Krankheiten

Obschon einige Krankheiten äußerst ansteckend sind und gesunde Millionenfische sogar in gut in Stand gehaltenen Becken angreifen können , resultiert die riesige Mehrheit krankhafter Guppys aus Stress. Die üblichste Ursache für Guppystress sind schlechte Wasserbedingungen oder eine plötzliche Änderung von Beckenwasserparametern (wie pH-Umschwung). Sobald Krankheit in einem Becken aufgetreten ist, ist sie normalerweise nicht zu stoppen.

Wenn einer oder mehrere deiner Fische krank geworden sind, überprüfe die Chemie des Wassers, einschließlich Ammoniak und Nitritstufen. Entferne kranke Fische. Widersteh dem natürlichen Impuls, kranke Fisch zu füttern, da ungenutzte Nahrung schnell dem Wasser Giftstoffe hinzufügt. Mache täglich einen Teil-Wasserwechsel (30 %) um den Level an Bakterien oder Giftstoffen im Wasser zu senken. Größere Wasserwechsel würden die Fische stressen.

Greif nicht zu Medikamenten für eine schnelle Korrektur. Wir haben nur eine Handvoll von Medikamente gefunden die für eine Radikalkur geeignet sind. Die meisten Bakterien- oder Virenheilmittel stören den biologischen Zyklus, stressige Bedingungen werden gerade dann geschaffen, wenn die Fische sie am wenigsten vertragen. Medikamente, bestimmt, um innere und einige äußerliche Parasiten zu töten, haben eine höhere Erfolgsrate. Es ist sehr wichtig, empfohlenen Dosierungsstufen und Behandlungsprogramme zu befolgen. Überdosierung stresst oder tötet den Fisch. Unterdosierung verhilft medikamentresistenten Keimen zu überleben.

Wenn du keine Ahnung hast, welche Krankheit deinen Fisch befallen hat, benutze Kaliumpermanganat, um die meisten äußerlichen Krankheitserreger zu töten (außer solchen großen Parasiten wie Lernea und sehr kleine Bakterium- oder Pilzkrankheiten). Kaliumpermanganat reduziert auch die organische Belastung im Becken und schafft günstige Bedingungen für die Gesundung.

Krank gekaufte Fische sind häufig. Sehr wenige Zooläden haben das Wissen oder den Willen gute Wasserbedingungen für Guppys zu schaffen und diese Guppys, die sie in Massen kaufen kommen schon gestresst an. Die Krankheit kann einige Tage oder Wochen brauchen, um auszubrechen. Sogar von Freunden oder einem Händler erworbene Guppys können Krankheiten haben, gegen die deine Fische nicht immun sind. Ein Isolationsbecken ist de rigueur.

Um ein Becken zu desinfizieren, der kranke Guppys beherbergt hat, füll ihn mit Wasser und einer Tasse Bleiche für jeweils neun Gallonen Wasser. Lass das eine halbe Stunde wirken. Leer es und lass es an der Luft trocknen. Sei sorgfältig mit stärkeren oder längeren Dosierungsanweisungen. Bleiche kann die Beckendichtungen angreifen. Neuen Fisch in Quarantäne zu halten und optimale Wasserbedingungen und Fütterpraxen zu schaffen, sind die besten Mittel zur Krankheitsbekämpfung, die dir zur Verfügung stehen.

[bearbeiten]Englische Version
Although some diseases are extremely contagious and can attack healthy guppies even in well maintained tanks, the vast majority of diseased guppies result from stress. The most common cause of guppy stress is poor water conditions or a sudden change in tank water parameters (such as pH bounce). Once disease is firmly established in a tank it is usually impossible to stop.

