks such that disease
is rare when it occurs, and hopefully
through early, effective
intervention, any problems that you do encounter will be minor
and easily, quickly remedied.
Many of the texts and
information available when you do encounter something are
inexact, confusing and often geared toward
encouraging you to
purchase a product. Many of us learn about treatments in the
dark aisles of the local fish store, hurridly
rushing there after
noticing something that doesn’t look right in our aquarium. We
don’t know what disease we have, don’t really
know which medication is
the correct one for the condition we are looking to treat, and
are then shocked to find out that some
medications can cost
$20-30 for a course of treatment! We certainly don’t know if we
have gram negative or gram positive bacterial
activity, or which
medications can’t be used with certain types of fish or plants.
After many years of eventually encountering the most common maladies, the evaluation and
actions taken in this fishroom deal
effectively with
most diseases encountered by the majority of hobbyists. This
essay is an effort to share that process.
There are fishkeepers
that observe disease tissue and can tell you the exact
identification of the disease organism, and can
then communicate the
strengths and weaknesses of a wide variety of teatments. That
level of knowledge has not been necessary
for what is encountered
here, and most instances can be addressed through a few timely
procedures.
Before proceeding
further, placing any new fish to your fishroom by themselves in
a quarantine tank can’t be overstated. Any
fish obtained from a
source that does a dynamic, high turnover business cannot
guarantee that your fish will be disease free.
For the fish, the move
from the wholesaler, to the shop, then to you with three
possible water parameter differences, stresses
the fish, and lowers
their ability to fight infection. So the odds of a new fish
bringing something into your tanks is greatest
when first introduced,
and bringing a disease into your room is the most common way to
contract one. Removing that
possibility cuts your
odds at having to address a disease situation by at least half.
_____________________________________________________________________
Why does illness
occur, and what can be done to avoid or prevent it?
When we first set up an
aquarium, we all learn which aspects of their care need to be
consistent, and what happens when
certain parts of their
care are neglected. If fish are chilled for any period of time –
the heater breaks, or the power
goes out, an aquarist may
face the most common disease encountered at one time or another-
“ich”- Ichthyophthirius. Though
many fishkeepers still
lose entire tanks to this disease, it is one of the most easily
treated, with the greatest odds of
survival of your fish.
Ich is a parasite
organism that is arguably always present in aquarium water.
Small, hard white spots begin to appear on
the fins and body of the
fish, and within a day of seeing the first couple spots on a
single fish the entire tank may be
covered, so action must
be taken within a few hours. Within another day you will start
losing fish. If you do not have a
widely available ich
medication around, raise the temperature to about 82 degrees (if
the type of fish you are keeping can
handle temperatures that
high). This may arrest the outbreak by itself, but adding
medication that will kill off the
organism for the time
being is needed. Some may also add a medicinal level of salt- 1
tablespoon per every 5 gallons when
the heat is raised to
assist the fish to overcome the outbreak.
Our approach at Select
Aquatics is that fish health is a direct result of the water
quality maintained for them, the
quality of their diet and
the resources available to live a healthy, relatively stress
free existence. We wish for the fish
to grow to their maximum
size, and to breed when they should. For these things to happen,
the fish has a certain amount of
energy to express. It can
go toward growth and interest in breeding, or toward toward
working to fend off disease in a dirtier
or more disease-prone
environment. For the fish to do well, certain disease preventing
steps are taken.
The temperature
needs to stay consistent at the level appropriate for the
species. A fish’s metabolism increases when
water is warmer,
decreases when colder. If water temperature becomes colder, a
fish’s immune system becomes
vulnerable to being compromised- so the ich
parasite, for example, is able to establish itself through the
stress of the fish
becoming chilled. Mulm is
routinely removed from the aquarium as accumulates, and the
filter medium is changed regularly.
The tank cannot become
overcrowded, and the fish chosen to be together get along.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
Circumstances that may weaken the fish and increase
their vulnerability to disease are:
- When the filter is
allowed to become too dirty
- If the heater is
inconsistent, or there are wide temperature variations in the
tank (more than 3-4 degrees)
- Areas of mulm are allowed to accumulate in the aquarium,
adding ammonia to the tank.
- Gravel is used that
collects and hides a building quantity of organic waste
- There is a lack of
adequate aeration.
- Water changes are less
than a minimum of 20% per week, or not done frequently enough.
- There is use of an
undergravel filter (at one time these revolutionized the hobby,
but today are avoided by most
fishkeepers as they collect and contain debris within the
aquarium.)
- Overfeeding such that
uneaten food is allowed to deteriorate in the aquarium
- The occasional fish
that may die. Deaths are a particular problem, as a fish allowed
to decay adds a substantial
amount of organic
deterioration- especially to a tank under 30 gallons. If a tank
is at maximum capacity, and a fish
dies that is missed for a
day, the decomposition could easily cause an ammonia bloom that
could wipe out other fish
in the tank.
- Tankmates that do not
do well together introduces stress, which triggers disease. Fin
nipping, scrapes and general
bullying introduce
opportunities for disease to take hold through stress and
injury.
