strange killer in my tank...

[ghettorigged]

My fish are turning dark colors internally.
It starts near the organs and seems to spread down the spine until they die.
The second symptom is that on the center of the breast, a bump appears and also turns dark in the center.
Third symtom soon before death is scales turning out and lack of swimming.

What is it? What can I do? I see the signs starting with a few fish now and have lost one.

It's a 44 gallon planted FW tank with about 25 fish. 2 angels, 2 ottos, and the rest are schools of tetras (neons, flames, bloodfins, lemons).



Thanks!

 

[Allivymar]

Strange.

It reminds me of something, but I can't quite pin it yet. Let me do some research and see if I can figure it out; I'll get back to you in the next day or so.

In the meantime, what fish does it effect, how long does it take to kill them, and what are your water parameters?

 

[cdawson]

What are your water parameters? We can't really help unless we know them.

 

[ghettorigged]

The water is 7.2pH, no ammonia, no nitrates/nitrites.

It takes a while before death...weeks.

I talked to two LFS and they both just said to medicate as if it were abdominal dropsy. Soooooo, on that note I bought some Maracyn2 to try out.

 

[Allivymar]

Hrmm. Looked things up, and the 2 which fit your description are rather unusual. One is Cryptobiosis

Symptoms:

Fish afflicted with Cryptobiosis may become thin, lethargic and develop a dark skin pigmentation. Other important symptoms include exophthalmia, splenomegaly, hepatomegaly, general edema and abdominal distention with ascites. Infected fish are highly susceptible to environmental hypoxia, and their metabolism and swimming performance are reduced. This disease has proven quite common among Cichlids and Salmon. (info taken from www.fish-disease.com)

The other is Discus plague, which has symptoms of dark skin discoloration, but I sorta doubt thats it.

You might want to peruse the above site to see if anything else strikes a chord.

 

[ghettorigged]

Thanks very much for taking the time to look for disease information. I greatly appreciate it.