What;s Wrong With This Fish, And Is It Contagious?

I have a school of blacknose shiners, one of which seems to have something wrong. It's activity is normal, it eats and everything..but in the last month or so, it's suddenly gotten tremendously fat(for a shiner, at least). I don't mean "belly" fat...I mean the entire body, other then the head, is getting much larger around. It's likely half again greater circumference then any other of similar length..even developed a "keel" for lack of a better term. The head is also darker now, very distinctly different "tone" then the rest of the body. I don't notice any scales sticking out or anything..but it's really odd.
Any ideas?

I would guess it's a major bacterial infection that probably will get to the point that scales stick out. This is usually the result of stress or profoundly compromised immune system. It's not contagious, merely incurable for the most part.

Thanks, glad it wont tranfer at least.
Odd though...the tank conditions are stable, water quality is fine, and all the other fish are healthy as well...I just wonder what would cause one fish to have such a profound infection? I looked it over closely at feeding time(again, it acts perfectly normal), and there were no injuries or anything.
Would something like Marycin help..(I'm leery of that...tried it a while ago to get rid of a small outbreak of BGA, and it was not a good experience!).

Hi, Thought I'd stick my nose in here because it sounds like an old disease called bloat. I hav'nt seen it in years but have heard about it occasionally. There used to be several methods for dealing with it. The first thing was to isolate the fish immediatly (old Innes said it was catching). The first cure(?) was to put it in a tank and treat with salt. The next was to use some anti-biotic (I like tetracycline). The last resort was to use a needle and puncture the body cavity to allow the gasses to escape. To be honest I've never heard of a real cure in my 40 years of aquarium keeping and have just froze the fish and flushed. (seems freezing is most humaine way of uthanasia)...Jim

Hi, Thought I'd stick my nose in here because it sounds like an old disease called bloat. I hav'nt seen it in years but have heard about it occasionally. There used to be several methods for dealing with it. The first thing was to isolate the fish immediatly (old Innes said it was catching). The first cure(?) was to put it in a tank and treat with salt. The next was to use some anti-biotic (I like tetracycline). The last resort was to use a needle and puncture the body cavity to allow the gasses to escape. To be honest I've never heard of a real cure in my 40 years of aquarium keeping and have just froze the fish and flushed. (seems freezing is most humaine way of uthanasia)...Jim

It's hard to describe(can't seem to get it in pic range w hen I have the camera handy!) but it's not just the body cavity. It's the entire body, minus the head, that's "bloated up".
Still acting perfectly normal and healthy, which seems odd in and of itself.

I feel your pain. I had a long term issue with a particular tank. I found it generally incurable once it got to a certain point but Anti-biotic seemed to help in administered quickly. The problem I had was the re occurrence. The bloat or dropsy (never was sure what it was) finally ran through the tank and I've not had any more issues.

I feel your pain. I had a long term issue with a particular tank. I found it generally incurable once it got to a certain point but Anti-biotic seemed to help in administered quickly. The problem I had was the re occurrence. The bloat or dropsy (never was sure what it was) finally ran through the tank and I've not had any more issues.

Yeah, that sure looks like it...
I really hope it does not run though the tank. So far, only the one fish shows any signs of it. I'm wondering if I should capture it and euthanize it before it dies....hate to have the other fish partake, and then all come down with whatever it is!
I'm hoping it is just this one fish, maybe "just it's time".
I did notice the scales are starting to protrude tonight....I suspect it's not long for this earth. Still..it's ACTING perfectly normal.

I feel your pain. I had a long term issue with a particular tank. I found it generally incurable once it got to a certain point but Anti-biotic seemed to help in administered quickly. The problem I had was the re occurrence. The bloat or dropsy (never was sure what it was) finally ran through the tank and I've not had any more issues.

Is that one of the pirate perch in your breeding project? If it is, that really sucks.

you might try getting something called jungle parasite clear you can get it at walmart or a petsmart and it works great for treating bloat in african cichlids soit might work here as well. It is a broad spectrum medicine so even if this isnt bloat it would still help.

