- www.pubmed.com

Objective: In this article we will deal with an all to common infection, which goes by various names. Most typically it is called Tail rot, or Tail and Fin rot. A typical characteristic of the disease is a rotting of the tail and very often the fins, which if unchecked will lead quickly to death of the infected fishes. This is a virulent pathogen, which can infect the vast majority of fishes, and has been found to occur in almost all parts of the world. The causative organism is a bacteria usually called today Cytophaga but previously was called Flexibacter. Method & Materials: In this work shop, we saw some status such as necrotic lesions on the skin, which often are white/gray colored with an edging of red. These will quickly transform (in a day or two) into ulcers with have an orange/yellow color, caused by the bacteria decaying the underlying tissue. Similar effects very typically occur on the gills. The progression of these ulcers, causes the fish to have great trouble with its respiration, and thus can quickly lead to fatalities. In some cases, the lips of the fish, will become swollen and macerated. Results & Conclusion: There are some interesting relationships between the quality of the water, and the virulence of the disease, and by being aware of these factors, it may be possible to use such information in some cases at least, as part of the recovery process. In waters with a total hardness of 33 ppm as CaCO3, (details of the breakdown chemically of this finding can be found in the quoted reference below) the pathogen was found to be at its most virulent, while in distilled water with zero minerals it was determined to be non pathogenic. This would indicate some need for certain minerals in order for the bacteria to reproduce and further re-infect fish. However hobbyists should be aware, that no fish we aware of will survive for a long period of time in pure distilled water, so moving infected fish into a hospital tank filled with distilled water in not a practical option.As noted previously, water quality plays a vital role in the prevention and cure of this disease. We used Acriflavine-MS and Metro-MS for treatment.

columnaris, water guality, necrotic lesion, tail rot, fin rot