Bacterial-Infections

Bacterial Gill Disease (BGD)

Fish gills, unlike the rest of the body, can't be readily seen and often by the time it has become obvious that the fish is ill, it has become too late. The damage is advanced and, in most cases, untreatable. Therefore vigilance and early diagnosis and treatment is vital.

Fin Rot is a common bacterial disease of fish kept in low quality water conditions. It can also affect the gills and tail.
It is caused by gram negative bacteria which eat the delicate membranes of the fish. The damaged area will usually become opaque and white before being eaten away by the bacteria. On top of this fungus will often develop giving the wound a fluffy appearance. It can be easily treated if caught early and the fin may grow back if it is not too badly damaged. If left untreated the fish will probably die.

Tail Rot - appears initially in the tail (caudal) region

Gill Rot - appears initially in the Gill region as white patches.

This bacterial disease which is most often seen in Aquaria and Aquaculture, can also occur in natural populations.

(Flexibacter columnaris, Cytophaga columnaris, Bacillus columnaris)

Columnaris is flexibacter and used to be called chondrococcus or cytophaga before being changed to flexibacter by Leadbetter in 1975.

Columnaris (Flexibacter columnaris) or Cotton Wool Disease is a bacterial infection.
Columnaris flexibacter and Cytohaga columnaris bacteria can cause greyish white growths, similar to fungus on the head area of fish, the gills and the fins. These fist appear as whitish marks before the tufts appear, accompanied by red sores. Eventually the internal organs can be infected.

Dropsy is not a disease, it's a name for a fishes shape, and is an abnormal accumulation of fluid beneath the skin, or in one or more cavities of the body. The fish presents as generally swollen with scales standing out from the body Commonly called pine-cone effect).

Dropsy is fairly easy to diagnose non-specifically, however, it is much harder to diagnose the cause. The main cause is bacterial infection. The causative agent may be introduced through food or dirty water. They have mainly a mixed bacterial infection (aeromonas hydrophila and mycobacteriosis). Aeromonas (a genus of pathogenic rod-shaped gram-negative bacteria (schizomycetes) found in fresh and salt water, soil, and sewage) enter the body through intestines in the winter or spring and through ulcers, heron or parasites wounds.

An ulcer is an external open sore of the skin, eyes or mucus membrane, often caused by an initial abrasion and generally maintained by an inflammation and/or a bacterial infection. It can also be caused by bacterial erosions and bacterial sepsis.
 There no such disease as ulcer disease.

It is important to find the root of the infection before any treatment commences.Using the wrong treatment will worsen the infection.

Aeromonas (a genus of pathogenic rod-shaped gram-negative bacteria (schizomycetes) found in fresh and salt water, soil, and sewag) are the cause of most ulcers and bacterial mortality in Koi. This bacteria is also linked to other disease conditions such as abdominal dropsy, carp erythrodermatitis, hemmorhagic septicemia, for example. Poor conditions will aid any of these.

Ponds are an ecosystem, and as such, contain plants, algae, invertebrates, protozoa, bacteria and molds or fungi. These life forms in our ponds are all dependent upon each other. Known as symbiosis (the relation between two different species of organisms that are interdependent; each gains benefits from the other). An extreme form of this are parasites, where one life form lives at the expense of another. Saprolegnia or water fungus is one of the more common forms of this.