YouTube case study (case #121) by Gerald Bassleer describing a red cap fantail (fantail goldfish) with severe illness. The video presents abnormal behaviors (upside-down swimming, labored/’stressed’ respiration, flared gills, eye loss), necropsy findings (advanced gill rot, hemorrhagic lesions, tubercles in spleen, liver, kidney) and a presumptive diagnosis of fish tuberculosis/mycobacteriosis likely transmitted from breeder via eggs; treatment options discussed include antibiotics (temporary relief), high-dose oxytetracycline attempts, and supportive functional diets over 30+ days.
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Hello, dear aquarist. Today our fish disease, case number 121. About a red cap fantail that was showing a very bad distressed behavior. I will show you my PowerPoint where the red cap fantail had bacterial infection and tubercle cell in the organs. And well, here we can see how that behavior is very abnormal. It's turning upside down, has very poor respiration, how can I say, stressed respiration. Even the gills, you can see of standing flared open gills. And even lost one eye. Usually that happens when they are in a group. It's the cannibalism of his friends in the aquarium. Here we see him swimming in the large group which arrived and they were weak and suffering. You can see the ones separating from the group. Many are in good shape and swimming well. But we had the first signs of some problems that show up with the few fish that separate from the group. And getting an abnormal behavior in the die. And that's the ones you take out for dissection and for examination. And then we have found that the gills are very poor. We see some gill rot here. See the pale parts. You see the hemorrhagic lesions here in the gills here. Some other parts completely gone by bacterial infection. That's advanced gill rot. Here the spleen with tubercles. See encapsulated bacterial infection, which is encapsulated also in the liver. Taken away healthy tissue of many, many in the kidney. That's terrible condition of the kidney. And that's why also the guilt starts to suffer. Because the guilt has to take over the work of the kidney. That is not doing its job anymore. Well, in that case, well, you have to start thinking about the treatment. But those which are in very poor shape. Well, if you see those signs, you have to take care of, of the whole bunch. Because in the next weeks or days more will die. And usually it's the breeder who is causing this kind of mycobacterium. Most likely we didn't send it to the laboratory because it cost money and it cost time. But in most of the cases, when we found tuberculosis, we found Mycobacterium, which is called fish tuberculosis. And it's usually the mother fish at the breeder station that transfers or transmits the bacteria to through the gonads to the baby in the eggs before they're born. So that's already coming when they're born with it. With the mycobacterium and those bad internal organs, they cause stress on the gills and they cause secondary infections. Treatment with antibiotics can bring temporary relief. Some people have good luck with high dosages of oxytocic. But still, those tubercles here cannot be handled by an antibiotic because nothing can penetrate the tubercles. The tubercles are there. It's too late to treat for those fish. You can bring some relief by feeding a functional fish food like our doctor Besley Biffle Fuko for at least 30 days or more. That helps in in the control of this kind of infections, for strengthening the fish and helping to fight off the disease. Well, I hope this can help you to understand fish diseases. Well, the books can explain you more. We have them available in different languages. Or you can go to my Patreon classes where you can get more training on fish diseases. Well, I hope this video helped you to understand this problem with this fantail, the red cap fantail, which was dying and had a serious problem.
