The Fish Vet's Blog

This week I’m stationed at the world’s second largest veterinary school, Ross University, St Kitts & Nevis. I’ve been invited to present on topics relating to aquatic veterinary medicine. See flyer below.

Fish Veterinary Fun Flyer.docx

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Yours sincerely,

Dr Richmond Loh
DipProjMgt, BSc, BVMS, MPhil (Pathology) Murdoch, MANZCVS (Aquatics& Pathobiology), CertAqV, CMAVA, NATA Signatory.
THE FISH VET, Perth, Western Australia.
Veterinary Medicine for fish.
W: http://www.thefishvet.com.au
E: thefishvet
P: +61 (0)421 822 383

This is quite a common occurrence. Either owners accidentally leave the drain open for too long, or the water lines disconnect and pumps the water out. Those who catch it in time are lucky. What you do next will determine whether your fish will live or die!

Always keep some water conditioners or anti-chlorine handy. Have enough in store in case you ever need to perform a 100% water change, for emergencies. Top your water up, using these conditioners and add vigorous aeration since the dechlorination reaction consumes oxygen.

But what if you don’t have anti-chlorine on hand? It is relatively safe to increase the water remaining by up to 10-15% only. Then the next day, purchase the products from your local aquarium store and top the rest of your water up. Never top up more than 20% without using anti-chlorine since the chlorine in tap water can kill your fish.

To keep fish safe from ponds draining fully, always position your water pumps on top of bricks. This means that if the pump runs dry, the pond will still have sufficient water until they are discovered.

Stay up to date with interesting things at
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—
Yours sincerely,

Dr Richmond Loh
DipProjMgt, BSc, BVMS, MPhil (Pathology) Murdoch, MANZCVS (Aquatics& Pathobiology), CertAqV, CMAVA, NATA Signatory.
THE FISH VET, Perth, Western Australia.
Veterinary Medicine for fish.
W: http://www.thefishvet.com.au
E: thefishvet
P: +61 (0)421 822 383

Read more here.

See Frog Watch, a dedicated website that provides information on all aspects of Western Australian frogs.

http://museum.wa.gov.au/explore/frogwatch

This disease is caused by bacteria in the Genus Mycobacteria. It has a long incubation period and it causes fish to die a slow death; with clinical signs of weight loss, inappetance, ulcers or just found dead. Mycobacteria is widespread in most water bodies. M. marinum has been cultured from swimming pools, beaches, natural streams, tropical fish tanks and even tap water!

Generally, in closed systems, introduction of infection is via contaminated, unpasteurised food sources. In an established tank system, high levels of Mycobacteria will build up as organic levels increase. Inadequate maintenance or high stocking rates predispose to this situation. The presence of high bacterial loads combined with stress due to overcrowding, fighting, external parasitic loads will predispose fish to infection and subsequent disease.

Mycobacteria are highly resistant to many antibiotics. Multiple drug therapy is generally more successful and literature suggests a combination of doxycycline and rifampin amongst others. However, due to the potential for selection of antibiotics resistance, it is not recommended to treat cases of mycobacteriosis in fishes.

How do you know if your fish has mycobacteriosis? In a live patient, it may be possible to examine fine needle aspirates. The only definitive way you can tell if the fish has systemic mycobacteriosis is to conduct a full post-mortem analysis and to collect the relevant samples for bacteriology and histopathology. There is possibly the option to monitor the environment using quantitative PCR technology.

How do you prevent mycobacteriosis? Environmental management and removal of organic loads are very important to reduce the tank loads of Mycobacteria as they seem to increase in numbers as organic loads increase. Infected fish should be promptly removed from the system and euthanased, otherwise, they will be shedding bacteria and adding to environmental contamination.