Just lost 300 bucks of turks to whirling disease

[darylddiscusman]

To all discaholicks! is there any way to treat this bad sickness? this is the worst i have ever came across, I have treated all kinds of problems but this one is THE WORST. I cant believe none of the exprets have a cure to this. I am a poor man and i took my last 300 bucks (cuz i love them so much)to get six turquoise the size of a quarter and i only kept them for one week and they got like this with no add . fish or plants, so my thoughts are how come no one has a cure yet? bye for now to anyone who has the time to check this thread thanks for repling. bye from the tropics T&T.

[Deepak]

Hi darylddiscusman, what exactly are the symptoms. Are you confident it is the whirling disease? This disease is found in Trouts & Salmon, Discus can't be infected :confused: Maybe it is something different. Pics will be helpful. Though if yes you are doomed. This disease is very rarely treated. High concentration of salts and/or treatment with Furoxone or Flagyl might be helpful. This disease causes skeletal deformation by the parasite residing in their cartilage and bones. This disease occures in young fish whose bones have not yet fully formed. Hence even if you are successful in curing the fish it'll be deformed. Though the disease will not be passed on to the spawn. But it is less likely that your fish will be able to survive even after being cured since due to the whirling movement it will find very hard to feed & start getting weak. Please post the pics at the earliest, it will be very helpful in understanding the disease more.

[Rod]

I have seen the whirling disease in discus, i'm not sure it is the same as the coldwater form deepak beautifully described, although the symptoms are very similar. I disected and tried to find a cause under my microscope but with no luck. My own feeling is it a brain injury caused by an unidentified pathogen.

Treatment for many diseases are unsuccessful because in many cases the disease is rampent in the discus and the damage is too great even before we notice anything seriously wrong.

[brewmaster15]

HI,
Sorry you lost those fish.:( At quarter size, discus will whirl around for many reasons... Flukes, bacterial gill infections etc....

At this point "whirling disease" has only been associated with cold water fish, though I have seen adult fish behave like they have this and would not be surprised if a disease organism is involved... I tend to to think along Rods of thought with the
brain injury caused by an unidentified pathogen. .. The only time I have treated a fish successfully that was whirling around the tank like this has been with a high concentration of formalin that almost killed the fish.. Here I attributed it to an external parasite of some sort. ( best guess)

Sorry again for your lost fish and $$$.

take care,
al

[Deepak]

I wish I had access to a good microscope :( Surprising to hear Discus are affected. I swear I'll never feed the juvies tubifex worms.

[darylddiscusman]

Hi darylddiscusman, what exactly are the symptoms. Are you confident it is the whirling disease? This disease is found in Trouts & Salmon, Discus can't be infected :confused: Maybe it is something different. Pics will be helpful. Though if yes you are doomed. This disease is very rarely treated. High concentration of salts and/or treatment with Furoxone or Flagyl might be helpful. This disease causes skeletal deformation by the parasite residing in their cartilage and bones. This disease occures in young fish whose bones have not yet fully formed. Hence even if you are successful in curing the fish it'll be deformed. Though the disease will not be passed on to the spawn. But it is less likely that your fish will be able to survive even after being cured since due to the whirling movement it will find very hard to feed & start getting weak. Please post the pics at the earliest, it will be very helpful in understanding the disease more.
hi! deepak, no pics now but i can give you some actions , they were swimming in a circle with there bods locked to the left and some to the right and when locked they would swim aro. aro. around. I tried parasite guard by jungle but no help, i even tried melafix, did not help either, the only thing might work is formalin but that cost 400 bucks a litre. they would swim bad for a while then get good again and eat as normal and even gorge themselves and thier bellies would be bloted then two days after they start all over again, they also put on all bars but keep a bright color, all body colors show up but they dont get dark only right befor they die. any i would try to get pics to you next time , bye for now

[Deepak]

I would like to mention here that I've been feeding tubifex right from the begining - like 20+ yrs. now. But I never encountered Whirling Disease. I must say we have a good source here :) Thankfully...

[PDX-PLT]

I wish I had access to a good microscope :(

Here in the U.S., there are several providers of reasonably-priced, remarkably high quality microscopes. For example, my son got one from www.greatscopes.com for Christmas.

They're manufactured in China, so should be available in other parts of the world(?).