Meeting Notes

May, 2011

Speaker: Terry Fairfield
Topic: "Fish Diseases and Treatments"

60 present

Terry Fairfield got his first fish from a teacher (they were guppies) and his first tank for his 8th birthday. Before long he had so many tanks that there was only a path from his bedroom door to the bed!

Terry has a degree in microbiology, is an expert on fish diseases and treatments, and is the author of A Common Sense Guide to Fish Health. Today Terry keeps mostly African cichlids and is active in two clubs. He is a lifetime member of the Green Bay Aquarium Society, and is an active member of the Greater Chicago Cichlid Association. He resides in Illinois.

Terry's presentation:

In opening, Terry gave us a quick photographic tour of his fishroom and two people from his neighborhood in Illinois. His fish room has a swivel easy chair and mini fridge, stocked with with Yuingling, his beer of choice.

He showed pictures of his neighbors' fishrooms, and showed a stand his friend Jim made that was so big it couldn't fit into the basement. Dan is his other friend and neighbor fish-keeper. "My neighbor's are rather colorful," he said.

A few of the fish Terry keeps: cichlids, cichlids, and more cichlids! Terry said, "Mostly because the water where we live is rock hard, about 8.2 out of the tap."

Terry started off with a slide that said: 101 Ways We Kill Our Fish

"I'm amazed at what I see. Everyone thinks it is just parasites or bacteria that kill our fish, right? WRONG... The majority of fish, when fed a well balanced diet, provided with good water quality, and kept in a appropriately decorated aquarium will remain relatively disease free."

Next Slide: Stress: The killer of fish and middle management alike!

Stress comes from aggression, fish kept next to a predator tank, discus in a room divider tank, transportation of fish, spawning. Stress happens when fish are not comfortable in their environment.

Tanks should be put where its best for the needs of the fish. Ditto: aquarium decorations. Decorations should reflect the needs of the fish, not just the owner. Use natural gravel, background for tank.

Aquascaping: use of proper gravel, rock and driftwood for the habitat your fish are found in is a good start. Driftwood is a large part of an Amazon River Habitat. Research the habitat the fish comes from and mimic it in the tank.

Collecting Rocks and Driftwood: choose sites of collections carefully! The more brightly colored a rock is, the more harmful compounds can be contained in the rock. (copper manganese, to name a few...)

Driftwood soaks up environmental pollution and can leach it into the tank. Driftwood also harbors insect larvae that can be harmful in the aquarium. Don't collect driftwood in polluted areas. (Many people boil driftwood before use.)

Aquarium Plants: Use truly aquatic plants or bog plants. Even imitation plants can help provide useful cover for the fish. "Whatever you do, don't use cut up garbage bags as fake plants, they contain antimicrobials."

5 Premises to follow to prevent disease:

(1) Water, the universal solvent. H20 is a transporter of nutrients to fish, but can also contain disease. Pure RO can lead to growth deformities. Choose fish that will thrive with YOUR water. Many neon tetras meet their end in hard water.

High ammonia and low pH can damage gills. Gill tissue is sensitive and will produce more mucus and lead to breathing problems in fish with bad water. Poor water stress can lead to pathogens as well.

Soft Water: Discus/Apistogrammas
Hard Water: Cichlids

Nitrogen Cycle: cycle of waste production and its breakdown.

Quick Fixes: If testing determines low levels of oxygen in the tank, 25mls of Hydrogen Peroxide (3%) can be added per 26 gallons of water. One drop of Peroxide per bag at an auction can be used to revive fish that have been in the bag too long (don't repeat it, it can burn their gills off!).

By charging a diatom filter with powdered activated carbon, a high speed chemical filter is made. It will remove most chemical toxins in mere minutes.

(2) Nutrition: Betta and discus: they need to consume fats, carbs and proteins in order to grow and survive.

The amount of energy that is in a particular diet is derived from fats, proteins and carbs. The amoung of each of these components in the food determines the total energy content for a particular food. Fish obtain energy by burning food, but it is gradually released by a series of chemical reactions.

Nutrition Protein: If fish are strict carnivores such as oscars it's protein needs are high. Omnivore protein needs are low.

The protein needs of a fish change as the fish passes from fry to juvenile and again at maturity. Fry require large amounts of protein for growth of internal organs.

Fats: the storehouse of energy. If there is enough fat, then protein is used for growth. Very young fish require twice what the adults need in the diet. Normal is 5% fat, but for young get as high as 10%. No warm blooded animal fat should be used in homemade fish foods because it can cause liver damage.

Carbs: a source of quick energy. Some starches cannot be digested by fish. The majority of fish can tolerate 30-40% total carbs in the diet. Too high and it creates a condition similar to diabetes. Fish can be obese, have liver problems, or develop a condition like diabetes. We are very similar to them.

