Gerald Bassleer covers five major cichlid diseases: bloat, spironucleus (which causes white feces and hole-in-the-head), fish tuberculosis, worm and gill fluke infections, and bacterial infections from aggression. He stresses correct diagnosis through microscopy, proper nutrition and tank conditions, targeted medications like metronidazole, and prevention through breeder hygiene.
Chapters
Hello, dear Aquarist, welcome again to one of my videos. And today I have something special for you because I will talk about the most important fish diseases in cichlids. Yes, the cichlids, which are a very popular item for many of you. So I made special attention for you on this case of diseases I found during my profession as a fish doctor, encountering diseases, trying to diagnose correctly and trying to give the correct medications. So I will give you some advice here. Please listen to this video because you see the five most important diseases in cichlids and I give you suggestions how to handle it and how to treat it so you'll be a more happy cichlid lover. So let's start by sharing you my PowerPoint and the most important diseases in cichlids. Also provided you subtitles for your language in English, French, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Hindi and other ones I selected for you. So check in the subtitles of this YouTube video the five most important diseases in Our Cichlids where I'll talk about the African cichlids and. And the South American and Central American cichlids. Of course. First of all, we know bloat or dropsy and secondary bacterial infection. Yes, very common. Spironucleus, that used to be called hexameter, an internal parasite, fish tuberculosis or bacterial infection, worm infections, external and internal worms, skin and fin lesions due to aggression. Well, that's according to my findings. Five important. Well, maybe most important, maybe not for you. Well, you can leave your suggestions or replies at questioning my findings. And maybe you have other diseases. So let's show you some videos and some photographs. Well, first of all, I show you a photograph of one of my big books where I talk a lot about cichlid diseases. Yes, I have specific chapters on African cichlids with all different photographs and explanations on the diseases also in South American and Central American. And discus. Yes, you call it. I have it all in that big book. And the first of all we discussed today is bloat or dropsy. And here you see two pictures of bloat with Malawi cichlids. You can see the big bellies, protruding anus. Well, some of you might have seen that. And dropsy. Well, look at the dwarf cichlids there with the Popeye, these Racekellis, that's an apistogramma. Here McMastery. And here the angelfish. Also big belly, protruding eyes and some fin rot. Well, that's cases of dropsy. Well, bloat and dropsy. Well, what are the signs and the symptoms, well, we know you can see it. You might have the experience. It's a swollen belly, sometimes protruding anus and Popeye raise scales. Particularly scales is a case of entropsy or ascites. It's an accumulating of fluids in the abdomen because the kidneys are not working well. Then we also have a red base at the fins. Pectoral or dorsal fins have a red base. Other possible causes you might be aware, maybe you don't know, but usually it's bad food or poor feeding practice. I talk a lot about that in my videos. You can follow my videos on nutrition and fish health. Might be a risk that parasites are involved. There might be also secondary bacterial infections. And usually in many cases I found bacterial infections. So that's the different problems you can have. And how to handle this. Well, bloat and dropsy. Check the food and your feeding practice and how you keep the food or how healthy the food is. Always well maintained, not too old, not too many pathogens. I have a lot of videos on that. So watch my videos and of course the microscope. Well, I'm a fish doctor. I can tell you it helps you to determine what the real problem is. Or an expert can advise you treatments. Well, you have to treat antiparasitic and or antibacterial. Possibly it's fish tuberculosis. I will talk further on my case. Well, the most important fish disease number four fish tuberculosis. And see my books. I give you a lot of information on the kind of treatments you can handle. Number two for the cichlids. Well, you know, it's the parasite spiral nucleus used to be called hexameter. Common in angelfish. And here in this Eudochromis ornatus, a Tanganyika cichlid. Well, you can see it here. Discus fish, they start to get dark in color, separating. That's how it starts in the beginning. Later on they got white excrements. They got sometimes holes in the head. Well, that's the first thing you have to do is check the excrements of these kind of sick discus fish. Well, see here the discus fish starting showing patches. Or here do uros with bad fins and getting skinny. Well, that's all caused by spironucleus. Also can cause hole and head disease. Like on this Tilapia butycophorae. Look at the holes in the head. In many of my cases I found that spirulucleus part of the problem of the holes in the head or the skinny