(I typed this on Word, I hope it is legible. Let me know if some things don't come through.) Unfortunately, I do not have a lot of new information to offer that cannot be gleaned elsewhere, other than my own experience but I can save you some time. In offering suggestions for what to do to deal with an infection by Cryptobia iubilans that causes a chronic wasting disease, I would like to provide you with some background information. First off I am a physician, not a vet. I have consulted with a couple of vets locally and have also consulted with Dr Wes Baumgartner at Mississippi State vet school. In writing this I want to be clear that my suggestion is to work with a vet when possible. However, it is difficult to find a vet interested in treating fish or one who has ever made the diagnosis of Cryptobia iubilans infection in discus. If you have found a vet that has helped you please share that info with others.
I have had 3 Discus necropsied who died from chronic wasting disease. All of the pathologists were different. I can provide the results if anyone is interested. All of these fish showed granulomas in the stomach and GI tract. The testing for Mycobacterium which is another pathogen than can cause granulomas was negative suggesting cryptobia iubilans infection. I have purchased a microscope and confirmed large numbers of live cryptobia in stool samples from infected fish. This whole process of identifying the cause of chronic wasting disease in my fish took me about a year and a half of research. In providing my experience I hope to help others learn about this at a much faster and easier pace. Maybe someone could take this the next step and outline an effective diagnosis and treatment algorithm. There are other causes of chronic wasting disease in discus but Cryptobia is likely a common cause, imho.
I believe this infection is common among breeders and we purchase these fish already infected. (
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15154736) This is something that is testable and provable if someone was up to the task. If this was proven then I believe breeders would be forced to deal with this organism more aggressively. As it is now the breeders have no incentive to cure this infection, because the infection does not cause disease for several months in many cases. So the discus hobbyist gets these beautiful fish and then over a period of weeks to months they gradually quit eating and eventually die. The hobbyist gets frustrated with this repeated process and quits keeping discus! I believe this is THE reason people give up on discus, but I do know with certainty is A reason.
It is helpful to understand something about the life cycle of this organism. I can provide research articles on the subject.
http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/vm077
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=...10151844,d.eWE.
Here’s a YouTube of the organism:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WucY...qN23aPHwgXoTFs
And here’s my video shot with a cell phone camera. (Sorry about the audio.)
http://careyaquarium.blogspot.com/20...resent-in.html
This organism can be ingested as a free swimming organism or as the eggs of the organism. It is a one-celled ciliated organism. It is a parasite and not a bacteria nor a virus. The organism infects the GI tract of the fish. The organism does not cause the immediate death of the fish. Some fish will resist disease caused by it. It can infect the fish for many months before it actually causes any symptoms. The organism irritates the GI tract and the intestinal tract responds to that irritation by forming granulomas around the organism. These granulomas are difficult to penetrate with medication and that is one of the reasons why it is so difficult to treat this infection. By the time your fish shows symptoms, these granulomas have multiplied in the GI tract and some have begun to have secondary bacterial infection. It is this secondary bacterial infection that typically causes the death of the fish. The symptoms are familiar to us. One day we notice one of the discus has stopped eating and is hanging out at the back of the tank. The process progresses and the fish starts getting dark in color. Over weeks, not days, the fish losses weight and appears weaker. Extra mucous appears on the fish and the breathing rate goes up. One day it’s found dead. One of the clues it may be a parasite and not an acute bacterial infection is that the process is slow. Bacteria usually kill a fish in a few days. The fish never has time to waste away its weight.
An important point to understand is that standard quarantine times of four to six weeks are not sufficient to identify Cryptobia iubilans disease. The organism can remain in the fish for months before actually causing symptoms. So the only way to be sure that your fish is not infected is by doing microscopic analysis of a stool sample.
Here are Dr. Wes Baumgartner’s comments about the latest necropsy of one of the fish that died of this wasting disease. I’ve reviewed the histology slides of your discus and I’ve found several microscopic stomach granulomas that lack acid fast organisms. A wasting syndrome in discus fish associated with stomach granulomas has been reported in association with cryptobia iubilans, a flagellate of the intestinal tract. I think this is probably what’s been going on. I saw no convincing evidence of mycobacteriosis. I spoke with Sam and I’ve got a sample of spleen in ethanol that we can run PCR for mycobacteria on. However, without granulomas in any tissue but the stomach, I doubt we’d find any evidence for mycobacteria.
I’ve attached a report of cryptobia in discus that you will find interesting. The syndrome in your tank is remarkably similar. Treatment is difficult.
Additionally, there is abundant iron in the liver, which I associate with high red cell turnover. It is uncommon in fish and of uncertain significance, though can be associated with pollution in wild fish populations.
Dr. Baumgartner is as the vet school at Mississippi State. Here’s his review article:
https://www.was.org/documents/Meetin...A2011_0435.pdf
This would be a great research project for some student in microbiology or a vet school student who wants a research project. I suspect that there are many hobbyists who would be willing to contribute money to this research to finally eradicate this organism from the Discus hobby.
Regarding treatment, typical protocols include placing the sick fish in a QT tank and raising the temp to 90F and you must aerate continuously at those temperatures. This speeds up metabolism in the fish and shortens the life cycle time of the parasite. I also use Jack Wattley’s technique of low pH to kill bacteria. (Tropical Fish Hobbyist Magazine, May 2013) This technique drops the pH by 0.5pH every 6 hours until a pH of 4.0 is reached. I’ve killed fish going too quickly. This will help with any secondary bacterial infection, but you could chose to omit this step. The low pH will have no effect on the Cryptobia, by the way. The low pH and high temp conditions are maintained for the duration of treatment with any antiparasitic and for 5-7 days thereafter. I also add Epsom’s salt, magnesium sulfate, which is said to make the fish more comfortable from the antibiotic. It is also a laxative which theoretically may help expel parasites or probably more realistically deal with constipation that comes from the disease process.
