Gerald Bassleer examines a Neon tetra covered in growths on its scales, body, and fins, with severe bacterial gill infection. He suspects heavy bacterial colonization, possibly with viral or mycobacterial involvement, and recommends antibacterial treatment and specialized functional feeds.
Questions this video answers
Case number 73.
46 years.
Neon tetra (Paracheirodon / Parachyodone sp.).
He mentions tetracycline, Lymphomycin, and Androfloxacin (example brand: Bitril) and suggests vet/lab-testing to choose the appropriate antibiotic.
Dr. Bassleer Bifish Food Forte and Dr. Bassleer Bifish Food Professional Care.
Chapters
Hello dear aquarists. Today already are case number 73 and greetings from Spain. And today it's about a very common fish we have in our aquaria since many years. And one of the most popular one. It's about the Neon tetra. A Neon tetra for a very specific case which I haven't been countered in my work as a phys doctor since I started working on it about 46 years ago. Yes, already 46 years ago. And I share my screen to explain you what we found on that Neon tetra that had some extra growths on the skin and on the tail. The Neon tetrawel, the scientific name is the Parachyodone in C. And usually it said a tank raised in Asia these days, particularly in Indonesia and Vietnam, also in Czechia, hardly any wild ones are coming available. This was a tank race or pond raised species. And here I show you what was so typical on that fish. You see here the extra growths. Look at the growths here on the tail and on the side of the body of that Neon tetra. You see also the very heavy respiration. Let me show you another video. Here is another one here with a very small spot. And here you see the large lumps here and on the tail, and on the tail base of that Neon tetra. And these growths, well, they were very unusual. And of course that's where the microscope plays for us an important role to see what we can find. And the thing we noticed that there were some growths on the scale. See at the border, at the edges of the scales there were some extra, additional growths, some rings, some extra material which was built up on the side. Look also in here also the scales, like something had attached to the scales, infected the scales, made it proliferate, a material. I don't know, I'm not a morphologist, don't have the laboratory. I'm a fish doctor working in the field and finding out the problems on a simple way and trying to help you as an aquarist or a fish carekeeper to try how we can handle the problem and what can we do about it. Here you see another scale. You see this additional growth on top of the scale which is. Well, where can it come from? Well, it can come from something that caused the fish to stress and caused something to happen on the fish. And here you see that on the tail also all these groves attached to the tail base of that Neon tetra. Also the gills were very much dressed. You see a whole load of black parts sitting on the edges and and covering up the total gill tissue and which were millions of bacteria. Here we see the colonies of bacteria. So there are a lot of bacteria playing a role, affecting the fish, affecting the gills. Look at the gills. The hyperplasia or the enlarging of the gill lamellae. That is a typical stress problem in the gills. So the gills are not properly working. That's why the fish were having a very heavy respiration. Can you imagine when this whole load of bacteria is sitting on your lungs? It causes certain pneumonia or lung infection. And here it's a gill infection. Here we see it on a video. I show you in a video what it will be when we go enlarging it to 200 and 400 magnification. And you see the colonies of bacteria here. The black parts are all colonies. And you see all the tiny little black spots in between which are the moving bacteria. There are millions of bacteria here, all the colonies and the millions of bacteria which are attached to the gills. And that is, of course, causing a serious stress of the fish. And that might have caused a secondary problem on the scales of the fish, which might have been a viral infection. I don't know. Sometimes I'm unclear about certain findings because I don't have the laboratory or we don't invest in spending a lot of research on that. It's not up to me for doing that. Me and you is communicating. What do we find? How do we use a microscope and how can we treat? Also the liver? You can see here, the liver should be normally nice and brown, but you see this black part in it, which is a liver, which is intruded. Could be the bacteria causing that. You see the very yellowish flame, yellowish spleen, which is not normal. And we found some tubercles in between the intestine. What bacteria could have caused that? Maybe it's another part of mycobacteria playing a role. The organs were poorly functioning. The liver was bad. The gills were in very, very bad shape and maybe had some secondary problems outside the Neon tetra, which is giving us a problem and showing us that the fish was in stress. But in my case, so the usual growths, we could determine that it could be a secondary viral infection. Yes, maybe. But the main problem is the bacterial infection. The gills and also in the internal organs playing a big role. That for this cage, I would recommend to apply an antibacterial treatment with an antibiotic that you can ask from your fish doctor or your vet to get what you have. Could it be tetracycline? Could it be Lymphomycin. Could it be another product like Androfloxacane, for instance, like Bitril? That is sometimes a Laboratory Quick Test 24 hours can tell you what antibiotic to use. But you fish or vet or your fish doctor can help you. The fish that are badly suffering, well again I always recommend put them asleep. There's no need to keep them suffering. You can help with a fish food. Like I say, it's one of my important issues in my work as a fish docker that a fish food can help the fish like it can help mankind. When you apply a good feeding program, it's also for the fish important that you help the immune system to strengthen the immune system and the defense of the fish. And here we recommend to do this with Dr. Besler Bifish Food Forte or the Dr. Besler Bifish food Professional Care which have Nutri commens which is a functional food that help to develop the immune system. That was another case which is all presented on my Patreon channel. Where you can become a well trained fish doctor. Yes, that's something you can use when you work in the fish industry. Is becoming a small fish talker. Knowing something more than the average and that can help you to keep the fish in the best condition and being a happy fish carekeeper. Thank you for watching and taking your time to become a well trained person. Thank you.
