Gerald Bassleer examines a discus fish standing on its head with damaged gills and intestinal parasites. Microscopy reveals Spironucleus flagellates and secondary bacterial infections in the spleen. He recommends metronidazole and ferreltadone together, with careful attention to dosing and duration.
Questions this video answers
Spironucleus (formerly called Hexamita).
200× or 400× magnification.
Metronidazole combined with ferreltadone.
November 28, 2024.
Chapters
Hello, dear Aquarist, dear fish keeper, and especially those that like discus fish. Yes, this video you selected is about the discus fish that is showing the abnormal behavior of head standing. So I will show you in detail my findings while I was using a microscope to try to find out how I could solve the problem of this discus and how we would be able to try to cure this fish. So I will show you my PowerPoint that might help you to understand that parasites can play a role. Parasites spiral nucleus or hexameter in combination with a bacterial infection. I have books on fish diseases, a small book and a big book with a lot of information about discus diseases and how to treat. Also about the allergic diseases, you know, the clouding up of the skin, the discus pest, cold and worm infections and flukes. All discussed in my books with information also how to treat. And here I show you the red Marlboro. You can see that the fish is stressed, is head standing. That's how it's called in the hobby. The fish is not swimming normally anymore. I will show it again. So this fish is very much stressed and it's maybe only one, but he is the first one to show it. And probably in the coming weeks more fish or more discus will show this stressed behavior. When we checked out the gills, we found some badly damaged gills here. You can see those gills are not functioning properly. You see the deterioration like a bacterial infection is affecting this gill amelli and destroying the respiratory function of the organization. When we opened up the fish to dissect the fish and to find out what was going on in the organs, we found a lot of fluids in the body, abnormal formation of the organs. And we checked out the intestine which also had a lot of fluid and blockage part reddish organs. So we took a video of our sample and you can see all those tiny parasites that were living in the gut, in the intestine. You all see these tiny little flagellated parasites called spiral nucleus, used to be called hexameter. Here we see it. In another part of the gut you can see the tiny parasites. Of course you have to use a magnification 200 or 400 to see those little parasites moving around in the intestine and causing serious damage. Here we see it at a 400 magnification. The massive parasites affecting the health of the fish, affecting the microbiome, causing weakening of the fish, causing leaking gut syndrome, causing serious secondary bacterial infection. Also the organs here, like the spleen, had a serious bacterial infection. You can see the melanomicrophage centers. MMC's affecting that this organ is not functioning anymore in a good way. So this fish showed an advanced infection. And I'm not sure if that fish can be cured if you have it in this advanced situation, but still you can save the other fish in the aquarium. I would recommend first of all to treat the parasites spiral nucleus or hexameter at the same time also treating the bacterial infection. You can use combination treatments. Don't wait. The longer you wait, the more difficult it will be to cure the fish. In our case here we recommend metronidazole combined with ferreltadone. That is suggestion I make and I have a lot of details on that in my books. You also can ask your aquarium shop or a fish doctor for similar products available in the hobby. Please use the medications only as prescribed. Don't do any overdoses. See my books for information. Because too many breeders or hobbyists are using excessive dosages or treating too long, causing serious problems afterwards. Use as prescribed, please. I have a special video on that. Why is my fish dying? Please help. And that explains why sometimes your fish continue to die because you applied a wrong treatment. That means the application of the drugs was wrong. Too much and too long. I can also recommend at the same time when you use a medication also to help with a functional fish food. We have therefore our Dr. Basler buy fish food Lapacho that helps in repair of the gut and control of the parasites. More information on the diseases and treatments is available in my book. See here the link. But also we'll give the link below in the subscription. So training. You want to be more specialized. Particularly when you're a breeder or you're dealing with discus in a large volume quantity. Your training can be very interesting. To obtain better results with your vision, go to my Patreon. So I think that this video helped you to understand head standing, where it can come from. In this case it was parasites and a bacterial infection. But it might also be other origins. Therefore, watch my other videos on discus diseases, which is in the playlist of Discus. And then you can see more details. Because the head standing was a sign, a behavior pattern. That doesn't mean it's one disease. That's. I try to teach and think about the holistic approach of your fish. That maybe the food source, the water quality, the stress you imposed on your fish might be the origin of the problem. Follow my videos and I hope they teach you to become a better acrist. Thank you for watching.
