Gerald Bassleer examines an angelfish infected with Spironucleus, a parasitic flagellate formerly called Hexamita. The video covers how to identify the infection and what treatment options work.
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Hello, dear Akarist, thank you for watching again. My next video on a case of an angelfish, freshwater angelfish, Telophilum scalari, which is a very common Chiclet. Many people keep it and that's why, well, so many are pond raised, tank raised. We can find diseases and explain here in my case, 134, so many already about the findings in this angelfish and I share them with you. So you hope we can see what we can detect as a disease in the angelfish. So the Pterophyllum scalari here had a parasitic infection for parasites. Spironucleus Spironuclus is the new name for hexameter. That's why I write X hexameta, which are tiny parasites that usually live in the gut. And here we see the fish in the tank. It's a mix of angelfish and it were particularly the black varieties here. Look at the one here in the middle, which was not swimming normally, was stressed, abnormal, wasting away. And you see the fins are hanging. Here is another one which is still in rather good shape and some are doing very well, but they might be getting sick in the coming days or weeks. So it always starts with one or two and that you have to learn to observe. Now we took out the excrements because in the excrements, without killing the fish, you can find parasites. Here you see all those tiny bugs here moving around and that's you have to watch for they are one cellular protozoa with a flagella that is a little hair and that sweeps them around and moves them around, feeding on the excrements of the fish. That's why we find a first in the excrement so you can examine. So here we see it on another part of the excrement and a more detailed observation. You see many of those parasites, so they're causing damage of the intestine. And the intestine is a very important organ for immunity of the fish. I explained that in my different videos available in four languages on the importance of the gut and the defense against diseases and how important it is that the microbiome of the gut is well taken care of. Well, here the parasites play an important role to damage it and making lesions and also having a risk of secondary bacterial infections. Here we see it again in other parts of the intestine and the risk is that they will eventually make a hole in the intestine and go inside the abdominal cavity of the fish and making other organs suffer from it. I have not found that they made holes. I made A specific video on the hole in the head disease, which is more likely an other kind of mix of problems, not particularly the parasites making the holes, but they play a role in lowering the immunity of the cichlids and those fish that can have hole in the head disease. So the angelfish treatment. Well, I always recommend to start treating as soon as possible because the more advanced the infection, the more losses you will have and more difficulty to treat. Most people use metronidazole or something similar, which is available in the market sometimes as products in the shop. You can have a similar product. Hexamore from Aquaraminser is rather similar to that metronidazole. And you can combine it with an antibacterial treatment because sometimes bacterial infections are secondary due to that infection with that parasite. You can use like feraltadone, nitrofurazone or other ones. So ask your shop or your fish doctor at the same time, when the fish are still active, like here in the group, they still will be eating well. You can feed the fish with Dr. Basler. He buys his food, La Pacho because the lapacho helps in controlling of the parasites and makes a good health control for the fish. So those are tools that can help you that your fish survive better in an during an infection. I explain a lot about that in my books about that disease, the fish food, I have it also on my website, like the books I have here on the website in different languages. Or you can watch my videos and the teaching tools I offer at my Patreon or on my YouTube channel also. So subscribe then you might learn more about all the details I'll give you on fish diseases. So I hope this video helped you again to understand fish diseases and how to cope with it and how to become a better fish care keeper. Thank you for watching.
