Gerald Bassleer examines a lionhead goldfish with multiple infections, including suspected fish tuberculosis. He walks through how to diagnose the condition and what treatment options exist for this complex case.
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Dear aquarist, speaking about fish diseases is sometimes done from a vacation place, not always being in Belgium, sometimes being abroad and enjoying some vacation. Here you see the background. Well, it's a photograph of Casaros at the south of Spain in Andalucia. And today I will discuss with you the fish disease case number 6 71, which is about a line head adult around the line head, which had a mix of infections. I will show you in my examination. And had the development of tubercles in the inner organs which are most likely could be fish tuberculosis. Only a laboratory can confirm this, but I will show you my findings in the. In this case here. Well, the lionhead, here you see the photograph of it. You can see some red markings on the side here of the fish. It looks very nice in body, but he had some extra fluids in the. In the abdomen, some raised scales, so some reddish areas, which was of course showing that the fish was in distress. And then you can see it here in the behavior the fish was dying. You see the difficult respiration, you see the red markings here. So the fish was in bad shape. And that was the reason why we were offered this fish for an examination. The first thing we did, like we always do, is taking skin scrapings. And here we see the skin scraping with parasites, diabodo or kostia, that used to be called. So it's quite a few. So this, of course, this parasitic infection was of course, making the fish suffer more and more during the time he has this serious infection. Here we see at another part of the skin scraping, you see the massive amount of flagellated parasites which are causing a lot of harm to the fish and that needs to be treated. Also the gills. We found some gill flukes, quite a few on certain gill lamellae here on the gill filaments. You see quite a few here. That's, of course, this is a second infection. We found on the exterior of the fish, one of the skin, one of the gills. And then we started to dissect this around the line head. Here we see the air bubbles, the gas bubble, how you can say the physical. The gas physical. Swimming bladder, it's another name for it in different languages. Here we see already a part in the middle of the kidney sticking out. You see some reddish liver. When you remove the swim bladder, we see a fairly large, thick kidney on the dorsal part of this fish. And you see the reddish parts of the liver and a lot of fluids in the abdomen, which was not normal because so much fluid is not normal. That's why the fish Was a little bit bloated, you can say so in the abdominal cavity we start checking on the organs. And the first thing we said, checking the kidney. And we found those tubercles all scattered around and taken away healthy tissue. So that makes the kidney working in very poor condition. And also the liver was very reddish also we have lots of tubercles. So the liver was not functioning properly at the same time. So our conclusion and suggestion for treatment for this around the line head is that of course when the fish is suffering so badly, you should put the fish asleep. It's no use that you keep this fish longer in the fish tank. It can only be continuous risk of spreading diseases to the other fish in the fish tank. And the fish is suffering. So why not better Tunisia put it to sleep. There are different products for that available like Narcomorphus from Arkwrightminster can be a good help to put your fish gently asleep. Many of the fish in that batch where we found it might carry tuberculosis, which is most likely the tuberculosis we found. And if you see scientific studies, about 85, 90% always show that it's Mycobacterium. But some of the fish can survive a very long time with this bacterial infection, this Mycobacterium, even sometimes for a lifetime, depending on how well the fish is kept, in what good conditions he has been kept, what good of feeding program he has been getting. And sometimes the infection is very small, so he can survive, survive a long time that you don't know. But the fish will tell you in its behavior and its eating pattern. But of course, due to that kind of internal bacterial infection, tuberculosis, there is a risk of secondary infections with parasites like we've seen here the Takichti o Bodo and the gill flux. And that you can treat with products which are common, available in the pet slop or from the veterinarian. You can help your fish during that time with a food that can guarantee to give you a better outcome. So the fish is stronger and survive longer. And we recommend for this or specially developed Dr. Basler biofish food. Fuko, which is with Fuko y Dan extract or the professional treat, which has a mix of herbs and nutrients that help the fish to do better, to recuperate and to cope with many problems, particularly to heal himself. So only give that food, no other food and at the same time check the sources of the fish. Because usually this fish comes from a source where the mother fish are the ones that are spreading the disease to the babies through the eggs at the breeders facility. So this was my case of the disease on a giant adult lionhead which lived a long time of this disease. And I leave it up to you to use this information to stay in control of your fish diseases. Wishing you all the best. Thank you.
