Gerald Bassleer examines a Pearl Gourami with three simultaneous infections: bacterial columnaris, the parasite Tetrahymena, and viral lymphocystis. Microscopy reveals bacteria colonies, the ciliate parasite, and enlarged cells. Treatment includes salt at 3-5 g/L, antibiotics, and immune-supporting food.
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Hello, dear aquarist or fish keeper or fish health manager, welcome to my case 147. And today we will talk about a pearl gourami, the trichogaster lari, which had a mix of infections. An interesting case which I like to show and share with you through my PowerPoint presentation that I will open here and share my screen. The pearl gourami or trichocaster lardi, was suffering of a mix infection, a mix of bacterial infection, parasites, Tetrahymena and the viral infection Lymphocystis. Here we see them swimming in the fish tank, which we had brown water because of katapa leaves to try to heal the fish. But you could see here the patches the fish here is a patch. Fish is getting separate from the group and they're dying. And here we show the fish in a separate little bowl. You see the wounds here, the bad necrotic patches. And also we seen in the tail, I show again in detail, we see some little growth, some whitish specks inside the tail tissue, which is not normal. Didn't look like fungus. So this fish is ready for our examination. We took the skin scraping and we found lots of bacteria. You see here the scale, you see here the colonies of bacteria all over covering the tissue. And you see here the millions of bacteria, black spots moving around into the tissue which we collected. We also found a few Tetrahemena parasites here, moving around. And here we saw a kind of Columnaris infections here, colonies here at the site of this tissue. Not always easy to observe the filamented bacteria, but it's typical that this causes this kind of necrotic infection. And then the Tetrahymena parasites, let me show you again, are usually secondary invaders because they live on necrotic tissue, they live on dead fish. You will find them all over when your fish are dying in the fish tank. They're just cleaners. They are like vultures cleaning up the the dead animals. So they also go on the tissue here, the dead tissue or the crotic tissue of the fish. And the tail of that trichogaster. Larry, you see here the white nodules inside here the white enlarged cells. We call that the giant cells. Here we see them here, here, here. All these white things we showed here in a larger magnification. These are all giant cells because of virus came inside. Multiplied genetic material and the cell blow up. So they become very large and looking like little white tiny dots. And together they look like white lumps. That's why it's called nodule disease. There is no treatment for this viral infection, no treatment you can give to kill that virus. Just have to give proper care so the fish can defend themselves like humans. When you give the fish or the humans on good health, they have an ability in the immune system to fight off a viral infection and to develop immunity. The fish in the gills we saw some rotten gill filaments. You see the lamellae completely gone, eaten away by bacteria. This is of course a big risk that the fish will die. You see the bad liver. Here's some bleeding parts in it, the big vacuoles and even tissue. See also inside here. Also parts of the liver which are redis the fish was not eating. We see no food in the intestine. And here we see the spleen with melanoma centers. Here is another part of the spleen which is in bad condition. And this usually looks like a sign of a bacterial infection. So the treatment for this kind of fish, it's a complex problem because the badly damaged fish where Tetrahemena is invaded should be separated because it could be eventually become a spread. Because the parasites are facultative or secondary. But if they have a good source to feed on, they can become a large quantities available. And when a parasite or even a secondary parasite is in large quantities available, it can be a risk also for healthier fish that they get into some parts of the tissue which have little damage. Those parasites look for it, go inside and they make holes in the fish and make badly damaged tissue. That's what we can see on this fish. Adding sea salt, 3 to 5 grams per liter helps in the control of the bacterial infection, the columnaris infection. And at the same time using an antibacterial treatment that might certainly be necessary in this case. You can use antibiotics which you can be recommended by your fish doctor or you can get information in my books. There is no medicine to control the lymphocystis viral infection and feed the fish with a functional food. Dr. Basler Biffish food herbal which is commonly used in this kind of mix infections to help the fish during 20, 30 days feeding this also our buy fish food professional treat might be a good help. I didn't indicate it, but that's another good food that helps in a case with mixed infectious and improving the immune system. Here are the books which I talk about and are available on our website buzzfair.com you can get training on fish diseases at my Patreon and of course like I said, find my books at my website. So I hope this case with complex problems and mix of diseases help you to understand that just that one white spot or two white spots of the fish is just not bacteria infection, but it's a mix and you should treat properly and think about it using a microscope or have somebody helping you by diagnosing these kind of problems. Particularly have a lot of fish and a lot of problems. I hope this helped you to understand fish disease and to take better care. Thank you for watching.
