[Zbrafish] Sick Fish

christian lawrence clawrence at rics.bwh.harvard.edu
Tue May 16 10:24:58 EST 2006

The veterinary people that monitor the list can better tell you what you may
have (you list very common symptoms), but a more important question concerns
the rearing environment of your fish.    

Zebrafish are very tough, and typically, acute outbreaks of disease like you
describe are the result of fish being stressed in some way, most proximately
and frequently by exposure to unfavorable environmental conditions.  You can
cull, medicate, and treat disease symptoms any way you want, but you're not
going to fix anything until you stabilize the environment.

I may be able to help if you supply me with the following info, offlist:

1. pH. What is your pH and how do you regulate it (addition of NaHCO3,
aragonite, etc.)  does it move widely over time?
2. do you measure nitrogenous wastes and what are they (NH3/NH4, NO2, NO3)
3. what kind of system do you have?
4. what do you feed?  How often do you feed it?
5. what densities do you keep the fish at?
6. how often do you do water changes?
7. where does fish water come from?
8. what is the conductivity of your water?
9. how long have you had the fish?  Where did they come from?  

These are just a start, but if you let me know what these are, we can go
from there.

Christian Lawrence
Brigham and Women's Hospital
Karp Family Research Laboratories 06-004B
One Blackfan Circle
Boston, Massachusetts 02115
Tel: 617.355.9041
Fax: 617.355.9064

-----Original Message-----
From: zbrafish-bounces at oat.bio.indiana.edu
[mailto:zbrafish-bounces at oat.bio.indiana.edu] On Behalf Of Alistair
Sent: Monday, May 15, 2006 11:01 PM
To: zbrafish at magpie.bio.indiana.edu
Subject: [Zbrafish] Sick Fish

Dear All,

We are new to the housing and care of zebrafish and are currently
experiencing a number of fish getting sick.
We have seen the fish become "bloated" and swim near the bottom of their
tank. In addition to this, they have also what appears to be "red spots" 
on their underside.
We have isolated the affected ones, but would welcome some advice and
information on what the problem could be and treatment if available.

Alistair Reid

Head of Animal Services
John Curtin School of Medical Research
Australian National University
Canberra, ACT, 0200
ph:     +61 2 6125 5529

mob:    0407278626
fax:    +61 2 6125 4977

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