Whirling Disease 10/24/06
I have a 150 gal. system w/ 4 mollies (1.3.0), 4 guppies (1.3.0), 4 silver dollars, 3 Japanese shrimp, 3 sm. Plecos, and 1 sm. clown loach the temp is pretty constant at 85 F <hot> and the chemical tests read 0 NH4,0 NO3,0 NO2, etc... Top off water is treated for chlorine/chloramines and I use a wet/dry pushing 600+ gph from undergravel jets, a power head for aeration, as well as several air stones. My last water change was performed last month...I know I'm lazy, but I've never had a problem in this tank like this. I lost a male sailfin Molly yesterday in about 1-2 hr. He suddenly started whirling and jerking and was shortly doing so upside down. I found a female guppy on the sand substrate in the same contorted position...upside down. Does this sound like a swim bladder infection to you or do I have an epidemic on the rise? <Whirling Disease.> Thank
Branon Rochelle
<Sounds like you have Whirling disease (Myxosporea).  Quite virulent and lethal.  Best to separate fish that show symptoms from others as quickly as possible.  Check out   http://www.wetwebmedia.com/FWSubWebIndex/whirldisfaqs.htm
for more.>
<Chris>

Myxosporea?  Myxosporidians? - 03/14/2005
Hi Bob,
<Actually, Sabrina with you today.>
I have read/searched through WWM and have been unable to find much regarding Myxosporea.
<Mm, try "Myxosporea", "Myxosporidea", "Myxosporidian"....  And try via Google, as well.  And, especially, try here:  http://www.fishdisease.net/ .>
I had 3 black phantom tetras, 3 cardinal tetras, a male Betta and a Pleco in a 10 gallon tank.  (probably slightly overcrowded but frequent (25% 5-6 days) water changes has kept the water quality very good.
<Can't attest to bioload, as I don't know the tank size.>
Anyway last week  I had a fish (bp tetra) start showing all of the swimming signs of Myxosporea but none of the other symptoms.  
<Myxosporea are simply a group of Sporozoans, protozoan parasites of fish....  I wonder if you're thinking of the Myxosporidean Myxosoma cerebralis, or "whirling disease"?  I'm not certain that tetras are susceptible to this....  Uh, in any case, what were the symptoms you saw?>
He succumbed to wounds sustained in an attack by the Betta which I happened to witness (lost an eye, severe fin damage).   I was not quick enough to get my net and rescue the poor fish.  Anyway now that I have carried on for a while I was wondering how I should deal with this so as not to start an epidemic and lose all of my fish to this slow but fatal disease.  
<Are you seeing any symptoms of any sort in any of your other fish?>
I have a 3 gallon "hospital tank" plus another 1 gallon jar that could hold the Betta if need be.  I am fairly new at this hobby and do not want to fail miserably within the first year.  Thank you in advance for the help and keep up the good work on your site.  
<And thank you for your kind words.  Hopefully a little more information will shed some necessary light, here.>
Scott (Ottawa, Canada)
<Wishing you well,  -Sabrina>

Re: Myxosporea?  Myxosporidians? - 03/18/2006
Thank you for your advice so far.
<Any time.>
Yes whirling disease is definitely what I am seeing. I saw it in the one fish that has passed away.  
<Do you mind describing exactly the symptoms you've observed?  Have you had an opportunity to see whirling disease in other fish?  Are you absolutely confidant of this diagnosis?  Again, I've not seen this in tetras, but that doesn't necessarily mean anything.  My hope, here, is that the "whirling" you saw was just the fish damaged or sick to the point that it couldn't swim properly....  was listless, and just going where the water took it.  If you ARE seeing Myxosoma cerebralis, that's much worse.>
I believe another tetra has a cyst growing just before his tail.
<Disconcerting for sure.>
If you have any ideas on how to combat this infestation it would be much appreciated as I have found very little on the internet (other than disinfect and start over).
<A tough question, with no good answer, I fear.  In all honesty, I would remove ALL affected fish to a separate quarantine system, break down the tank, sterilize....  perhaps even employ a UV sterilizer on the system....  At a minimum, I would drain most or all of the water, clean the substrate, and start "fresh", and maintain *pristine* water quality to maintain the health and well-being of any unaffected fish.  As for those exhibiting symptoms, there really is no effective treatment at this time.  Sadly, there really is nothing you can do but make them as comfortable as you can.  I do hope the symptoms you are seeing are of something else.>
Thanks again,
Scott
<All the best to you,  -Sabrina>

