Disease threat

Hi all Having all the time questions about sick fish, would it not be a good idea to have a threat where we have a collection of diseases and there cure.
With that, not only could the keeper look up what kind of disease, or ailment his fish has, but also act quickly with a possible treatment and not wait till there is somebody on-line to answer the questions.
The threat could than be addited, updated, compiled and sorted for easier excess by the admin staff or somebody apointed.
Also mistakes as done by me recently could be corrected before they do any harm.
And to show what I mean I will start with

Ichthyophthirius multifilis or simply Ich
Ich or White Spot Disease is one of the most common fish diseases and nearly every fish Keeper of fresh water fish will come across it one or the other time.
First signs are the affected fish rub them self on wood, rocks or other pieces of decoration.
The distinctive white spots are often first seen on the fins. They than spread more or less quickly over the whole body.


The spots are actually the out of the skin protruding ciliates. The Parasite measures between 0.3 and 1.4 mm.
Fully grown, the ich leaves the fish and, in the AQ environment, often settles in the substrate. There it starts splitting and more than 1000 new parasite “larvae†might be produces within a day. These larvae leave the substrate and actively surge for new hosts. There is only a 48h time-window available, after which the larvae die.
This whole process from Larva to fully grown Ciliate and leaving the fish to split again is greatly temperature dependent and can take from 6 days at 28C to 120 days at 5C.
This offers also one of the easiest and in my opinion best ways of fighting the disease.
The larvae can’t withstand temperatures above 30C but the ciliate in the fish grows and leaves the fish very fast.
At the first signs of spots one should increase the temp to 31-32C (most fish in a tropical AQ setup can handle this temperatures)
The other important step is to vacuum the substrate on a daily basis to get rid of as many “Spores†as possible.
As said, this has to be continued for at least 8 days better is 10-14 days.
Important to note is, that during this time a sufficient Aeration has to be guarantied, the higher the water temperature the less O2 will be dissolved in it!
In addition to the Temperature treatment often a concurrent salt treatment is recommended. The salt does actually not do any harm to the parasite but stimulates the mucus production of the fish and with that helps to fight of the parasite getting into the skin.
The dose here is 1-3g/L water for the planted tank and 2-5g/L for a pure fish tank.
Some people also advocate a separate bath for 15min daily with a 10g/L salt solution. I personally think the catching and moving of the fish is unnecessary stress and should be avoided at all cost.
The third way of fighting the disease with Malachite green
There are many products on the marked and the accompanying label should be followed.
Here for ones a 10% overdose is often advocated. If one slightly under doses and some of the spores survive the treatment one has a resistant strain!
All tank lights and UV sterilising equipment has to be switched of. Malachite green gets neutralized by UV light especially and light in general. Light hungry tanks might suffer with this kind of treatment. In addition, the malachite green stains silicon and cloth!
As some of you know, English is not my first languish and I would be thankful if the article would be changed into proper grammar where ever needed

 

Not to be pedantic but just to clear confusion. A threat is something that threatens, probable danger etc. . But a thread (D) is a topic on a forum. Just wanna help

 

im sure i read a similar post on tasa before. i think veegal posted a link to a site stating symptoms, causes n cures to deseases. do a search and u should be able to find it.

 

Ferryman... in Guido's defense, I do believe that English is not his first language... BUT

He DOES have a wealth of information to share with us! He seems to know what he is saying... even if we need to read his posts phonetically.

 

Hi all
Thanks Bob and ferryman
Tried to edit already, but was not able anymore, Sorry
To Aquanewbie I could not find the threaD:blink1: you referring to and that was the point of me writing it. Even so, a collection of all or at least most diseases under one thread as reference I think could be helpful.
But just a thought:bigsmile:

 

yup, i also find guido's contributions helpful, so wasnt bein mean. Just pointing it out for improvement. The post aquanewbie refers to is called 'white spot again, grr' . . .an al encompassing thread sounds good, but i believe some member here gave us a link to a diagnostic site a while ago that was much better equiped to help, you start by selecting the symptoms from a long list, and then it spits out the closest ailment matches and treatment. If i were to consult one thread for diagnosis, itd have to be as easily searchable as that site for quick reference, going from symptoms and then listing disease

 

Hi Ferryman
The link you refer to i found little helpful but this aside, i thought in those lines just at TASA.
A list of diseases diagnostics, maybe a picture and possible treatments all in one easy accessible thread

 

No Worries mate, Information is always a good thing!

 

Maybe have a disease/ailment subforum, each thread covers a disease/ailment, After the given overview, people can ask for spesific advice relating to their tank, and a sticky thread with symptoms listed, those are then hyperlinked to the corresponding disease thread?

 

Now wright a thread about a new disease:bigsmile:

 

Here is the link I previously posted some time ago...

http://www.fishyportal.com/diag/

 

good morning Vee
didn't get to this side before
Now it's bookmarked:bigsmile:
Thanks

 

It's a very useful site that - especially when you are totally at your wits end

 

Thaaaaats the one i was refering to thanks vee

 

No problem Ferry

 

www.waterlife.co.uk is another very usefull site for diseases

 

That site does not open..... by me any way.

 

Opened when I klicked on the lick a moment ago.....

 

Gareth try this link.... http://www.waterlife.co.uk/waterlife/chart.htm

 

THanks Vee
that one works fine but the first still does not I think my PC is a bit stuffed...lol