- The introduction
of a sick fish to an aquarium, particularly to a tank where the
fish are already stressed, could
quickly cause
an unanticipated outbreak.
- Lastly, be aware
of dietary needs of your fish. Feeding a high protein diet to
fish that require a vegetable diet-
such as many
of the the African rift lake cichlids- will cause them to bloat
and present other signs of illness.
__________________________________________________________________
Whether a tank contains a
certain disease, parasite, etc., cannot be known. Some claim a
tank that has not been
exposed to, say, ich
(white spot disease) is not going to experience an outbreak
unless it is introduced. Others
feel that everything
already exists in most aged aquariums, and the absence of
disease is not due to care to avoid
their introduction, but
keeping the fish at their healthiest state to avoid being
overtaken by anything already
present in the aquarium.
Those believe that by providing a clean, healthy environment
with food that is both
appropriate and quality,
disease can be nearly prevented from occurring, such that an
outbreak is very rare.
Whichever is correct, it is
best to assume the latter, for there is no way to know for sure
whether a disease
organism exists in your tanks,
and by assuming you can ignore the threat posed by some diseases, the fish care
could be compromised.
___________________________________________________________________
Another issue that must
be considered is the risk a sick fish poses to the rest of the
fish in the tank. When many
fish exist, and a single
individual may be developing a patch of fungus due to an injury,
it is best to immediately
remove that fish from the
tank, to be medicated and heal in a tank of their own. Often,
when a disease strikes,
and you act quickly to
isolate the sick individuals and treat the rest, you may end up
losing the fish that initially
became sick. To end a
disease outbreak with only the loss of the initially sick fish,
and not the entire tank,
is sometimes the best you
can hope for.
Fungus and fin rot
are possibly the next most commonly encountered problems. Fin
rot is common in guppies and other
fish with flowing fins as
a result of circulation issues introduced through selective
breeding, but occurs commonly
in all fish, generally as
a direct result of a deterioration in water quality. The outer
edges of the fins will literally
be rotting away, with a
ragged or whitish appearance. Often, a 50% water change,
changing the filter floss or filter
medium, cleaning the tank
and adding a medicinal level of salt will arrest the disease.
Many medicinal preparations
are available for this as
well, and are very good at curing this when it occurs.
Fin rot in some
fancy strains of fish- particularly the large delta tailed
guppies, has been discussed at length by
breeders of the fish. The
larger finnage leads to a compromise in circulation, which
provides an avenue for disease to
overwhelm the fish’s
immune system. To address this, many breeders depend on the
constant presence of the medicinal level
of salt mentioned
earlier, strictly bare bottom tanks and regular, substantial
water changes. The problem is that over a
number of generations,
with fish that have never had to face disease outbreaks, or that
were raised in environments where
disease organisms/
outbreaks are effectively suppressed, those fish do not thrive
well when removed from that environment.
They seem to have little
ability to fight what for most fish are commonplace. As a rule, fish in
adequately well maintained
aquaria do not encounter
fin rot unless there are other problems, generally related to
simple cleanliness.
When addressing cleaning
a tank, keep in mind that changing everything dirty could also
cause problems by removing
too much of the bacteria
that the naturally occurring biological filtration in the tank
depends upon. The way to
avoid this is when
changing the filter medium- particularly if the tank was
especially dirty, is rather than simply
throwing out the filter
medium, instead rinse it thoroughly in clean aquarium water- not
water from the tap. Then,
after the particulate
matter and dirt has been rinsed away, return the medium to the
filter. Allow the medium to
maintain filtration in
the newly cleaned aquarium for at least 7-10 days before
replacing it.
Fungus is also
very common, generally occurring as a result of an injury or
scrape, or again, fighting a dirty environment.
Generally seen in two
forms, white tufts of hairlike material can appear on the fins
or body of the fish, and a separate
form will often develop
around the mouth area. This “mouth fungus” is often a result of
an injury, and will quickly grow
to interfere with the
ability of the fish to eat, and is occasionally fatal if not
immediately treated. The other type of
fungus, sometimes just
referred to as “body fungus” is again a white tuft of hairlike,
cottony material that spreads and
and can infect other fish.
Fungus is an organism
that is quickly treated by a wide number of antifungal fish
medications, and when treated quickly
is often cured within 1-2
days. Fungus also happens at the site of injury, and when this
occurs it is best to treat it
quickly with an available
anti-fungal medication available at most tropical fish stores..
Body Slime is not
really a disease, but a reaction to something the fish is making
an effort to defend itself against.
Usually a whitish slime
along the sides of the body, it saps the fish of energy and the
fish generally thins down until
it dies. The addition of
salt is usually very beneficial- 1 tbspn per 5 gallons of water,
preceded by a water change,
and again, a number of
medications widely available can cure this when acted upon
quickly.
Livebearer Disease-
This condition first became well known in the hobby in the later
1990s. Not a bacteria or a virus,
it is a parasite that
lives on the skin of the fish and feeds on its fluids. The fish
appears to waste away, often with
a sunken belly until it
dies. This is most commonly seen in livebearers, particularly
the guppies, swordtails and limias.