I have tried metronidazole, dimetridazole, flubendazole, praziquantel (Prazipro), levamisole, 2-amino-5-nitrothiazol , and combined those with traditional antibiotics (such as erythromycin, tetracycline, and monocycline) to kill the secondary infections. Before I knew the organism was Cryptobia iubilans a vet used
2014-12-29 added toltrazuril today
From Dr. Sam Young
Toltrazuril 50mg/ml addedd 6.5ml at 4:30pm. Instructions to bathe 1 hour then 50%water change. Repeat every 48 hrs for 3 total doses
It did not work. I can say with confidence that metronidazole does not kill cryptobia iubilans though it is often suggested. Traditional antibiotics used in the hobby will not kill cryptobia though they may help the secondary bacterial infections that occur in the granulomas. There is a relative of metronidazole called dimetridazole that has been suggested and I have used it. It is difficult to find in its pure form. It has been available as a pigeon disease treatment called Emetryl. (I read an article in the pigeon literature that said it had been removed from the market bc it is suspected to be carcinogenic.) This has only 44% active ingredient and it is a very dirty product that will cloud the aquarium. If the fish are already weak they will not survive the treatment. I have successfully treated 2 fish with this product and was able to confirm that the parasite count was markedly reduced in the stool sample by microscopic analysis. I was still able to identify a few organisms in the stool sample after the fish was treated. However the fish did not show any signs of disease and they were able to be returned to the primary aquarium from the hospital tank and. So far in my experience this is the only thing that has helped. Greater success with this would be available if we could get it in higher purity because the additives for the pigeons ruins water quality. The water is so cloudy you can’t see the fish! I thought the product Clout had dimetridazole but the manufacturer said no it’s metronidazole and another ingredient. We need a pure form of dimetridazole. Let me know if anyone knows where to get it.
http://forum.simplydiscus.com/showth...-Dimetridazole
I would like to find a treatment that would completely eradicate this organism. There are other suggestions. The leading suggestion is a compound called isometadium. It is not available in the United States. I attempted to buy it from China but never received the product.
http://www.rmpc.org/files/nwfcc/2008..._talk1ver2.pdf
Another option suggested is almiramide.
Another option is Amphotericin B which has shown benefit in the blood infection by Cryptobia salmonistica.
http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/1...A%3E2.3.CO%3B2
The article noted earlier from UFla suggested another compound [a bath treatment with 2-amino-5-nitrothiazol
(10 mg/L for 24 hrs, followed by a 80-100% water change, repeated daily for 3 days)]. I tried this on 1 fish but it was too sick before I got it in the hospital tank and it quickly died contributed to by my error in dropping the pH too quickly. I don’t think this was a fair trial. I am likely to try it again when needed.
Another idea I had was to use the vaccine in discus that is used to prevent Cryptobia salmositica in salmon. The disease caused is a blood disease and there’s no guarantee it would work to prevent the GI infection with Cryptobia iubilans. I’ve been unable to find it. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we could vaccinate discus to prevent this chronic wasting disease!
There are other suggestions offered by Dr. Wes Baumgartner. I can email these options if you want. If several of us could work together we could more quickly and effectively identify a treatment for this organism. It is necessary in my opinion to have a microscope and learn to identify the organism in a stool sample. I can certainly help anyone with this process if they are interested.
Here’s a YouTube of the organism:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WucY...qN23aPHwgXoTFs
And here’s my video shot with a cell phone camera. (Sorry about the audio.)
http://careyaquarium.blogspot.com/20...resent-in.html
It would be helpful if we could find a vet who would be willing to advise us as we proceed in this process. I assume that the vets who are most knowledgeable about this like Dr. Roy Yanong at the Univ of Fla vet school and others like him are reluctant to advise much because of the ethics around practicing veterinary medicine across state lines and because they are hesitant to give advice on diagnosis and treatment on a fish they’ve not personally examined. However there is no reason not to have a standard set of treatment recommendations for Cryptobia iubilans in discus that are reasonably effective. I believe it can be achieved if others are willing to work on this and share their work with us all.
You can review my blog but it was written as a personal journal to document my experience with my planted discus tank and was not written for others to read so some of it would not be understandable to anyone but me.
http://careyaquarium.blogspot.com/
In summary, from my experience, my best results have come from the use of Emetryl in a hospital tank maintained at a temp of 90F and a pH of 4.0. I have saved 2 fish this way. The bath treatment with dimetridazole (80 mg/L for 24 hrs, followed by a 80-100% water change, repeated daily for 3-5 days, longer is better). Keep in mind Emetryl is only 40% dimetridazole so in measuring it out you’ll need to use 200mg/L of Emetryl. It may be wise to add an antibiotic to it, because the granulomas in the fish end up with secondary bacterial infections.
Currently I have 9 discus in a planted tank. Four of the fish have been in the tank since May 2014 from an online dealer. The others are recently purchased at a local shop. One of the new ones I am a little worried about bc he hides in the back a lot but he’s still eating. If he gets sick with Cryptobia I’m going to try the 2-amino-5-nitrothiazol only bc I did not get a reasonable trial with it before.
Please share your treatment efforts of Cryptobia iubilans with us all. If you find other good scientific articles or other good info releveant please post it here. If you want to use Emetryl and can’t find it let me know.
Confirmed case of Cryptobia as cause of Chronic Wasting Disease
Originally Posted by Ficakus
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