Contributor of Pic to identify various diseases

[hammy]

It is easy to identify that your fishes and corals are sick.

However it is not that simple to identify what sickness they really have and administer the correct treatment.

For example, it is only recent that i know that fungus is extremely rare in marine and most of the time is lypo.

And doing a search on the net, i find it impossible to find a pic with velvet.

Could some of us donate or even search for pic and post in this thread so that we can help each other identify common or even not so common disease in fishes and coral.

This thread is solely for education for all of us.

[yikai]

Let me get the ball rolling. Firstly, the scrouge of all marine disease. Ich or white spots or cryptocarion or whatever u wanna call it. white spots or sandy looking stuff on ur fish. rapid gilling and scratching or flashing is usually observed. here a powder brown with heavy infestations. all pic courtesy from the web (:

[yikai]

Brooklynellosis or clownfish disease. photo courtesy of wetwebmedia. spreads and kill very quickly

[yikai]

amyloodinium, oodinium, velvet. spreads and kill fast too. me no disease expert, but i know this is lethal. here a clown loach being infected by it. i dunno if marine and freshwater one is the same, but they do look alike i think.

[yikai]

Lymphocystis here on a juvenile emperor angelfish. related to water quality issues. fix that, feed more nutritious food and it should recover by itself.

[yikai]

HLLE or head and lateral line erosion. very common in tangs and some big angels.

[yikai]

fin rot.

[yikai]

parasitic isopod. requires manual removal iwth tweezers

[yikai]

like i said, me no disease expert. just helping to put pictures and some basic info of the disease for hammy in his effort to create awareness. cheers!

[hammy]

Many thanks to Lemon Lemon, will be great if someone is able to contribute Pic for coral disease as well. I will try to search on the net later if i am free.

[raydiative]

Pop Eye/Cloudy Eye

A very obvious swelling and / or cloudiness of the eyes, this is most often caused by poor water quality or physical damage or abrasion to the eye of which secondary bacterial infections can take advantage of.

This is another gram negative bacteria responsible for this condition and can be treated in a quarantine tank with an appropriate anti-bacterial medication. As with all fish problems, stress is the leading cause of illness, usually water quality can be blamed. In good water quality, this condition most always disappears on it own without further treatment. For extreme cases, as shown in the photo, a medicated treatment would be advised.

[raydiative]

MYCOBACTERIOSIS

Emaciated appearance along the narrow, dorsal edge. A sunken belly becomes noticeable, although bloating (ascites) may also occur, due to fluid accumulation in the body cavity.

Unilateral or bilateral exopthalmia (Popeye) are common symptoms, as well as lifted scales, pale coloration, and in advanced, chronic cases, spinal curvature. All this soon leads to a loss of appetite, jerky swimming, greatly reduced reactions and reflexes.

Ultimately, the affected fish becomes lethargic, seeking the corners of the aquarium, appearing to want to remain apart from it's tank-mates until it dies. Quoted from Mr. Lance Ichinotsubo.

As is the case with any of the bacteria, they are opportunistic and will take advantage of what other diseases have done to the fish causing secondary infections. The below photos show this bacterial strain having done so as confirmed by laboratory identification as being a Mycobacterium.

[raydiative]

Monogenean Parasites (Flatworms)

better known as flukes or flatworms, which live as parasites on fish usually infesting the gill areas first. Being monogenean means that they have one direct life cycle and do not need an intermediate host to multiply. These parasites are usually transmitted by direct contact between fish.

Long term treatment methods such as formalin baths will be needed since the eggs of these parasites can survive initial one time treatments. Most are commonly located on the skin and in gill chambers and more rarely in the mouth and body cavities. They use hook attachments to grip the epidermis whilst feeding on the skin and gill tissue; this causes only superficial damage.

More importantly they can cause epidermal ulceration after heavy feeding thus in numerous quantities can in fact cause heavy damage. They are also thought to transmit other pathogens. Treatment should include antibacterial medications to prevent secondary infections as shown in the fish below.

[raydiative]

Brooklynella

The infections are initially confined to the gills but eventually will spread causing tissue irritation and skin slough producing ulcers.