(3) Vitamins and Minerals: vitamin deficiencies produce stunted or deformed fish. Most fish foods begin to lose some of their vitamin potency after two months. Most manufacturers have worked on stabilizing feeds so they last longer. Store the fish food in the freezer to extend the life of the fish food.

Nutri-cuticals: compounds that are naturally occurring in plants when added to the fish's diet are beneficial to their health. Garlic, black walnut extract, ginseng, and Echinacea. Garlic deters or eliminates intestinal nematodes, black walnut controls external parasites such as skin and body flukes.

Garlic - Add .1% minced garlic in prepared food or frozen food you make and if you feed it heavily over the course of three weeks it will get rid of parasites. If you feed this to the fish for three weeks every six months it will help prevent parasites.

Feeding Strategies: the majority of fish would be considered omnivore grazers. Grazers feed upon small plankton or benthic animals. Guppies, mollies, and the majority of live-bearers would be considered generalized grazers as they will consume a wide variety of food. The majority of bottom feeding fish are opportunistic grazers. With specialized sensory tissue such as whiskers or barbells around their mouthparts and large sensitive mouths, these fish are able to locate and make use of plant and animal debris in addition to bottom living invertebrate animals.

Carnivores such as the Oscar use ambush as their main feeding strategy and swallow whole. Piranhas amubush in groups and tear out chunks of their prey. Neons do the same as piranhas, tetras pull out chunks with their small teeth.

Commercially prepared foods make our lives easier as hobbyists. They freed the hobbyist from having to collect or culture live foods. We didn't have to make concoctions of our own, but could feed a food that someone else developed and processed.

Flake Food: Manufacturer's preserve fish food so that it does not require refrigeration. Moisture is removed to minimize the amount of water available for bacteria and fungi. Downside: vitamins and minerals are lost.

Freeze Dried Foods: use preservative properties of extreme cold to dehydrate food to preserve them for future use, but some pathogenic worms and spores are not removed. Can also contain heavy metals with Tubifex or similar worms.

A lot of people feed black worms and other commercially prepared live foods are good, but collecting in the wild is not recommended. They are found in the most polluted waters. Terry recommends not feeding wild collected worms.

Frozen Foods: commercially available frozen foods retain the highest percentage of their nutritional value after processing of any of the commonly available foods. Can be used to medicate fish. Freezing will get rid of the majority of pathogens. Some spores can survive. Freezing preserves any pathogen or bacterial life processes slow down to the point of not working. Additionally, depending on how much water is around it, the ice crystals can puncture the cell walls and the bacteria or cell dies. For the majority, frozen food is healthy, but it's not 100%.

Live Foods: "Old Timers" swear by the use of live foods to condition fish for breeding. Most closely simulates the proper nutrients at the proper levels that a fish would consume in the wild. Exercise caution: disease could be introduced. Earthworms are high in protein, but where did they come from? Do they have pesticides in that area?

White worms: If you feed them dog food, then they are yellowish-tan color and higher in protein. If you used white bread soaked in yeast then they are high in fat.

Everything in moderation. Variety is the spice of life.

Terry said he has seen everything used to feed fish. He spoke of a man who hand fed a blind piranha hot dogs, people that grind up dog food or cat food, for catfish no less.

Just because the fish have gone off their feed does not mean they are dying... check for other factors. A pair of Oscars went off their feed because the husband was on a business trip. Terry got a call from a distressed woman about her husband's pair of Oscars that were laying on their sides on the bottom of the tank for five days. Terry said, "Give me a call if the fish do not get better after your husband gets home." Husband called Terry and said the fish were looking for food from him when he got home. Oscars imprint on their owner and will sulk if their favorite person is not there to feed them.

(4) Disease ID: Parasites are the third most common cause of fish diseases. It may be necessary at some point to dissect a fish in the fish room to determine what is killing the fish, or to find out what is making fish sick.

The behavior of your fish can tell you a lot about their health. Observe the aquarium for issues such as water quality. Watch them from afar, then feed them and see if they are feeding. Is one not eating? Can he not eat?

Dissection: "The Fairfield Slice and Dice" NASCO has dissection kits, microscopes (buy used ones, possibly at high schools - go for binocular scopes which are easier to use) 10x, 40x, 100x. With 1000 you can see bacteria on a slide. 40x is most typical.

If you shine light from below through tissue it will illuminate any objects that are in the pathway of the light. Most scopes have built-in light sources.

Write down the dissection: date, species, sex, how long kept, water parameters, population, filtration, feed, how many died, number dead, behavior of sick fish, any treatments attempted, success, failure, and what worked.

