Fish disease case nr. 123 Mikrogeophagus ramirezi, dwarf cichlid, with most likely a viral infection

Dear aquarists, hello. Welcome to my next video, my case 123, where I will talk about a dwarf cichlid. And I've already known dwarf cichlid that is very popular in our aquarium hobby. And that's the Ramirezi, the Microgiophagus ramirezi, or the rams. That's another common Aphrodite. And here we discussed the possibility of a viral infection. And I explained you my findings and why I would suspect that it's a viral infection. Well, the Michelogiaphagus ramirezi here. And showing the aquarium, you see the ones who are getting black in color, changing color, discoloring. Here one is dying and his lovely friends are picking on him. See, there's one more in the back here, darkening. And they will die in the coming days. Here we pulled one out, which we're gonna do an examination on. And using our microscope, you see how rapid that respiration is and the discoloration of the fish. And the fish is dying. Well, that's a perfect example of a fish we should sacrifice. And to find out what kind of treatment we can apply to save the other fish in the aquarium. When we pull out the gills, I show you here the gills on the gill plate or the, on this with the slide, we see how pale they are. Hardly any good dark blood color, coloration that they normally shouldn't have. You see the pale gills here with some red spots in there, some bleeding spots, some damage here on this side, some dark coloration here also. And then the, the small gill rod. Well, this was not a perfect gill. And when we did a dissection on the fish, when we opened the fish, we saw the pale organs, a lot of pale organs, which normally should be darker or redders. Reddish color in the liver, the spleen, etc. So here we pull them out and squeeze them between two glass plates. And we see the pale organs and the greenish yellowish fluid inside the intestine. So the fish hasn't been eating. You can see it. There is no food inside. So the fish was of course wasting away, not hungry anymore and dying. Here, microscopic view of the liver. You see the patches, the big gaps. So this is a very bad functioning liver. Here we see the spleen with all the specks inside the bleeding, specks like melano macrofar centers. But that spleen as. Look at here, some necrotic or. What is it, some tissue falling apart. Here is some original reddish tissue. So that's a very bad spleen. And here the gonads, where we should normally see nice formed eggs and it's all a mesh of necrotic tissue or dead tissue. We couldn't really find particularly a lot of bacteria, but the tissues were all in a bad shape. So what we could conclude that in our experience that with the Ramirezes coming from certain areas, mostly from Asia, we have. They have been diagnosed with iridovirus, which is a viral infection causing this kind of symptoms, these kind of signs, and only a lab can do that diagnosis. It costs you a lot of money. A lot of people will not do it. But if you look at the literature, I will try to find the link for you and put it in my subscription there in the description below. To find if the iridovirus can be found on the Internet or you just plug it in on Google, search Iridovirus ramirezi and you will find certainly some published articles of that. A treatment with antibiotics might slow down the losses, but it's not able to cure because the virus. Virus cannot be cured with an antibiotic that the fish must do it by itself by building up an immune system. Check the supplier, check your shop, because you have to ask for a better source, because this breeder should be avoided. You can help the fish with a food that you apply as soon as possible, because a functional food can help your fish to. To strengthen himself, to build up an immune system to fight off the viral infection. And therefore we developed our Dr. Basler buy fish food, herbal or the professional treat and feed as long as possible, as long as they are eating. So fortunately, many fish cannot be saved when they show these kind of symptoms. You find more about viral infections, about dwarf cichlids and diseases, particularly in the new illustrated. I have a big chapter on dwarf cichlids and diseases on them. I also have the new book the Practical Guide, which talks about the most common infections, also viral infections. And you can learn more about these diseases and become an expert through my Patreon. So I thank you for watching this video and to become this next step, a more professional aqueous good luck.