Freshwater Disease Guide

Velvet Disease (Oodinium)
Synonyms:
Coral Fish Disease, Amyloodinium

Symptoms:
Fine gold-white "dust", rapid breathing, erratic behavior, flashing, clamped fins, lack of appetite

Causes:
Amyloodinium pillularis infests fish in freshwater environment whereas Amyloodinium ocellatum infests fish in saltwater environment. The fish will look like they have been poured with flour as the spots rapidly spread.

This parasite is a dinoflagellate that can easily spread to other hosts hence it is very contagious. Poor water quality can attribute to their rapid reproduction.

Treatment:
Freshwater dip, hyposalinity, Copper Sulfate, Atabrine (Quinacrine hydrochloride)

Neon Tetra Disease (Pleistophora hyphessobryconis)
Symptoms:
Restlessness especially at night (a weird behavior can be distinguished when the afflicted fish seems to be swimming on its own while the rest are "asleep"), loss of coloration on its body usually starting on the midsection, secondary infections brought by finrot and dropsy, curved spine, erratic behavior

Causes:
This is caused sporozoan parasites and is very contagious.

Treatment:
There is no known cure up to this date as the sporozoan parasites have proven themselves very resistant to several medications. Any fish suspected to be afflicted or afflicted must be isolated immediately and eventually euthanized if no improvement in its health has been observed in the next few days. Transmission is done mostly by fish picking on the afflicted and spores infecting new hosts as the current host dies.

Notes:
This disease has been confused with Columnaris. Note that the NTD is usually associated with a creamy colored patch which appears to "delete" the actual coloration of the fish. Columnaris is associated with white patches, a case very different from NTD.

Neons are very vulnerable to NTD but this is also found among cichlids, danios, rasboras and other species. There have been several reports that so far only the cardinal tetras are immune to this disease.

Osmotic Shock
Symptoms:
Detachment of mucous membrane, fins appear to have been blown off, internal diseases become the consequences, increased vulnerability to skin diseases, gill and fin rot.

Causes:
When fish is transferred from water with high conductivity (high salt content) to water with low conductivity without an intermediate phase for adaptation, they suffer from osmotic shock. The fine cartilage joints in the fin rays can burst due to the high osmotic pressure. The fins fall off in large pieces and the fins are eventually infected with fungus and other bacterial infections especially when the fish becomes extremely weakened.

Treatment:
This is more of a case of prevention rather than actual treatment. Measure the conductivity between the water where the fish is and the water where it is to be transferred. The addition of mineral salt to the one with higher conductivity level will help minimize the chances of osmotic shock. Give the fish time to recover from the upheaval. Then, proceed to lowering the conductivity level to the desired level by doing small water changes over several hours.

Goiter
Symptoms:
Thyroid gland tumor develops in the throat area.

Causes:
Lack of iodine.

Treatment:
Iodized table salt-It can be argued that this type of salt is harmful to fish simply because of the presence of additives and anti-caking agents however there have been reports of the use of iodized table salts without any issues at all. The choice is yours whether you wish to use it or not.

Foods containing iodine-Feed the fish regularly with foods containing iodine. The tumor may recede as time progresses.

Mineral salts-In some places, water does not contain enough iodine. It is therefore advisable to add mineral salts especially when you use reverse-osmosis (RO) water to replenish the minerals lost preventing nutrient deficiency. This must be used regularly until the tumor recedes.

Constipation
Symptoms:
Slightly large abdomen, no feces are excreted.

Causes:
Incorrect diet or overfeeding. What food are you feeding your fish? How many times do you feed your fish? How long does it take for the fish to consume all the food? It is recommended to minimize the food rations by once or twice a day for fish in their adult stage. A one day fasting per week will certainly compensate for the rest of the days of feeding them. It must be noted there are certain fish species that may eat the food but which is totally not appropriate for them.

Treatment:
Green peas are recommended as they serve as a laxative allowing the fish to excrete their wastes blocked inside their bodies. Always remove the shell and if intended to be fed on fish with small mouth, mash the peas to smaller pieces. Daphnia can also be used as an alternative and usually is better as peas are high in sugar content and can be gassy.

Another alternative is the use of 1/4 teaspoon of epsom salt per 10g. If the fish recovers, improve its diet and change feeding routine.

Damaged/Pinched Nerves
Symptoms:
Abnormally dark coloration in some parts of the body of the fish.

Causes:
Damaged nerves are a result from stress and shock a fish receives when it is transferred to a completely new environment without the proper acclimatization process set in place.

Treatment:
Let the fish recover in a quarantine tank. Stress coat may be added along with plenty of hiding places

Continuous darkening of the whole body
Symptoms:
Title is self explanatory. Fish may gasp on the surface.

Causes:
Very poor water quality.

Treatment:
Increase tank maintenance regimen, cut down the number of fish in your aquarium, maximize filtration cap

Acute poisoning
Symptoms:
All fish or all of the same species die within several hours or one day, often with full color.

Causes:
Recall what you have done near the aquarium’s area. Have you sprayed pesticides, fungicide and other toxic chemicals? Have you use dose the aquarium heavily with copper?

Treatment:
Do plenty of water changes and use activated carbon. You may use the water conditioner at double dose to help bind the excess heavy metal contents. Keep a watch on your water parameters.

Constant gasping around the surface
Symptoms:
Title is self-explanatory.

Causes:
Oxygen deficiency, excessive levels of carbon dioxide, gill flukes and other gill diseases.

Treatment:
Gill diseases-Please refer to the previous posts for gill diseases and their recommended treatments.

Oxygen deficiency/excessive levels of carbon dioxide-Carry out a very large water change or partial small water changes for several minutes and switch on all air pumps or ensure vigorous surface movements to diffuse the carbon dioxide out of the aquarium.

Insidious intoxication
Symptoms:
Unnatural coloring, darkening, fish are easily startled especially when you knock on the glass.

Causes:
1. Decorative objects may be releasing toxins.
2. Excessive copper or chlorine levels.
3. Contamination of environmental toxins, disinfectants or detergents coming from the water pipes.
4. Compact substrate with anaerobic bacteria causing the release of hydrogen sulfides which are toxic to the fish.

Treatment:
1. Remove the suspected decorative objects and use the activated carbon.
2 and 3. Refer to the post regarding the Acute poisoning.
4. Disturb the substrate regularly and do plenty of water changes. Compact substrate is quite noticeable when bubbles appear as you disturb the substrate.