# Is this parasites or ?



## lonedove55 (Jan 25, 2012)

Tonight I went in to turn the lights off on my 10 gallon quarantine tank. This green barb was not swimming right. He would roll upside down, was barely breathing, and not swimming at all. I immediately took him out of the tank and put him in some fresh treated water with an airstone and heater, however, he stopped breathing altogether within just a few minutes. Another green barb is not acting right either. I've included some pics below..The barb that died has a strange white lump on the side of it's mouth, and it's mouth has a weird "smashed" appearance...similar if you took your fingers and mashed your lips together. The other green barb has a very thin white stringy poop hanging on it. What possibly could this be? These were recently purchased Friday, Aug 3rd. All of the parameters are fine. A 40% water change was performed 2 days ago.

Any ideas or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. There are 4 other green barbs in this tank as well as some zebra danios and I'm worried about their welfare.


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## susankat (Nov 15, 2008)

Sounds like you picked up some sick fish. Quarantine fish for at least 2 weeks before putting in your main tank. Part of the problem does sound like parasites, the part with the mouth is hard to tell what caused that. Could have just been damaged


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## navigator black (Jan 3, 2012)

The fish has a poor body shape, and probably has a pet shop or shipping based bacterial or viral infection. It looks overall sick, although it is hard to define the sickness. Since you can't define it, it is hard to treat, if treatment even exists. I would keep that tank very clean - religious water changes of 30% or more every week for a few weeks. I'd feed carefully (don't overfeed) and then I would cross my fingers and hope the pathogen doesn't spread. Since it is probably a result of bad conditions, all you can do is try to stop it with good ones.


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## lonedove55 (Jan 25, 2012)

Thanks for the quick replies Susan and Gary. Yes, this tank's sole purpose is to quarantine any new fish for several weeks before adding to my display tanks ...learned my lesson on that score! Sorry about the fuzzy pictures. I don't have a very good camera. I religiously do at at least 50% water changes on this tank once or twice a week, and vacuum the gravel _thoroughly_. I know there is nothing in the tank that caused this as I had just transferred some fish from this tank to another & they are doing fine.

Actually, the fish appeared to be very healthy when purchased (I took my time examining the LFS's tanks and their main focus is fish). I guess you always take a chance buying fish from retail stores, as you never know who their suppliers are.

I forgot to mention the mouths of the affected fish appear to be slightly swollen and have a flattened appearance. I have no idea what would cause that other than possibly bumping the glass hard? Being in such a small tank, I'm really surprised that there is very little aggression among the barbs..they school peacefully together most of the time. But the thin stringy poop has got me worried that it could be internal parasites. So far, i haven't seen any Ich or other problems.

So, course of action for the time being is to wait and see if things get worse? Would it be feasible to treat with something like Jungle Parasite Clear?


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## navigator black (Jan 3, 2012)

It doesn't seem like parasites to me, as the fish aren't wasting away. With jumpy nervous fish like tiger barbs, the mouth injury can be from panicked crashing into the glass, something they may have done every time the net went into their tank at the store. If it was a bare, brightly lit display tank with a lot of activity outside in the store, nervous strong swimming fish like barbs and rainbows (especially) seem to bash their snouts a lot. That usually clears up when they settle down, if the water's clean.
That's a reaction to stress, and a bacterial infection (which can also cause white stringy waste) will sometimes flare up with stress.
So will gut parasites, but they rarely do a quick kill. It's not in their interests. Even in a stressed fish which they overwhelm, they usually trigger a quick decline over a couple of weeks, and not sudden deaths. If a bacterial infection hits a major organ, it can kill very quickly.
It's just guessing though.


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## lonedove55 (Jan 25, 2012)

Thought I would give an update on this thread. So far, I've lost a total of 3 green barbs and 1 danio. I'm not sure _exactly_ what killed the danio, but upon closer examination part of his tail had been nipped off. So, at least among the danios, there is some aggression going on. 

The barb in the 1st picture above with the stringy poo and another barb died 3 days after starting this thread. Still no signs of ich or other pathogens. The rest of the fish, 3 barbs, 8 danios and 1 bumblebee catfish are doing well and eating fine. I'm doing water changes 2X a week to keep the water as clean as possible.

So, the mystery continues as well as the wait and see game. Thanks for all the replies.


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## navigator black (Jan 3, 2012)

It can go like that with new fish. When I buy fish that originated in fish farms (most of what we see in stores), I expect 1 in 4 to die in the first two weeks. The big corporate chain stores have cheap fish, but once you factor that in, the independent Mom and Pop places suddenly become more appealing.


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## lonedove55 (Jan 25, 2012)

Your comment is the very reason I have been purchasing actually more fish than I really want and quarantining them for a couple of weeks before adding them to my display tanks. I've only been keeping aquariums for 8 months, but it seems like I always lose at least 1 or 2 within the first few weeks if not days.
I am extremely limited with lfs here with only 2 that even sell fish. Both are chain stores, one being a Wal-mart (and we all know their reputation for sub par stock). Another store, a mom and pop place that had been in business for years just recently closed. The lfs these last fish came from is a privately run business and their main purpose is freshwater and saltwater fish. I was so hoping they would be a reliable place for quality fish and supplies. If I do visit them again, I'll be more ﻿cautious in purchasing their stock.


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