Fish become lethargic and secrete excess mucus. Death can occur within twelve hours from toxins released by the protozoa. First indicators can include heavy breathing, cloudy eyes, excessive mucus and Ich like lesions. This parasite must be dealt with very quickly!!

[raydiative]

Internal Bacterial Infections

Usually shows itself as bloody patches or streaks visible in the fish, this type of infection requires the fish to be removed to a quarantine tank for treatment of both its water and its food to ensure a speedy recovery. Please DO NOT attempt to perform treatments in the main tank.

While being treated within the quarantine tank, feed the fish a medicated antibacterial fish food such as Gel Tec. For an initial treatment plan, I would at first, go with a medication that targets gram-negative bacteria as these are the most commonly experienced problems. Such medications include Maracyn 2 or a sulfa based mediction.

If after the prescriped treatment period, it is found to be ineffective, I would then switch to a gram-negative medication such as Erythromycin. Please note that it is extremely important that you perform each and every treatment period to the end of its prescribed length of time. If not, by subjecting bacteria to short dosage periods, you could be creating a medication resistant strain of bacteria, which would be even more difficult to erradicate. Also, never mix any medications regardless of any manufacturers claims of being able to do so.

If you do find that you need to change to a different medication, do a partial water change and run carbon to remove any traces of the previous medicine before adding a different one. Even if the fish looks much better, never stop the treatment untill the completion of the prescribed treatment time.

[raydiative]

Marine Velvet (Amyloodinium Ocellatum)

Oodinium has been a fast moving killer in marine fish keeping for many years. Oodinium is a parasitic dinoflagellate which can infect and kill many species of saltwater fish. Similar to Crytptocaryon (Marine Ich and other external fish parasites, this Dinoflagellate is much more dangerous in the confines of an aquarium, especially a small overcrowded tank due to rapid re-infection.

Again, similar to Cryptocaryon, Oodinium there are 3 stages in its life-cycle: the infective Dinospore, which is free-swimming; the attached Trophont, which is found on external surfaces in contact with environmental water; and the mature cyst/ dividing Tomont. The mature cyst can release over 250 Dinospores which are free swimming and impossible to see with the n4ked eye. Since these Dinoflagellates do not have Chloroplasts like their freshwater cousins, they have to have a host to survive. Usually these Dinospores can only live 48 hours to one week without a host (this does not mean a tank free of a full blown infection for over a month is free of Oodinium as relatively healthy fish can be hosting them until "something goes wrong").

The gills (similar to Brooklynella) are where Oodinium Dinospores attack first due to the soft tissue that is easy to pentetrate. The Dinospore attaches a filament into the host fish for feeding becoming a Trophont. After anywhere from 24 hours to a few days, the Trophonts cease feeding and form a Cyst to fall off a start a new cycle again. All stages possess a cellulose cell wall that can make them difficult to treat, however the Dinospore stage is the most susceptible to treatment (there are treatments for the other stages too, although less effective, I will discus them a little further down. Unlike Cryptocaryon and freshwater ich, the cell wall is not as thick and these parasites to not bury themselves nearly as deeply, which makes some treatments possible or more effective than with Cryptocaryon (the thinner cell wall also lends itself to more effective UV Sterilization too). The down side is that Oodinium often has a much faster life cycle and attacks the gills with much more furor than does Cryptocaryon or freshwater ich (Ichthyophthirius).

[raydiative]

Black Band Disease

This disease is characterized by a black mat, a few millimeters to centimeters (about 1/4 inch to 2 inches) wide, on the surface of coral tissue, moving across the surface of the skeleton, leaving behind bare white skeleton. The remaining coral tissue appears normal in color, morphology, and behavior.

[ambystoma82]

wow thanks for e contribution..

great info...

[iskay]

Brown Jelly Disease

[barnacle]

discovered AEFW eggs on my stag.

this is how it looks like

[iskay]

Brown Jelly Disease *take 2*

[yikai]

wtf those eggs! WHAT ARE THOSE!?

[barnacle]

wtf those eggs! WHAT ARE THOSE!?

those r acro eating flatworms eggs. u need good eyes to spot these eggs and the flatworms.

[yikai]

those eggs are really gross >.>

[weesy74]

those eggs are really gross >.>

Possible to pin this up as it will be very useful for newbie like me if our fish ever kana disease.