Weird Fish Abscess

[Nate Storey]

Hi everyone, this guy was looking pretty sad for a couple days.  I took him out and found this weird abscess around the anus.  I killed him and took some pictures.  Anyone ever seen anything like this?  It looks like a crazy weird case of Streptococcus but I'm not sure and I'm too busy to get out the gram stains to try and figure it out.  

[Vlad Jovanovic]

Man that's got to suck, (for the fish I mean). Hopefully it'll be just an isolated incident.

[Nate Storey]

Yeah, I felt kind of bad.  He'd been lethargic for a couple days before I'd had enough and pulled him out.  I'm amazed that he wasn't showing any other symptoms considering. It's pretty disgusting.  I think it might have been a streptococcus infection that caused his papillae and anus to swell a bit and then the other fish nipped and harrassed him and basically did most of that damage- making the infection even worse. . . but I'm not a fish expert so I'm not sure.  No other fish are showing symptoms so I'm not worried.  It's always a bummer to lose a nice big fish though.

[matthew ferrell]

Was it brown, fuzzy, and slimy?  Aeromonas is a secondary infection that will eat flesh like that.

[Nate Storey]

No, it wasn't slimy or fuzzy, it looked almost mechanical- there was a brown tinge in places but it was mostly off-white.  I had aeromonas issues several years ago, but nothing recently.  Does it look like aeromonas to you?

[matthew ferrell]

Nate, the book isn't the cheapest(nor the most expensive) but its great for experts and novices.  If you have a book budget, buy this one.  Lots of pictures and really good treatment guides are within.

http://product.half.ebay.com/Fish-Disease-Diagnosis-and-Treatment-b...

Fish Health Diagnosis and Treatment- Author Noga

It could be mycobacteriosis aka tuberculosis.  If it is, wash your hands really well.  And don't touch the lesion again, seriously.

Honestly I have little confidence in diagnosing from picture.  There are so many bacterial diseases.  Aeromonas is the most common in your temp range.

[matthew ferrell]

Yep, after some reading I'm going back to Areomonas.  Good news for you, because all fish are carriers anyway.  bad news, if you start to see chronic loss, then something else is up.  Aeromonas can be internal too.  I had catfish get it in their kidneys once, and they went off feed, which made giving them the oral antibiotics impossible. 

Keep an eye out for change in behavior and if you get another fish on its way out(not dead), suit up with gloves and give a peek inside,  looking for swollen red organs and/or heavy vascular action in the cavity.  Dead fish are about worthless for figuring out whats wrong.

[Nate Storey]

Thanks Matt.  I appreciate that.  I think it's probably aeromonas exacerbated by harassment.  I'll keep an eye out, but all the other fish look really good right now.  If one starts to look sad I'll pull him out and cut him open.  I appreciate the advice.  Knowledgable fish folks are pretty rare in AP circles!

[matthew ferrell]

Your welcome.  You should be thanking Noga, I just went back to the book. 

[Nate Storey]

I'll put it on my list of books to purchase.

[Jon Parr]

Nate, what you have there is crack whore. 

[Vlad Jovanovic]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sHzdsFiBbFc

Jon Parr said:

Nate, what you have there is crack whore. 

[Jon Parr]

that was awesome!