I'd like to bump this one.
The fish in question originaly is STILL alive, and looks no different then it did way back when.
The description is as follows...the entire body seems to be "swolen" and the color is faded somewhat, almost as if the flesh underneath is no longer translucent but almost a "cooked white"(not exactly..but hard to describe otherwise!), also, the eyes are bulging out very noticably. However again, the fish has now had this condition literaly for months(mid summer).
A second shiner is also "comming down with it" in that it's eyes are bugging out, and it's starting to get a bit pale. Like the first one however, it shows no other signs of stress.
Oh, on the first one, I've see a few instances of blood on its side...appears to be where scales have gone missing, so not sure if they just fell out or it was from a battle wound..but it definitly ended up with a "blood blister" appearance for a while.
I'm just stumped..it looks similar to things I've seen before, but not quite the same. I really don't think it's bloat, as again it's NOT just the body cavity...but almost as if the flesh itself has swelled up.

I'd like to bump this one.
The fish in question originaly is STILL alive, and looks no different then it did way back when.
The description is as follows...the entire body seems to be "swolen" and the color is faded somewhat, almost as if the flesh underneath is no longer translucent but almost a "cooked white"(not exactly..but hard to describe otherwise!), also, the eyes are bulging out very noticably. However again, the fish has now had this condition literaly for months(mid summer).
A second shiner is also "comming down with it" in that it's eyes are bugging out, and it's starting to get a bit pale. Like the first one however, it shows no other signs of stress.
Oh, on the first one, I've see a few instances of blood on its side...appears to be where scales have gone missing, so not sure if they just fell out or it was from a battle wound..but it definitly ended up with a "blood blister" appearance for a while.
I'm just stumped..it looks similar to things I've seen before, but not quite the same. I really don't think it's bloat, as again it's NOT just the body cavity...but almost as if the flesh itself has swelled up.

VHS maybe? That sounds like some of the symptoms I have read about.

It's the legendary Balloon Blacknose Shiner, Notropis heterolepis flltocapaciti , long since thought extinct! I had a couple of Blackstripe Topminnows that swelled up all over, turned pale, lasted only a few days then went belly up. I never had any similar problems with any of the other fish though, I wonder what it was.
-Thom

VHS maybe? That sounds like some of the symptoms I have read about.

Tom, I honestly can't imagine that a fish with that would have lasted this long, OR failed to infect the entire tank. The fish in question has had "whatever" this is since September(if not earlier), and after a fairly rapid progression to what it looks like now..has not changed it's look in I'd guess, 3 months. The second fish(same kind) has had the "bug eye" symptoms for maybe 2-3 weeks, but has not so far developed the swelling look to the degree that the other one has. What I find odd is that it has NOT died, or for that matter even exhibited any real sign of stress or discomfort...it feeds and intereacts with the rest of the fish, and even chases some around.
Perhaps it's a zombie!!
Edited to add..I've been looking online, and the symptoms seem to be similar to a LOT of things. VHS is not out of the running, but from everything I've read, the diseas runs it course fairly quickly, 7 to 14 days according to several site, and the fish either dies or survives(letality looks like it runs from 80 plus percent in cold water, to almost zero in water above 68 degrees). So...it COULD be that..but you would think that one way or the other, the fish would have been done with it. Even though the fish have not shown any signs of discomfort(indeed, I should mention that the long term one has continued to grow in lenth at the same pace as the remaining fish), I'm thinking I should euthanize them to be on the safe side.

It sounds like it, although a lot of diseases sound similar and if it spread to another fish I would be more suspicious.
Here is one of the papers I read on VHS VHS in the Great Lakes.
I have also read this "The mortality rate for infected fish varies between 20% and 80%, depending on environmental conditions, and has reached 100% in trout fry (CFSPH 2003)." So it's possible he could live the rest of his life.

Does anyone on the forum have first hand experience with VHS? If so please tell us your thoughts.

Tom

So it's possible he could live the rest of his life.

Actually, I can predict with 100% certainty that this will be the case.

Actually, I can predict with 100% certainty that this will be the case.

You think so?

Took me over 24 hours...but I got it..