Gerald Bassleer presents a case study (Case nr. 74, K74) of a clown loach (Chromobotia macracantha) recorded in Andalucia, Spain, showing progressive wasting, skin and gill damage, and gradual mortalities. Microscopic exams of skin scrapings, gills and abdominal fluid revealed millions of motile bacteria (multiple morphotypes) and occasional cryptobia-like flagellates; internal organs (liver, spleen) showed discoloration and damage. Bassleer attributes the primary cause to a bacterial infection, recommends checking husbandry/stressors, suggests antibiotic therapy (example: ferrotodone) under veterinary guidance, and proposes supportive/functional feeds (moringa-based) to help recovery. He emphasizes routine microscopic examination as a diagnostic skill for aquarists.
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Hello, Dear aquarist, today I read Your case number 74 all the way recorded from the south of Spain, Andalucia with Casares in the background. Some time to do some fish doctor work to help you to become acquainted with fish diseases, how to diagnose, how to find pathological symptoms or to find diseases, and maybe some cures you can implement to make your fish better. That's all we want to show you, to learn you that our hobby or our profession for keeping coriang fish is getting better and improving. So let me share my screen and show you the case I had here. It's the cloud loach number K74. The clown loads, Chromoboccia macracantha, or the clown loads. That is very skinny with a bacterial infection. Here I show you the video with the fish tank. Some fish look okay, but some look dark, skinny, like you're wasting away. And every day maybe one death, two dead very slowly, no large, high mortality. But look at this one here. The video stops. Look, this fish is really very skinny and he will not survive for a long time. The other video you see this fish, it will be dead in the coming hours or the coming days. And some look very healthy, eating well, doing very well. But something is going on. And that one fish is the one you need to sacrifice. And that helps you to find a problem and to save his counterparts, to save his friends in the aquarium. So you might find treatments that can help the other fish to survive. And at the skin scraping here, we see the video. You see all the tiny black spots, tiny bacteria moving around. Of course, it's microscopically small, but there are millions of black spotted bacteria here on the skin scraping. So bacteria are causing a problem here. Another skin scraping. And a few tiny flagellates were also moving around. That looks like a cryptobia type of flagellate. I don't think it looks like Costia, but looks something different. But only 1, 2, which is very little. I do not call that an infection. It's something that is sometimes popping up when the fish is in bad shape and he got some few parasites attaching. And at that moment it's not really a parasite, it's not becoming a parasitic infection. So the worst thing we think about is all those tiny black spots here, the millions of bacteria we see moving around. And of course, the gills was an important part to examine. And we see here the gills had some parts which are damaged and not doing well. That's where the fish were also suffering with a respiratory problem. And we found also here One cryptobial like flagellate parasite in the gills. This was one moving around, just moved out of the screen. But if we looked closer to the gills, we see some enlarged gill lamellae, which is not normal. And you see here some bad parts of the gills, most likely due to the bacterial infection. So the gills were also damaged and in poor condition. The liver had bad coloration, had some large holes or whitish areas, discoloration. The spleen was very small, very dark and badly formed. Most likely all due to the bacterial infection which we found in the fish and also in the abdominal fluid. We see the millions of bacteria. Some are staple bacteria. You see the little filamented staple bacteria, you see the spotted bacteria, maybe two, three different kinds of bacteria which are abundant available in the abdominal cavity of the fish. So bacteria seems to be the main thing that we found on this ground Lodge. Although many fish look okay, some are suffering and. And those few bad ones tell us a story that is something happening and we should take action. The few flagellates, well, maybe secondary parasites. I would not treat it because I would treat particularly the bacterial infection. And check, first of all, how are the conditions of the fish? Have the fish been well fed? Is there maybe overcrowding? Has there been stress? Maybe the history of the fish? The fish went through a very bad, severe stress condition. From the collecting side to the exporter to the importer, many things can have an impact that the fish becomes weak and then eventually becomes sick. So an antibacterial treatment, I would recommend to implement an antibiotic that can help, like ferrotodone, for instance, to name one. But ask your vet fish doctor or your veterinarian for advice. And the other thing which particularly can help you fish is the use of our Dr. Basley biofish food grain food seed extract, moringa, which is made to help control bacterial infections, like also our professional tree does, or also our Dr. Basler Bishopfuko. Those are all types of food which are functional foods that help the fish to cope and to recover from an infection like bacterial infection in this case. So the feeding is another part to helping your fish to do well. So this is about fish health, about the Clown Lodge getting skinny. Doing microscopical examinations is, as I tell you so many times, is becoming so important. So take your time for it, find your ways to use it. Find a half an hour or an hour a day, and after a couple of months you will become a small expert. Do that, you'll be more happier than keeping your fish. Thank you for watching.
