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One or two people here have had a first-hand encounter with a complaint called "Whirling Disease", although whether the disease that wiped out Bruce Moomaw's tetras one time is the same as that I've just found a Wikipedia entry for remains to be seen. However, in the anticipation that the two are related, or possibly even caused by the same organism, here is the Wikipedia entry:

Whirling Disease

The article is very detailed, so I shall summarise its main points here.

[1] The disease is caused by a myxosporidian parasite.

[2] The disease does NOT attack the brain (the organism was named Myxobolus cerebralis in the initial mistaken belief that it did) but preferentially attacks cartilage.

[3] The disease causes deformities in affected fishes due to the attack on the skeleton (in particular the cartilaginous content), and affects juvenile fishes more severely than adult fishes because their skeletons have yet to completely ossify (become fully bony).

[4] The parasite named above has a complex life cycle, part of which is spent as a parasite of Tubifex worms.

[5] So far, despite extensive research and a lot of money spent in the pursuit of a cure, none currently exists. And, the disease is usually fatal.

Consequently, I would advise people who, like myself, are devotees of live foods, to be particularly suspicious of Tubifex worms, especially those harvested from the wild, as Tubifex naturally inhabit unsavoury locations to begin with (they are fond of sewage outlets, for example) and play host to other pathogenic organisms besides Myxobolus cerebralis.

Hopefully, this will prove helpful to someone in the future, although given that the disease is a slate wiper in an aquarium, I'd be happy if no-one ever needed this thread ...


Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002