Health/Disease In Selectively Bred Fish - 11/07/2005
Hi there,
<Hello.>
I'm a beginner to keeping fish, having started with a tropical 30L BiOrb (just 1 plastic plant and 1 cave-esque decoration along with the provided media) in late June this year. My first 3 fish were balloon mollies; one died from dropsy
<.... a comment, here; "dropsy" is not a disease, but a set of symptoms.... what *causes* those symptoms is what you need to explore. In some cases, it can be as simple as constipation. In others, it can be a nearly-always fatal bacterial infection.... and there are other causes, as well.>
in a QT tank shortly after escaping the boiling fate the other two shared thanks to what I've been assured was a faulty heater.
<Yikes!>
My next fish were another balloon molly and a guppy; to this pair I added a balloon molly and a swordtail. The first molly died after being sucked through the siphon tube (my fault - I now watch them like a hawk when siphoning)
<I have had a similar experience with a female Ameca splendens - heart-stopping.... to me.... but the fish did fine.>
and today the other molly and the swordtail died from whirling disease in the QT tank.
<Oh, gosh, yikes!! Scary.>
I spent some time watching all three of the fish last night, and they all seemed fine - then this morning the swordtail and the molly were clearly sick, the swordtail very much so, so I quarantined them immediately. When I returned from work some 7 hours later, both had died. The guppy is okay so far (as far as I can tell) and I've performed a 50% water change. The ammonia and nitrites had been 0 for over a week and were 0 this morning when I quarantined the swordtail and molly. Nitrates are at about 25 ppm (my LFS tells me that due to being in a hard water area I'm unlikely to get it any lower than this) and pH is usually around 7.8 - 8.0. I've chalked the dropsy incident up to my own inexperience (I made some maintenance mistakes early on) but I don't know how my fish got whirling disease, which in turn means I don't know how to prevent it happening again.
<Mm, difficult to impossible to prevent, aside from maintaining optimal water quality.... These fish likely had the disease prior to purchase.>
I also don't know if there's anything else I can do to try and make sure my remaining guppy doesn't get it. I've read what I could find on your site and Google about whirling disease, but I couldn't find any preventative measures anywhere (my apologies if they're listed).
<There are none, really, aside from removing affected fish immediately, and maintaining pristine water quality.... excellent, high-quality foods.... in general, bolstering the health of your fish as best you can.>
Presuming my guppy remains healthy, how long should I wait before adding companions for him? 
<A few weeks, at an absolute minimum. And quarantine any newcomers if at all possible.>
I've noticed that it's the most selectively bred fish I've chosen (5 balloon mollies and a swordtail) are the ones that have died. Is there really this much of a difference in susceptibility to disease? 
<Yes, there really is. A decade or so ago, male bettas were expected to live several years. Now, they're so inbred that even breeders of "high-quality" bettas claim that a couple of years is all you can hope for. In short, yes, any fish that is highly inbred or line-bred or selectively bred is much more susceptible to disease, genetic disorder, etc. Especially fish that are bred to be mal-formed, in my opinion.>
I'm sorry this e-mail is so long, but I wanted you to have all the information you needed.
<Thank you for your attention to detail.>
Thanks in advance for all your help - I love keeping fish and I'm learning all I can, but things are still going wrong and it's very upsetting.
<It's a tough learning curve, but you're getting things right - you'll get there, no worries!>
Regards, -Victoria
<Wishing you well, -Sabrina>

Calling All Midwives!  Dalmatian Molly Expires After Giving Birth 10/15/05
Hi,
I have a Dalmatian Molly who gave birth last night to about 45 fry. About 8 or 9 where dead.
<Dead upon birth? This may be an indication that something went wrong with the pregnancy....>
The mom seemed fine last night and most of the day today, but this evening she began flopping around and spinning in circles constantly. She has not stopped for a few hours now. I am really concerned. 
<I am, as well.... isolate the mom from the rest of your fish, and use the Google search bar on our homepage and search for "whirling disease".... also look on the 'net for this term, as well, and see if the symptoms of this match your fish. If so, there is really not much you can do but make her as comfortable as you can.>
Does this mean she is going to die from the stress of giving birth? 
<It may be entirely unrelated if it is "whirling disease".... However, also be sure to test your water for ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate; maintain ammonia and nitrite at ZERO, nitrate less than 20ppm, with water changes.>
This is her 4th batch of fry and she seemed fine after the other 3 litters. HELP!
<Try researching whirling disease, and keep your water quality optimal. Wishing you well, -Sabrina>

Whirling disease video clip
I recently lost a young balloon molly to this menace, I managed to take a 30 second video clip of the behavior, and thought it might be of some use to your site. the file is 7.39MB, in .mov format, and I am unable to alter it to bring down its size with the software I have available to me. if you have any interest, let me know, and I will include it as an attachment. 
<Please do send this along to my personal addr: By Bob Fenner and I'll do my best to make it available to the public.  Bob Fenner>,<Unfortunately could not figure out how to do... even w/ JasonC's help. RMF>>

