Dark marks on Neon

[thecatdidit]

One of my little guys has small dark area, almost a stripe in the silver area behind both gills. On one side it's worse than the other. On one side there appears to be a smaller scrape on or just immediately in front of the gills. He was quarentined on Wednesday and given a dose of Melafix on Friday when I put his mate into the regular tank and second dose today after a 25% water change. He swims fine and eats fair. Fins are in great shape. He's a little pale, stressed from being alone I suspect.
I suspect NTD, maybe more likely abrasions from poor netting at the store. I also wonder if it is hemorrhagic septicemia? I have a tiny concern if it is TB. The quarentine tank is a 5 gallon plastic storage box with a corner filter. My cat checked out the lid, maybe even licked it when I was dumping the old water. If the fish doesn't improve by Saturday, I think I will have the vet biopsy it to check for TB, or do you think I'm over reacting? I will try to photograph the fish soon.

 

[talloulou]

You have a vet that will biopsy a neon for TB?????

 

[thecatdidit]

I'd rather know if it did, because my cat and my family were exposed to it. If any of us had TB, it is better to know now than a month from now.
I know someone who had TB back around 1990. He missed work for about 2 months work. It took about a six months to get better, though I don't believe one ever fully recovers from TB. So yeah, I'd kinda like to know if we were exposed to it... I have my doubts, because the fish doesn't show all the signs.

 

[thecatdidit]

I assume he could send it out to his lab...

 

[talloulou]

Here is a website that may help answer some of your concerns.

http://www.aquarticles.com/articles/management/Keefer_FishTB.html

It's not too common for humans to become infected but it is possible. Usually it happens when you are doing tank maintenance with some sort of cut or open wound on your hands. Plus the fish tb that you can get is not the same as the human tuberculosis, from what I understand at least. Anyway there are signs and symptoms of the infection that you can keep an eye out for. If you don't have any infected looking skin lesions or discoloration then I wouldn't worry about it. I think it would be unlikely for the cat to be infected from licking the water but this is something you could ask your vet about it. As for yourself if you notice any weird skin lesions or sores see a dermatologist.

As far as having the fish biopsied I guess you could try but I bet it would be costly and I personally wouldn't do it.

Hopefully others can chime in with some more advice.......I tend to not worry about such stuff when cleaning my tanks and do it all the time with scratches and what not on my hands but I know occasionally this has caused many a person some problems.