If one or more of your fish become diseased, check the chemistry of the water, including ammonia and nitrite levels. Remove diseased fish. Resist the natural impulse to feed sick fish, as uneaten food quickly adds toxins to the water.
Make daily partial (30%) water changes to bring down the level of bacteria or toxins in the water. Doing larger water changes then this will stress the fish.
Do not resort to medications for a quick fix. We have found only a handful of medications actually radicate disease. Most bacterial or virus medications disturb the biological cycle, creating stressful conditions just when the fish are least able to tolerate it. Medications formulated to kill internal parasites and some external parasites have a higher success rate. It is very important to follow recommended dosage levels and treatment programs. Overdosing will stress or kill the fish. Under-dosing ensures the survival of medication-resistant pathogens.
If you have no idea what pathogen is affecting your fish, use Potassium Permanganate to kill most external pathogens (except such large parasites as lernea and very small bacterial or fungal diseases). PP also reduces the organic load in the tank, creating more favorable conditions for recovery.
Diseased store bought fish are common. Very few fish stores have the knowledge or will to maintain proper water conditions for guppies, and the guppies they buy wholesale often arrive at the store severely stressed. Disease may take several days or weeks to appear. Even guppies acquired from friends or a dealer may have diseases your fish are not immune to. An isolation tank is de rigueur.
To disinfect a tank that has housed sick guppies, fill it with water and one cup of bleach for each nine gallons of water. Let it sit for half an hour. Empty it and let it air dry. Be careful of stronger or longer dosage regimes. Bleach can eat away at tank sealants.
Quarantining new fish and maintaining optimum water conditions and feeding practices are the best disease fighting tools at your disposal.


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Columnaris
Flossenklemmen

"Shimmies" or "clamped fins" is not a disease in itself, but rather a sympton of disease or fish stress. Because it can have so many different causes like columnaris or the different forms of flukes, this entry in the Disease Library is meant to provide a general description of this condition.

Symptoms and Behavioral Signs
A guppy has clamped fins that it holds close to its body, and its caudal find is folded. It hangs near the surface, relatively immobile. It may shimmy or swim somewhat erratically.The following symptoms may selectively appear:

Fins clamped
Guppy shimmies
Fish is shy or hiding
Fish lack appetite
Fish is still or inactive
These symptons can describe a variety of parasitic diseases that can only be properly identified with a microscope. The problem with treating shimmies or clamped fins without knowing the cause is that you may subject the guppies to chemical stress or adversely affect the water conditions.

Causative Condition
High ammonia, nitrite or nitrate levels in the tank. Low oxygen levels. High level of organic waste in the tank. pH levels out of range (less than 7.0 or more than 8.4) or a recent sudden change in the pH, temperature or hardness levels. If the problem is confined to one or several tanks, the chances are that the nitrogen cycle is out of whack in those selected tanks. This may be due to overfeeding or to a mechanical failure in the filtration system. If the symptons appear after a period of stability, and they appear in more than one tank, and there has been no recent introduction of new guppies to the community, you can probably assume that the guppies have been overfed.

Diagnosis
If the fish are scratching or flashing it is an indication of irritation of their skin, and could be due to external parasites. If the fish are swimming erratically, it is probably a parasitic disease. See library entries for Chilodonea, Costia, Skin Flukes (gyrodactylus), White Spot (Ich) and Velvet Disease

Examine the fish for any other signs of abnormalities or disease. If clamped fins are the only symptom, then it is probable water conditions are bad. If they are hanging near the surface, and there is not other signs of disease, than it is probably poor water quality.

Look on the bottom of the tank. Do you see a lot of mulm compared to other tanks? Is there uneaten food on the bottom? Is the water cloudy? Are the filters clogged? Is the filter water flow restricted? These are signs of overfeeding or the failure of the nitrogen cycle.

Check your food supply. Does it smell bad?

Check the water parameters. If the chemistry in your tank is not suitable for guppies, correct the situation, following the steps outlined in the next section.

Another sign is the specificity of the disease. Some strains of guppies are more susceptible to clamping or shimmying than others. Our recommendation is to delete the strain from your genetic pool. If you cannot do this, outcross it.

Prevention and Treatment
When feeding, culling or showing your fish, develop the habit of giving all the inhabitants of a tank a quick visual inspection. If you see a guppy in a corner or hovering near the surface, with clamped fins, you may have water parameter problems. It's best to catch water quality problems quickly, as they soon lead to an outbreak of disease. If the affected guppy looks lethargic or firmly clamped, immediately it to a hospital tank.

We have found that removing the sick or sick guppies from the tank is very, very important. A sick guppy is probably already overwhelmed by parasites. It is acting as a launch pad or incubator for an army of parasites that will overcome the weakened defenses of other fish.

If the water tests showed that the chemistry of the tank is out of balance, use one of many detoxifying liquids available to neutralize such problems as high ammonia levels. Do a 30% water change, using properly conditioned water. Be careful to not contaminate other tanks. If a major portion of the tank inhabitants are showing signs of stress, consider moving them to another conditioned tank, or changing 50% of the water with conditioned water.

