What's this disease?

[stormhawk]

Found my last male AUS Orange dead in my 3ft tank. The body was floating amongst the hornwort. I have no idea what killed it. It was fine this morning. Has a swelling on the belly. Anyone has any idea what killed it?

[RonWill]

Jian Yang, I'm suspecting intestinal bacterial infection. Are the few AUS Orange in my quarantine tank also from the 3footer? They appear to be well at the moment but I'm worrying for my SJO female that's battling with dropsy

[stormhawk]

The oranges I passed back to you were from a separate plastic tank. Thats why the other male was missing its tail streamers. No worries on that bit. I'm contemplating on rescaping my 3ft tank. Replanting everything and redoing the whole aquascape. I've lost both the unknown BIT male and the C. alpha male in the 3ft tank. The only surviving killies in there are an AUS Choc female and an adult TOG male. I'm going to get another TOG female and remove the TOG male to a breeding container to get them going. Really nice big fellas.

Hope your SJO female pulls through. She's a real beauty. But then again, at least you have her daughters in reserve. :wink:

[stormhawk]

By the way, the body of the dead AUS Orange is currently in a small plastic container in my freezer compartment. Anyone here wants to do a post-mortem

[ruyle]

Jianyang, it could be acute TOG-itis :wink: Is the TOG behaving itself now
that its girlfriends are all gone? If bacterial, that's a rapid onset virulent
form to be fine in the morning, then dead late afternoon, evening? Getting
rammed in the side by a larger fish will protrude the abdomen like that. If
not trauma, maybe bacterial or protozoal, only a lab could say. Maybe
Wright will take a look at the pic and have an idea. My condolences!

Bill
farang9

[whuntley]

Bill,

Took a look but had no good opinion. [Terribly rare for me. ]

I like your suggestion of tankmate trauma. Many virulent bacterial infections (such as septicemia) are accompanied by at least some subcutaneous hematomas. I couldn't see much of that under-skin bleeding in the picture.

Remote diagnosis is really tough, and often quite wrong.

Sorry,

Wright

[kc]

Quiet a number of my Rachovii also die early. When younger, they eat alot and then slower get weaker and weaker. They stomach also got lumps. Now I'm left with 2 female that looked stunted.

[stormhawk]

Bill, its most certainly not TOG-itis though that would really shake up the world of fish medications Oh yes the male TOG is really behaving itself during light hours but I'm not sure what's its up to during night hours. So far it hasn't bullied my other fish and I've not lost any of my Boraras rasboras to it.

A friend of mine on another forum suspects it could be a sudden viral infection. Really odd way to die. I'm quite stumped as to what caused the death of this fish.

[ruyle]

Jianyang, can't help thinking this 3footer is a Bermuda Triangle for male fish You've lost an unknown Bit male and a C. alpha male PT (pre-TOG) era(?)and did they exhibit much the same signs at death? To have a rapid onset viral infection this lethal that only affected the one fish......hummm. Yep, it's a puzzler alright. I would break the tank down to bare glass and give it a thorough cleaning, lay in new substrate, etc, pretty much start from scratch. Up to you...or you could call a priest to perform an exorcism!

Regards,

Bill
farang9

[hobbit6003]

Hi Jian Yang,

Like what Wright had said, it is hard to come to a conclusion, as to which pathogen may be the cause. Even with the fish for PM, it is usually hard to isolate the pathogen, as a host of them can be found endemic within the fish.

That said, however, the clinical presentation of your fish doesn't really point to a viral infection. The bloated belly suggested ascites and/or purulent exudation, which is quite typical of a bacterial infection.

Did you notice any signs on the fish before it died?

Cheers,

Kenny

[stormhawk]

Nope no signs of disease. Just that it wasn't as active as before. Kept staying at the bottom. Usually it would be up and about swimming around and trying to mate with the female australe chocolate (no intention of spawning them). Then all of a sudden I found it dead amongst the hornwort.

[hobbit6003]

Hi Jian Yang,

There you go, there was some signs before you found it dead actually, just that you probably didn't take enough notice of it.

Listlessness and lethargy is a sign that something is wrong with the fish, and from the clinical signs seen, I'd think that there's an internal bacterial infection, either as a primary cause, or secondary to some underlying parasitic infestation, or medical condition.

I think the first thing is to determine if there're an outbreak in your tank, and the water parameters are within a good range. Find out if other fishes shows similar s/s, or if there's something else abnormal in the fish population in there.

Internal bacterial infection is usually not as contagious as an external one, and it usually occurs with some other predisposing factors.

Cheers,

Kenny

[stormhawk]

Nothing abnormal of late. I lose some fish every now and then. Not sure what's going on but the water parameters are OK. The rest of my fish are eating as per normal but I am going to revamp the tank just to be sure.

[imported_lily]

Hi all,

I lost some fishes lately to some kind of strange disease too. In my case, the eyes of the affected fish 'popped out' before it died and it happen to both the annuals and the non-annuals. Another thing, only females get the deadly disease.

[imported_lily]

Hi,

Here's a picture of the disease I mentioned.