YouTube case presentation by Gerald Bassleer describing external and internal bacterial infection in the dwarf cichlid Apistogramma cacatuoides (case nr. 154). The presenter shows aquarium observations, skin and gill scrapings with heavy bacterial loads visible under the microscope, internal organ damage (liver patches, reduced spleen), and gives practical treatment suggestions (antibiotics via a vet, immune-supporting supplements and products).
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Hello, dear Akarist, welcome again to my channel, my YouTube channel, and to my cases of fish diseases. And today it will be about a dwarf cichlid, Apistogramma cacatuoides. So stay tuned and follow my next videos where I will show my observation of the fish in the fish tank and also my observation by taking samples of the tissues and showing my microscopic findings and my conclusions for treatment. So watch my PowerPoint that I will share with you now. So you can be getting acquainted with a problem of external and internal bacterial infection of Apistogramma cacatoides. Mrks154. You can find some info on dwarf cichlids. Yes, Apistogramma in my large book, the new illustrated guide. I have a big chapter on the cichlids and also on the dwarf cichlids and the most common diseases they have. Also in this small guide there is some issues discussed on dwarf cichlid province, but specifically the large book has a lot of details for you. Here we see the Kakatoida, super red with a darkening of color that becomes skinny. Some have a swollen body, bad fins, and some are dying. See they're getting dark, sitting quiet in the corners. And we picked one out here and showed you separately that is getting darker in color. You see the fins, the tails is not so nicely formed anymore. There's some damage. This case was not showing a real swelling, but the fish was weakening and probably going to die in the coming hours. So we took it out for examination and we took skin scrapings. And here we could see already on the scales. This is a bright part of the scale. Here we see millions of bacteria covering the scales. Here we see it in a larger magnification, the millions of bacteria, a smear of bacteria which should not be there because it is causing a problem on the health of the fish. And here we have a video. We see the million black spotted bacteria moving around, dancing and having a good time on the mucus or on the skin of the fish, which should not be there. And we found in the gills some damage. You could see it here and here we can see it also here, which is causing necrotic tissues and an infiltration part of more bacterial infection going internal in the body of the fish. So the skin, the gills. And also we find out that the gills had a lot of pigmentation. Here we see all the black pigmentation. Here is a bright part of the gill filaments which don't show any black pigmentation. Here we see a lot and that is usually a history of stress. That is causing this black pigmentation to accumulate in the gills. So history of the fish? I don't know. We should ask the breeder. The liver had some patches inside the start of Milano macro Fark center which is not good. You see also the red bleeding edges. We see the spleen which has nearly disappeared. And we found also in the body here we see a video. It's hardly to see, but we see the millions of bacteria dancing around here in the abdominal fluid. And well, that shows tells us there is an external and an internal bacterial infection. Now what can we recommend as treatment? Well, particularly the gills is a difficult part. When that gets damaged, well, the fish can quickly die. That is the main part we should realize when we examine the fish. Well, there could have been a bad history of stress and poor feeding practice. Maybe feeding too much mosquito larvae which were having a lot of microbes inside that could have been the cause. So meanwhile, you can try to apply an antibiotic or antibacterial treatment asks vet, your vet or your fish doctor or your aquarium specialist. You can improve the general health and the immune system of this Apistogramma with Dr. Basler Biofish food professional treat or the grapefruit seed extract moringa or the fecal that helps during a bacterial infection and fastens the repair. So more to learn in my books and more to learn in my Patreon channel when you want to become a specialized fish doctor. So I hope this case of this dwarf cichlida pistogramma helped you understand that bacterial infections are common. Yes, they are common and can cause death of the fish. And you should take proper actions. Thank you for watching.