eulidochromis. Here the uludochromis luloipi. Well, caused by parasites. And the parasites that's how it looks like it's a little animal in the gut in the intestine, damaging the wall of the intestine and causing a bad absorption of minerals, vitamins and nutrients. So that weakens the fish and gives a risk of many possible secondary infections, particularly bacterial. So what can I advise you as a treatment? Well, first of all, improve the conditions. Give good food, avoid stress, check the parameters. Try to treat with an appropriate medication like metronidazole or something similar. Ask in your pet shop. There's many good products available. Use a better food, a food that is functional like our Dr. Basley. Or biofish food La Pacho which helps in curing and regenerating the fish and repairing Sometimes antibacterial treatments when advanced infections occur are needed. I explained that in my videos on hole in the head disease or hetero lateral line syndrome. See my videos on YouTube. I do not recommend to treat every month for spironucleus. It's no use. You can risk resistance of the parasite. Only treat when it's necessary. We do it for humans also do it for your fish. Only treat when it's necessary. Please. Fish tuberculosis number three Mycobacterium. See the skinny Lapros galvus or these Oplicidans Aplochromis species. Look how skinny a bad look here the Ramirezae different Popeye big belly. Well, that looks like a kind of dropsy but it isn't. It's a bicobacterium which can cause a kind of dropsy. Look all kind of bacteria. Or here the wasting away thin dark discus. Well, Mycobacterium. Mycobacterium. It's in the organs causing tubercles that damage here the kidney organs badly damaged. That's our symptoms you see or signs you can see where you use a microscope and you can send it to the laboratory or you can use gram staining techniques. This helps you to define if it's a gram positive bacteria that can cause it. Mycobacterium many different symptoms. Unfortunately we cannot define one typical symptom. How Mycobacterium fish tuberculosis looks like the fish are slowly wasting away. Can take months or years. The origin is usually by the food. It can come from frozen or live food. Also frozen food contains my cup bacterium can contain and some food are dangerous like we have noticed and scientific studies done on mosquito larvae causing bringing in Mycobacterium bacteria. And the mother fish pass it on through the gonads through the Eggs of the fish. So the motherfish is a carrier and a potential transmitter of the disease. And it's mostly caused by breeders breeding breeders who don't take care. Not good actions, not preventative actions. Because you need to prevent. Because treatment. Well, not much you can do. You have to separate the fish sometimes putting it to sleep in a gentle way. With Tunisia, prevention here is better than cure. So particularly talk to your breeder. He has to take good actions. And I give a lot of advice about this in my books. Number four unimportant diseases on our Shiglitz is gill flukes or worm infection. Look common on Oscar fish from breeders or angelfish farm breeders suffering with kill flukes or internal worms. The discus fish with internal worms. Or this Malawi cichlid with internal worms. And you can find it how? While using a microscope so that correct diagnosis determines a correct treatment. Here you see the journal of worms, the nematode capillaria. And here the gill flukes that look like dactylogiris. Easy to determine when you use a microscope. And that's what I use. And number five, last but not least, leases or damage caused by aggression. Well, you know cichlids can be aggressive, particularly when they like good food or where they don't have a good territory. Not good system you're keeping in the according with wrong species mixed together. Ask your pet shop for good advice what you can keep together and how to keep the fish. Well. So here you see the damage, the lesions on this pseudotropheus. And here on this aquiden species. Well, you can see the bad lesions all caused by aggression. Then bacteria come up as a result. Well, then you have to treat antibacterial. But first of all avoid the aggression. So you can see as I showed you, our eyes are limited so we need a microscope to make a good diagnosis. And that can help you or an expert can help you. Now you can learn more details and treatments from my books available on the link which I show here below. Subscribe to learn more thank you for watching this video because it might have teach you something and I have more videos to come on the most important diseases in discus, Angelfish Scolare, dwarf cichlids, Apistogramma oscars, Malawi cichlids specifically and diseases specifically on Tanganyika cichlids. Okay, that was it about the cichlids. So I thank you for watching and I hope you as a cichlid lover or fish lover doesn't matter. Everybody who keeps fish has well understood why they explained if not Write a comment. If you have some remarks to make on diseases you encounter, write it in the comments. And I'm interested to see what you all bring forward, so keep in touch. Subscribe to learn more about fish disease. Thank you for watching.