Follow-up for three or fours days with a siphon of the bottom of the tank and a 10% daily water change.

If the problem is overfeeding, give the guppies a two day holiday from food and resume feeding with substantially reduced quantities.

Resist medicating your guppies unless you are sure that the problem is disease. Many medications damage the nitrogen cycle, exacerbating the problem. There is a Medications Affecting the Nitrogen Cycle article on this site.

By far the most effective treatment we have found for an undiagnosed clamping or shimmying disease is Potassium Permanganate. One probably reason for this is that it corrects the overfed condition of the tank. As a caustic alkali, it destroys the waste that helps promote the parasites.

One or two treatments with potassium permanganate (PP) should not adversely affect the nitrogen cycle. Before treating, clean the filter and do a 30% water change. Then dose the tank with PP, using our 5 ppm level indicated in the Potassium Permanganate entry.

Capillaria

Capillaria are intestinal roundworms or nematodes and are unsegmented and round, usually long and transparent.

Capillarids reach one centimeter in length, and are thin and transparent. They have a hair-like thin shape, and can reach 3 cm in size, while only a fraction of a millimeter in width. They are a genus of nematode worms (roundworms). They live within the gut or liver of the fish. Only severe infections will affect the fish, so they may be present and undetected until water conditions deteriorate. Cichlids are especially susceptible to this parasite. The capillarids eggs are oval-shaped with a bulging plug-like structure (operculum) at each end. The eggs hatch into infective larvae.

Capillarids compete with the fish for nutrients, resulting in a fish that looks thin and emaciated despite having a healthy appetite.

Symptoms and Behavioral Signs
Healthy fish usually can resist this worm. Female guppies often succumb to after the stress of birthing. Emaciation and a loss of appetite.

Diagnosis The feces may appear to be thin and white, or have light and dark segments. Live capillaria is rarely found in the feces. Eggs are usually present, even if the infestation is minor, as the capillaria produce prodigious amounts of eggs. The eggs are small, less than 50 micrometers. Although they can be seen at 200X magnification, they can be positively identified only under 400 to 600X magnification.

The best way to diagnose is to examine the feces under a microscope. The eggs look like they have been strong together and have the distinctive shape described above.


Note the eggs attached to each other like a string of beads.

Causative Condition A recent introduction of an infected fish is the usual suspect. Live foods, such as daphnia, containing the eggs can be a source.

The worm has a direct life cycle, requiring no intermediate host. Fish become infected by consuming the capillarid's eggs while feeding on the bottom of the tank, where the eggs lie dormant. The guppy's digestive juices cause the egg to undergo development in the stomach, and it reaches maturity in the intestine.

Snails may store capillarid eggs.

Capillaria is opportunistic and will overcome a fish when its immune system is depressed.

Prevention and Treatment
Eggs can lie dormant at the bottom of the tank, so infected tanks should be bleached.

Fluke-Tabs have been reported as extremely effective at treating Capillaria sp Fluke-Tabs active ingredients are trichlorfon (an insecticide with anti-cholinergic activity) and mebendazole (anti-helminthic). Mebendazole prevents glucose uptake, killing both adults and embryos.

Treatment Regime
Follow the instructions provided in the treatment section of the library. The treatment should be repeated in 24 and 48 hours, with a 10% a day water change. Do a water change (or use carbon in the filter) after 76 hours to remove the drug from the tank.

Levamisole and Piperazine anthelminthics have also been cited as effective against these worms.

Terry Fairfield in "A Commonsense Guide to Fish Health" recommends fenbendazole (Panacur).

Dieter Undergasser in Discus Health recommends a Flubenol 5% treatment.

Garlic added to fish food may help to control this worm.

Mebendazole is used extensively to treat roundworm infections in humans.

Daktylogyrus

Sometimes called: Clamping Disease, Clamped Fins Disease, Skin Flukes, Pintail Disease

Sometimes confused with the clamping of fins that occurs when there is poor water quality.

See also: Gyrodactylus spp.


The dactylogyrus fluke looks quite different from the gyrodactylus. Picture from Diseases of Tropical Fishes by Herbert R. Axelrod Note that there are two large hooks and a series of smaller marginal hooks.

