TB

[gm72]

Some of you may remember I had a batch of fancy guppy fry a while back that we thought had fish TB. The question is, shouldn't they all be dead by now? I have 7 that "made it" and show little to no sign of illness. 2 of them might be a tad crooked in the tail, but barely so.

[cocoa_pleco]

thats odd. they must be the spared survivors! im amazed they made it through that disease. There was a program on TV yesterday on how some guy on a plane bumped into someone accidentally sitting next to them, and actually caught their TB.

[Chrona]

Once TB gets into a tank, it's always there and will strike again when the fish get stressed. One of the more common and the most surefire way for it to spread is when the uninfected fish eat the flesh of infected fish that have died.

[cocoa_pleco]

im wondering, would a UV sterilizer kill what causes TB?

[gm72]

Don't know about the sterilizer.

I wonder if I temporarily moved the fish to another tank, broke down and bleached the existing tank, and put them back in if that would make any difference?

Honestly I thought for a long while about euthanizing them, but then thought that I would let them live out their lives. They are happy and healthy now. They are all male, which is also odd, maybe the males are more hardy? Maybe I should get one of those self-contained 5 gallon jobs and put them in there.

Any thoughts?

[Lady Hobbs]

The TB bacteria also remains living in the gravel so everything would have to be sanitized including the filter.

[Rue]

I hate killing 'healthy' animals...

...get the 5g and see how they do...if they don't make it you can always use it for something else...

[gm72]

Right, Lady, understood that everything would have to be sterilized. When I first transferred my guppies out of their old 10 gallon I put a ton of bleach into the aquarium and just let it run with the filter for a few days. Done deal.

I was very closely examining the fish today, 2 of them are crooked, but the one is almost adult size and the other is close behind. Funny looking, and I am extremely careful with tank maintenance. Think I'll get the 5 gallon tank and keep them there to see what they do.

[Chrona]

TB is on the fish too.

[gm72]

Right. I guess my whole situation about this is wondering if it really IS fish TB since they are still alive. I would transfer them to a smaller tank because they don't need the whole 10 to themselves, so I could stock that differently. My thought is to let them live out their lives then start over again with fancies.

[SkarloeysMom]

I was just trying to make this decision today myself. I read something online that said the TB can be carried in fish for a long time without any symtoms and then stress or old age can cause symtoms to develop. I still haven't found anything that said how long they can live once symtoms begin.

My two white clouds that I had for about a year and a half started to develop crooked spines and swim sideways a few months ago but I didn't know TB could do that. Then in April I bought some guppies - 2 of which died within 2 weeks of purchase with symptoms of TB and 1 that died of unknown causes. Now I have no idea who had it first but I finally decided that I had to euthanize the white clouds that had the obvious symptoms. I don't know if this will save the other fish in the tank. I'm just hoping maybe the others are resistant to it. I've also read that livebearers and tetras more susceptible to TB too so maybe my other fish will be luckier than the WCs and guppies. I guess I'll just have to wait and see.