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Last night after their dinner, I saw one of the Diamond tetras suddenly swimming erratically, spinning round, being blown round by the tank current. I (easily) caught it in a net and it was upside down for some time breathing heavily. I throught it would be dead by the morning; however, it is not dead, still in the net, but still having difficulty staying steadily upright or seemingly have much control over its motor functions.

This seems to have happened extremely suddenly.

What is wrong with it? Should I just bump it off? Has anybody seen this before?

x

P.s, The fish looks 100% normal, no swelling in the body, clear eyes, still sparkling colours.

Last edited by malaikah at 24-Feb-2005 04:14

Update: Went out this morning and on our return it was dead anyway.. Don't know what it could've been though.

Malaikah,
The only thing that came to mind right away was whirling disease, something simialr to NTD, but on further reading into that whirling disease I don't think tha'ts it, mainly because it seems to be a cold water north american disease. However since both NTD and whirling disease as well as false NTD are caused by a parasite that might give you something to work on.

^_^
[hr width='40%']"There’s an emptiness inside her. And she’d do anything to fill it in.
And though it’s red blood bleeding from her now. It's more like cold blue ice in her heart.
She feels like kicking out all the windows. And setting fire to this life."

Some infections can invade the central nervous system. I've seen 2 cories and a betta swim erratically when they were within hours of death (at different times of course). In their case, the new cories I purchased had obvious signs of hemorrhagic septicemia I hadn't seen when they were at the fish store. When I got them home I could see the red spots/streaks.

Ah, the infamous Whirling Disease. Bruce Moomaw has had LOTS of experience with this striking characins, and Diamonds have been among the victims. PM him and ask him for more info.

Whirling Disease and NTD (plus numerous other similar complaints) are caused by organisms known as Microsporidians. These are protozoan parasites, and attack from the inside after being ingested in the gut. At the moment, medicating a fish sufffering from a Microsporidian disease is nigh on impossible, as any medication powerful enough to kill the organism in the fish's tissues would wipe out the fish long before the Microsporidians were killed. They're also very devious organisms, using a host of antibody suppression and stealth tricks to get past the immune system, in a manner akin to the sneakiness of Malaria, to which the Microsporidians are distantly related.

Once they appear, they are the very devil to shift. Bruce Moomaw's account to me two years ago of the way in which these organisms act as a slate wiper was harrowing to read. Basically, Microsporidians are capable of appearing in an epidemic to rival Ebola in humans. With a similarly harrowing fatality rate. Ridding an aquarium of established Microsporidians, if they unleash an epidemic, calls for the 'nuclear option' - strip and sterilise the tank. If you start losing more fish in the same way, then I'm afraid you're looking at dismantling the setup and carpet bombing it with Chlorox to kill anything and everything that might conceivably be present on the glass surfaces. The full biological warfare red alert scenario, basically.

Bruce Moomaw was not happy when this wiped out his Diamonds, needless to say ...

Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002