Hunched, thin, lumpy bellies on danios

[plecoperson]

Just finished treating the tetras, now I have managed to sicken ZEBRA DANIOS--

Hep! I know they're just danios, but I really need to figure out what's wrong......

1~What type of fish is afflicted?
Nearly all our dozen or so danios

Hunched spines, overall thin but with lumpy bellies, inactive, just hang in their school.

2~What are your tank parameters?
Tested 7/15:
pH 7.5-7.8,
nitrite -0-
ammonia -0-
nitrate 5-10
temp set at 78, with recent heat goes up to 82


3~ How large is the tank?
55 gallon

How long has the tank been set up?
Nearly 4 months.

4~What type of filtration are you using?
Rena XP3 canister and Penguin 330 HOB

5~How many fish are in the tank? What kinds of fish are they and what are their current sizes?
12" pl*co (common)
12 zebra danios
6 pristella tetra
3 sparkling gourami
1 female betta
1 horseface loach

6~When is the last time you did a water change and vacuum the gravel? 7/17

How often do you do this?
Weekly

How much water do you remove at a time?
30-50%

7~How long have you had the fish?
Some for about 8 weeks, some about 4 weeks (I think)

8~Have you added anything new to the tank--decor, new dechlorinator, new substrate, etc.?
The new XP3, about a month ago now

9~What kind of food have you been feeding your fish, have you changed their diet recently?

Frozen bloodworms/brine shrimp etc 1x/week
NLS flake
vegetables (for pl*co)
the odd shrimp pellet
algae wafers
Nothing new.

 

[Guest]

How did you treat the Tetra's?

I would think it is an internal bacterial infection and should be treated as one but I am not sure. The "lumpy" makes me think bacteial infection. Any pics?

If the spines are really hunched you may have a real problem. Pics or more description would really help. This could be a variety of problems.

Are they in QT?

 

[Devilishturtles]

I saw this thread a few days ago and wasn't sure what to reply with.

The signs your fish are showing remind me of TB (fish tuberculosis). By hunched fins, do you mean just a clamped fins look with slight bend or is the spine really hunched, as in bent?

I would QT regardless. Like Mike said, could just be a bacterial infection, could be TB, which is also a bacterial infection but much harder (near impossible) to treat. Google fish TB and see if the pictures look like what you might have.

 

[plecoperson]

Thanks for your replies!

They are now in quarantine and I'm going to try for pics tonight. Their backs appear to be curved downward in slight even curve; not side-to-side. It's difficult to tell as their bellies are hollowing. It did look quite like fish TB from the pics I saw. Their bellies are flat to hollow, some having a lump that looks like they swallowed, errr, something the size of a BB.

The tetras were treated with lotsa stuff while I tried to figure out what the problem was, so I'm not sure what cured the ones that lived (6 out of 8 survived and are fine). They had a coupla days of Melafix, tried medicated food that they refused, then Clout (!), then Maracyn II (whole course). I believe they had columnaris in the end. My filtration was inadequate at that time, and has since been upgraded to "overkill"!

I don't really expect to save these fish (they have that "we're checking out" appearance), but we'll see what I can do. I would be inclined to try Maracyn I and II together, then, since "bacterial" seems to be the verdict?

Thank you again for your replies-I know diagnosing is hard enough, and then with no pics makes it harder still. On top of that they're danios, for god's sake. I appreciate it no end and will post pics this evening.

-Lisa

 

[fearlessfisch]

Just a note of hope. I have been battling both worms/parasites and bacterial stuff in my tank. I had a danio that looked horrible a while back. His belly was sunken, and he was sort of a half-moon shape, kind of hunched over.

Now I can't tell him from the others.

Good luck. I hope you can fix whatever this is.

 

[plecoperson]

Thanks for the good news-nice to hear when you've got sick fishies.

What did you treat your guys with?

 

[fearlessfisch]

Back then I used Jungle Parasite Cure, which seemed to help. However, my guppies and rainbowfish got sick later on (not sure if it was related to the same thing or not), and so I have been treating more recently with Jungle parasite cure, levamisole, and an antibiotic.

I am desperate to wipe this out, whatever it is. I still have a very sick rainbowfish. But the danios look great.

 

[Devilishturtles]

plecoperson, did you get pictures? Hows the fish looking?

 

[plecoperson]

Operation Photo failed last night-but will do tonight. They look about the same, though one has a more deformed spine over the last two days....

UPDATE:

You'll be surprised to hear it's hard to get good pics of zebra danios, even when they are sick--thanks for all your help.

This is the best-shows the spine and belly

This is quite blurry, but shows the flat belly that distends toward the back.