There is only one
effective treatment for this that works quickly and stops this
condition. Levamisole hydrochloride.
¼ teaspoon of the white
powder form will treat 100 gallons. Treat twice, 24 hours apart,
each treatment preceded by a
30% water change.
Crooked spines-
Crooked spines are not a disease, but a genetic deformity that
may arise as a result of a line of fish
inbreeding. The genome is
simply expressing the mutations it carries, and culling the bent
spined fish will help
stabilize the line. Some
argue that bent spines are not in fact genetic in origin, but
environmental. The best course
is to remove them so that
they do not breed, and there is no reason to believe it is
contagious.
Camallanus worms-
These are a small, intestinal nematode worm that are common in
the hobby. They can often first
be seen as small, waving threads
sticking out from the anus of the fish. The best treatment for
them is Levamisole
hydrochloride, at ¼ gram per 100
gallons. Treat twice, 24 hours apart, each preceded by at least
a 25% water change.
______________________________________________________________________________________________
Levamisole
hydrochloride is available from other hobbyists and some
feed stores. It is generally used as a dewormer for
cattle and sheep. There
are other over the counter remedies available, but they
generally do not work as quickly or as
thoroughly. Contact
Select Aquatics at
selectaquatics@gmail.com as they may have it in stock.
The selection of
medications available today is much improved from years
past, where the problem was the complexity
and variety available. Often
aquarists had little knowledge of the most efficient treatment
for the disease they were dealing
with. Aquarists swore by
various antibiotics because they had worked for them in the
past, apparently unaware that because
a specific antibiotic had
effect in one instance, it would not necessarily work the same
way in others.
When choosing a
medication to use, there are a couple issues that must be taken
into consideration. Some medications
will come in tablet form,
with say, 10 tablets to a box. When reading the instructions,
you may find that a course of
treatment for your 30 or
50 gallon tank may take 2 or 3 or 4 packages, which could become
prohibitively expensive.
As well, some medications
can be very harsh to the established biological activity in the
tank, creating a tank that
may need to be treated as
a new, “uncycled” aquarium. Lastly, some medications may kill
your plants or discolor your
aquarium. The coloration
is generally temporary (usually either yellow, blue or green),
and repeated water changes
every few days until the
tank is back on its feet may be necessary.
Sometimes the end result
of a bout with disease is a tank that is empty (because the fish
were moved to be treated in a
smaller tank, or were
taken by the outbreak), and that tank now needs to be
disinfected. You do not need to disinfect a
tank after a disease has
been treated, but sometimes because of the nature of the disease
you may want to start with a
clean slate. The way to
do it is this:
Bleaching a tank-
This essentially disinfects a tank and takes it to a totally
clean condition. With some diseases,
this is the only way to
know for sure that you have entirely removed the pathogen.
Remove everything from the
tank if possible,
especially anything living as this treatment will absolutely
kill anything in the tank. This procedure
does not harm the
silicone, sealants or the glass. When the tank is ready to be
bleached:
Keeping the tank filled
(if anything, have the tank filled slightly above where it is
normally), and with the filters
running normally, pour in
1 cup of bleach for each 10 gallons of water. Let the tank run
for 24 hours this way. You may
want to provide
ventilation as the bleach evaporates from the tank being
treated, particularly if there are other tanks
with living fish in them
in the same area. The other fish shouldn’t be affected, but
having the chlorine in the air and
blown into the tanks
should be avoided.
If you have moved the
gravel to separate containers, after thoroughly rinsing it of any debris, the best way
to disinfect it is to
boil it for about 5 minutes, let it cool and rinse, then set
aside. Other items can be disinfected
by soaking overnight in a
5 gallon bucket in water with about ½ cup of bleach, then
thoroughly rinsed afterwards.
After 24 hours drain any
water from the tank and the filters. Refill the tank, then run
the tank for 2 days. Then drain
again and refill. Let run
for 24 hours, then try a couple test fish, and check on them in
24 hours. If they have expired,
drain and fill again.
Wait 24 hours, try a couple more test fish.
If they survive, then you
can consider what goes back into the tank. When using bleach,
use the smell test. Smell
everything carefully and
closely. If you can smell bleach, at all, do not put it into the
aquarium. A very small amount of
bleach- a hint of bleach-
can kill a lot of fish. Keep an eye on the test fish for another
couple days after the tank is put
back together, and start
water changes. If all is well, then add about 10% seasoned water
from another tank nearby
(or a few cups from a local pet
store) to help get the tank biologically started, and slowly
begin adding the fish.
All fishkeepers encounter
disease at one time or another, but a consistency of proper care
is the only way to
generally avoid it.
However, we all have power outages, accidents, pieces of
equipment that break, times when
we are away… and the
result can often be an outbreak of something in your aquarium.
But with consistency and
cleanliness, disease is
rare and is generally treated fairly easily.
Greg Sage
selectaquatics.com
selectaquatics@gmail.com
Copyright 2013
|
|