Unknown fish with whirling disease
My fish started swimming around like crazy, really fast.  He bumped into the sides of the aquarium a lot.
<It would be very helpful if you tell me what type of fish you have.  If it is in a freshwater, brackish, marine tank.  Knowing what other tankmates and it's living conditions are often sheds better light on what could be causing problems.>
Then, one of his fins stopped moving.  He then started swimming in circles and upside down and then on his side.  He started swimming crazy again and actually jumped out of the aquarium.  
<Since I'm not sure what type of fish this is it's really difficult to know if this is something that is due to infection or possibly environmental.  This sounds like a fish could be infected with Myxospora, which is commonly called the whirling disease.  It's actually a Protozoan that effects the fish.  Symptoms of Myxospora are •Loss of equilibrium
•Swims in a whirling motion
•Bodily deformations
•Nodules and boils appear on body
•Dark coloration on posterior third of fish
The disease progresses very slowly over a period of months. Affected fish slowly lose their ability to maintain a normal position in the water and will whirl and/or swim with their head down. In some cases respiration increases.  Sadly if the fish is infected with this it is incurable.  The standard thing to do is euthanize the fish.  There are medicines on the market that is suppose to help fight this protozoan but, I have not heard of any cases were the fish survived more than a few weeks to a month after treatment.>
We put him back in and then he was motionless at the bottom of the tank.  He was upside down.  We took him out and placed him in a separate container with tank water. What's going on??? I hope he doesn't die.  Any information will help.  Thank you. Theresa
<We had some a pair of our Koi in a breeding aquarium contract this.  Sadly the fish never recovered from it.  The problem is that the condition stresses the fish, and a stressed fish doesn't eat.  The fish usually wastes away if it can't right itself.  For questions in the future please be sure to give all the info you can so we can help you more.  Type of fish, tank size, tank mates, filtration, water parameters, tank temp.  All of these can offer info for us to help you. -Magnus>

UV STERILIZER and FW disease
Hi Bob. Have a problem and need a little advice as it involves more than just changing water. :)
<Okay>
My largest tank, a 55, right now has 3 Big Spot Plec's (all around 5 inches), 1 Bristlenose at 4", 4 Cory sterbae and about 15 smaller dither fish. (Do I need to state my readings? OK. 0,0,15. I do lots of water
changes!)
<You know you and I like those>
I keep losing the dithers with the bent spine of fish TB. Couple of Zebra Danios, a few White Clouds, one Cardinal Tetra. I also have 6 Rosey Barbs (2M, 4F) in there. The female Rosey have looked like they're gravid since I got them 8 months ago. Now all the females are starting to show the bent spine. The males both look normal and healthy.
<... not good... can be a few things... I'm fearful it's Myxosoma, not nutritional, environmental... given the fact that the cats appear unaffected. Are you familiar with whirling disease?>
I know I should break down the tank, put down all the fish and start over, but frankly with my prize Big Spots in there it's just not going to happen.
In speaking with Sabrina about this she mentioned she knows of no report of catfish getting TB. (Can you add anything to this?) So the plan is to put down all the dithers, healthy looking or not, and add a UV Sterilizer.
<Siluiiforms can indeed "get", perish from Mycobacterial infections... but these would be long gone by now if this were the causative agent.>
Does this seem like a good plan of attack to you? My thoughts are that the catfish, being bottom dwelling, mud sucking scavengers have been provided one hell of an immune system. Nature is good that way. By ridding the tank of the reservoir of infection in the dithers and running the UV I hope to clear the bacteria.
<Maybe... do you have any such problems with similar groups
(Cypriniiform/minnows) in other of your systems...  using the same water?>
Right now I have two tanks running. The 55 and a 10 with my breeding Bristlenose. I have 35 two week old fry in the 10 right now along with the parents. So I have to do something soon. Plan is to get a 29 and/or 20 and set up the Big Spots for a breeding attempt. Then use the 55 as the grow out tank. Would greatly prefer not to have to break it all down and recycle, but must have a healthy, cycled tank for all these fry. So I'm leaning towards the Sterilizer.
<I am not such a big fan of UV's for home, even breeding systems. Not that much to gain. If bacterial in origin, the microbes will be passed in the system by the fishes eating other dead, dying fishes>
If you think I'm on the right track, can you recommend a brand, size. I think the 55 is the biggest tank I'll have. Would also want it to be able to go on a 20. The dream tank of Zebra Plecos would be next after getting the Big Spots settled in a 29. Can't/won't even think about the Zebras until I'm sure I'm healthy, tank wise.
Don
<If it were me, I'd spend the money on another or larger tank, another trashcan/carboy to store pre-mixed water, or a reverse osmosis unit for making water, and hope that if this is indeed a biological vector, that its
virulence dies out. Bob Fenner>