NANFA-L-- Annoying malady

Mysteryman (bestfish-in-alaweb.com)
Mon, 12 Jun 2006 10:18:50 -0500

My fish have been dying-in-an alarming rate over the past month, and I can't
figure out what is killing them. Over the past month I've easily lost more
fish than in the entire prior decade.
Tey have a peculiar affliction that I can't identify, and have only seen once
before this.
It affects only shiners, or-in-least seems to, as other fish with them have so
far invariably remained unaffected.
The disease has one outstanding physical characteristic--> a crusty edge on
the caudal fin that looks for all the world like the salt along the edge of a
margarita glass. It does NOT look like typical finrot or any other "normal"
fungal/bacterial infection. Also, this symptom only appears overnight. That's
right;-in-night when the lights go out the fish are still just fine, but in
the morning they are affected. Also, if the lights stay off, the fish survive.
turning ON the lights kills them within hours, and very often in less than one
hour.
I've tried everything I could think of, and the most maddening part is that so
far everything I've tried seems to work just fine, for-in-least a few days.
Then it returns, wiping out a half dozen fish without warning.
PimaFix, Melafix, salt, antibiotics, antifungals, antiparasiticals..they all
knock it down for a few days, and after the water change everything seems
hunky-dory until it comes back again.

So, there it is, whatever it is. Fish only die in the first couple of hours of
the day, and their tails are crusty despite being clear only sevferal hours
previously.

I don't know of any tropical diseases like this, and the only ther time I've
seen this was with some Burrheads that I got in the White Hills area or
western Alabama. The fish currently afflicted are from central Alabama.
Were it not for the Burrheads, I would be inclined to blame it on the frozen
foods I occasionally give them, but the burrheads never got those.

Is this some weird native alabama disease, or some other american disease?
Have any of you ever seen it? Most importantly, do have any nothion of what I
should DO about it? This is driving me NUTS.
/-----------------------------------------------------------------------
/ This is the discussion list of the North American Native Fishes
/ Association (NANFA). Comments made on this list do not necessarily
/ reflect the beliefs or goals of NANFA. For more information about NANFA,
/ visit http://www.nanfa.org Please make sure all posts to nanfa-l are
/ consistent with the guidelines as per
/ http://www.nanfa.org/guidelines.shtml To subscribe, unsubscribe, or get
/ help, visit the NANFA email list home page and archive at
/ http://www.nanfa.org/email.shtml