Flukes or clamping disease describes two tiny worm-like parasites called dactylogyrus and gyrodactylus. This page describes dactylogyrus.

Dactylogyrus affects a wide range of fish besides the guppy: Carp, bream, goldfish, stickleback, pike, trout.

In the figure at right, the dactylogyrus worm has distinctive eye spots on one end and at the other end has one pair of anchors and 14 marginal hooks. Because this fluke has a free-swimming stage in its life-cycle, it needs the eye spots to find its prey.

The worm irritates the gill epithelium, leading to excessive mucus formation. The gill filaments become sticky, adhering to each other. The fish begins to rapidly breathe. If the infestation is really bad, the fish hangs near the surface and gasps, eventually asphyxiating.

Unlike the gyrodactylus, which is a livebearer, the dactylogyrus is an egg-layer. It scatters its eggs in the tank which hatch and reinfect fish in 1 to 5 days. Eggs that fall to the bottom of the tank hatch after a few hours. The larvae (oncomiracidium) can swim and must find a host within 10 hours or they die. They land on the fish, and crawl to the gills. Within three to eight days, depending on water conditions and temperature, they reach sexual maturity. The larvae are killed with the same chemical treatments as the adult.

Under winter conditions in ponds the eggs can lie dormant until the spring and hatch when the warm weather arrives. The eggs are quite tough and can survive many different types of medicated treatments. This makes dactylogyrus more difficult to treat than gyrodactylus, as we note below.

The dactylogyrus is twice as long as the gyrodactylus, at 1 to 2 mm.

Dactylogyrus can be found on the gills of the guppy or the body. The term gill worms is somewhat of a misnomer.

Gill and skin fluke species tend to be fairly host-specific. Although most species can live on guppies, only a few species can reproduce at a rate to damage the guppy. This means that a fish like a catfish or an algae-eater can act as a carrier for a guppy-specific species of flukes.

Symptoms and Behavioral Signs
The following symptoms may selectively appear on guppies infected by gyrodactylus:

inflamed or dark skin, slimy, sometimes a grey film
fish rubs against hard objects (flashing)
rapid breathing
opaque mucus covering the gills
sluggishness
faded color
weight loss and emaciation
secondary bacterial or fungal infections may accompany
in acute infections, the guppy will be found gulping at the surface, followed shortly by sudden death
Causative Condition
Acute infections usually arise when water conditions in the tank decline. A infected fish introduced to the tank can also give rise to an epidemic. Like most parasites, the ideal conditions are a crowded tank with poor quality water.

Diagnosis


A microscope is required to see the tiny flukes on the guppy's skin. A gill rinse must be performed. The water sample from the gill rinse is placed in a glass vessel with a funnel-shaped bottom. The worms settle to the bottom and are removed with a small suction pipette. You can also remove gill arches from a guppy. You need to wait a couple of hours for the gill worms to leave the fill arches. A 200X microscope is sufficient to see the worms. The clinical signs listed in the above section are part of a diagnosis.


The red square shows the fluke in intimate association with the gills. From http://www.biosci.ohio-state.edu/~parasite/monogenea.html

Prevention and Treatment
Prevention and treatment for dactylogyrus is the same as gyrodactylus with the exception that it is an egg layer. While gyrodactylus can be eradicated with one course of treatment, dactylogyrus needs to be treated over the five days of its maximum live span. Dactylogyrus that fall off the guppy can live on the bottom of the tank for four to eight days.

Bleaching an infested tank for 30 minutes, using a cup of bleach for a ten gallon tank, is recommended. (The bleach should not have any scent additives or other additives in it.) Bleach will destroy the silicon adhesive in the tank, so do not exceed the recommended concentration and length of treatment.

wikipedia

Pseudomonas

PseudomonasPseudomonas is a Gram-negative aerobic rod bacterium. Pseudomonas species measure 0.5 to 0.8, µm by 1.5 to 3.0 µm. They move by a single polar flagellum. It has a wide a diverse habitat, growing well in water and lives in soil, ponds, sinks and fresh vegetables.