Sampling of skin can be done without killing the fish. Scrape slime off then put the fish back in QT tank with a slime-coat product to help them. Drag the edge of a cover slip from head to tail. Get mucus off, you will get parasites to look at under the scope. "You'll see these creepy things moving around, and it reminds you of a horror movie."

A fin snip is a snip of the fin. A little more than one drop of water should be put on the slide along with the tissue due to its thickness.

Photo: Lymphocystis, a viral disease, enlarged cells between the hard fin rays of a painted glass fish.

Gill sampling: can be done without killing the fish, but you have to be good at it. Typically done on a dead fish. Healthy gills should be a bright red color. Lilac color - suspect ammonia poisoning in the tank. Look for parasites or dead necrotic areas. Most parasites can be seen at 400 magnification.

Feces: By looking at the feces microspically you can gain an idea of what is occurring internally. Stringy white feces - capillaria worms or spironucleus (an intestinal protozoan). Confirmation is done by direct viewing of the parasites or their eggs for the worms within the fecal smear.

Internal Sampling: Once a fish has been euthanized (Done by placing fish in a small volume of water and add clear soda, or use prepared chemicals, rubbing alcohol or vodka.) Once the fish has been euthanized, an incision is made from the anus to the base of the operculum. Then incision is made from the anus arching upward to the top edge of the operculum. At the operculum, the incisions are connected and the entire abdominal cavity is exposed.

Freezing of the fish is not recommended because the ice crystals that are formed obliterate the parasites or other organisms.

Identification:

Camallanus Cotti Worm: pinecone shaped apparatus is used to drill into the intestine of the fish and provide an attachment point. These worms are commonly seen hanging out of the anus of a fish. They look like red strings hanging out of the anus of the fish. The attachment site gets infected, fish can't get nutrition, and it's contagious to other fish in the tank.

Columnaris bacteria have been implicated in massive bacterial infections of the skin and gills. This is where you see a patch of fuzz on the side of the fish and it breaks off and the wound opens and the fish bleeds out. Grows in the slime of the fish.

Fish TB: if the organs look like they are sprinkled with salt, it's TB and can cause granulomas on the skin and it is contagious to humans. Rainbow fish and gouramis exhibit the infection with a lesion present (a vertical lesion) which exudes the mycobacterium directly into the water. Don't siphon a fish tank with your mouth!

Dactylogyridae worms are parasitic worms that attack the gills. Has a large pair of hooks on the posterior end of this fluke. These are used to attach to the filllamellae.

Saprolegnia: "There be a fungus among us." Attacks damaged or dead tissue. Attacks unfertilized eggs then fertilized eggs.

Ich is the most common protozoan that fish-keepers face. Its characteristic horse-shoe shaped nucleus is a dead give away. Scale scrape can find them. They hang out on a fish and generally do not cause a problem, but if the fish is under stress it can get infected.

The Genus Syrodactylidae are parasites of the skin and if in large enough numbers can cause massive damage to the skin and leave openings for bacterial and fungal infections.

Trichodina are parasites that can be found to attack fish that are kept in water that is high in organics such as ponds, oscar tanks, and piranha tanks. Best course of action is to clean the tank!

Anchorworm: use a chemical treatment such as Dylox to eradicate it. Miss diagnosis of this parasites can prolong the disease and cause damage to the fish. Dylox is a heavy duty chemical. Prevention is better.

(5) Treatments:

NaCL - salt: external parasite remover. Dip fish for not longer than 2-3 minutes

Fendebazole (Panacur): De-wormer treatment. Should be added to the food at a rate of one percent by weight of the food. Excellent treatment for Calamanus worms.

Formaldehyde 37% (Formalin): For external parasites. 2-4 mls per 10 liters of water for 30 minutes. Fish are to be observed during this time and removed if unduly stressed. WATCH THEM!!! Use aeration in bucket during treatment. Can be repeated every three days. Do not use on brooding Discus or fry.

Furanace: for bacterial infections. For costia (Protozoan) and some fungus': .05-2 ppm for an indefinite period of time. 1/4 to 1/2 water change should be performed before dosing again. Very few treatments are cumulative. After about two hours in the water, they are inert. A water change is the best thing you can do for the fish. It will perk them up, then dose them again.

Garlic: When mixed at a rate of .1% it will rid them of capillaria worms, tapeworms, and some calamanus worms.

Metronidazole (Flagyl) - Antiprotozoan. 5 PPM directly into the water (250 mg per 10 gallons) or .25% in a frozen food. More cost effective to use it in frozen food. Does not cure hole-in-the-head disease.

Sulfadiazine and Triple Sulfa - Antibiotic. 100-250 mg/l of water as a long-duration bath (two hours). Should be repeated every day for a total of five days.

Terry Fairfield can be reached at: fishdoc66@gmail.com

Submitted by Sherry Mitchell