Pseudomonas is a type of bacteria that have adapted to the hostile environment of the host's tissue (antibodies, phagocytes) and exposed surfaces (heat, cold, shear forces) by forming colonies that generate a kind of exterior shell composed of a collectively produced extracellular matrix of carbohydrate exopolysaccharide. A large collection of these groups of bacterial cells adhering to a surface is called a bacterial biofilm. This creates a problem for identifying and treating these type of bacteria because bacteria grown in culture in the laboratory for identification purposes may be a thousand times less resistant to a medication than the same bacteria inhabiting the fish's tissue.

Pseudomonas was once a very difficult bacterial disease to combat, resistant to penicillin and a battery of other antibiotics, until the development of the fluoroquinolone class of antibiotics. Bayer Baytril is the best known type of this antibiotic.

The bacteria are present in most natural waters and infect most species of fish. Pseudomonas usually makes its appearance when water conditions deteriorate. It is very opportunistic bacteria, almost never a problem with healthy fish, and quickly appearing when tank conditions deteriorate.

Pseudomonads require water, oxygen and nearly any carbon source for growth. It producees during growth two pigments: blue-green pyocyanins and fluorescein. The later pigment appears yellow under ultraviolet light. In infections, blue or green pus may be produced but most green pus is not due to pseudomonas. The silvery oily sheen seen on the surface of stagnant water is due to pseudomonas.

In humans infections caused by Pseudomonas species include endocarditis, pneumonia, and infections of the urinary tract, central nervous system, wounds, eyes, ears, skin, and musculoskeletal system.




[bearbeiten]Diagnosis
Laboratory cultures of bacteria are practically the only method of identifying bacteria. However this method is costly and impractical for the average aquarist.

[bearbeiten]Prevention and Treatment
Bacterial infections are often secondary to other types of infections, such as fluke infestations, so a treatment program may have to first remove the primary cause of the infection.

Reducing the bacterial load of the tank through regular cleaning of filter media, good nutrition, warmth and regular water changes (30% a week) are primary methods of avoiding bacterial infection. If the fish in the tank have been overfed, reducing the organic pollutants with potassium permanganate is a good prophylactic. PP will also remove the slime coat the fish, along with its parasites. A treatment with another medication can than follow.

According to the Massachusetts Office of Coastal Zone Management, terramycin can be used to control Pseudomonas. The dosage regimen is 2.5 to 3.75 g/100 lb/day for ten days.

There are a number of other antibiotics offered at the local fish store. Unfortunately most of them do not work because of their overuse and the development of drug-resistant strains of bacteria.

See the entry for Baytril. Baytril is especially effective against pseudomonas. However, there is a lot of anecdotal evidence that it is gradually losing its efficacy.

The guppy breeder should regard the role of antibiotics as reducing the bacterial load to the point where the guppy's natural immune system can take over. Antibiotics rarely eradicate the bacteria from the aquarium. For this reason, correcting the causative condition and doing a large water change (40%) on three subsequent days may be as effective as an antibiotic for fish that are mildly infected. However this approach should only be used if the fresh water has exactly the same parameters as the existing water. Fish should not be stressed.

Guppies can be bathed in antimicrobial agents like Trimethoprim Sulfa or Potassium Permanganate.

Treating internal diseases with antibiotics is more effect through bioencapsulation. However, beneficial bacteria are destroyed, making the use of vitamin supplements during treatment mandatory.

Spalt-Flossen
Spaltflosse am Guppymännchen
Quelle: Finn BindeballeAufgespaltene Flossen können verschiedenste Ursachen haben, darunter wären Bakterienbefall, Pilzbefall, schlechtes Wasser oder zu starke Wasserschwankungen. Stress ist dabei oft fördernd.

Der amerikanische Züchter und Wettkampfrichter E. T. Mellor hat darüber einen Artikel verfasst: Some Help for Split Tails.

Im Wesentlichen geht es im Artikel um die Verwendung von Vitamin B als vorbeugende Maßnahme und als Behandlung. E. T. Mellor beschreibt, wie plötzlich der Schwanz eines Guppys lange Einschnitte bekommt, die eine chronisch Veranlagung bei bestimmten Stämmen oder generell bei allen Männchen sind. Er unterscheidet bei den Erkrankungen von bakteriellen und Pilzinfektionen, wobei ein Fleck oder der Rand der Schwanzflosse schrittweise Fäulnisbildung zeigt. Spaltflossen treten in der Regel plötzlich und vollständig auf, verschlimmern sich aber nach Ausbildung nicht mehr.