This page contains a list of some Signs of Stress and Disease that you should learn to recognize on your
tropical fish and goldfish.
Click on the images above.
1. Clamped Fins
The fish
clamps its fins close against the its body. Experienced aquarists use this to quickly spot problems with their fish.
If you see that some of your fish have clamped fins and treat your fish immediately, you can usually cure them and avoid
more serious stress and disease. Click
here for more information about a Recommended Treatment.
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2. Shimmy
Looks like the fish is swimming fast but staying in the same place. Shimmy is easy to spot, and if the fish is treated immediately, you can usually cure it and avoid more
serious stress and disease. Click
here for more about a Recommended Treatment.
3. Ich
Spots Ich
looks like tiny white spots on the body and fins of the fish. This is a common disease
of fish, and if the fish are treated immediately, you can usually cure ich and avoid more serious stress and disease. Click
here
for more about a Recommended Treatment.
Just above,
a picture of a
young Bala Shark
with the first
signs of Ich.
Look carefully
to see the small
white spots. You
should check you
fish every day
for these spots,
and after a
while it is very
easy and takes
very little
time, but in the
beginning you
will need to
concentrate.
Almost all of
the pictures on
this web site
were taken by us
of our fish, and
this was one of
our fish. We
gave this fish
the Recommended
Treatment and it
completely
recovered in two
days. Click
here to read
about the
Recommended
Treatment.
4. Red or White Sores
Many
things can cause sores on fish such as fights with other fish, scraping on sharp rocks, and small wounds that get infected and grow bigger.
A new small sore can usually be cured. Older or larger sores are more difficult to treat, but sometimes you can succeed,
and treating your fish will make it less likely that other fish will be infected by the fish with the sore.
Shown just
above, a mature
Tiger Barb with
a typical white
sore between its
eye and its top
fin. This
fish
should
immediately be
given all six
steps of the
Recommended
Treatment. Click
here for
more about Tiger
Barbs.
Click
here for
more about the
Recommended
Treatment.
Quite often these sores are flat or cause a depression in the surface of the fish. Less often a sore may be a bump
that is raised above the surface of the fish.
In all cases the Recommended Treatment is the same. Click
here
for more about a Recommended Treatment.
5. Gasping at the Surface
A fish that is gasping at the surface of the water is usually suffering from a lack of oxygen, that could be due to a lack of oxygen in the water
or the fish's inability to absorb the oxygen from the water.
If there is just one or only a few fish gasping at the surface, but the other fish are normal, then the water probably
has plenty of oxygen and you should immediately treat the gasping fish.
Click
here
for more about a Recommended Treatment.
On the other hand, if almost all the fish are
gasping, then there is probably a lack of oxygen in the water, and you should immediately do all of the following:
●
Check the Filter to be sure it's
working properly. If it's not working properly, immediately fix it. Click
here for more information about Aquarium Filters.
●
Check the Temperature of the water on
the thermometer, if this aquarium has a heater. If the temperature is out of the correct range, then adjust the aquarium heater. Click
here
for more about heaters, thermometers, and adjusting the temperature.
●
Check the water surface, if there is
oil or scum then carefully scoop water off the surface until you've removed two inches of water. Replace the water with fresh safe water. Click
here
for more about safe water.
●
Add Aquarium Salt until the water has
a total of 1 Tablespoon of aquarium salt for each 5 gallons of water. Click
here for more about Aquarium Salt.
●
Add
Water Conditioner, which is
available in stores
that sell pet fish.
The correct dose is on the bottle. Click
here for more information about
water Conditioner.
6. Crashed
on the Bottom When fish crash on the bottom and do not swim, it is usually a sign that they are exhausted. There are many reasons a fish can become exhausted, but quite often
they have been sick, and probably showed symptoms such as gasping, shimmy, or clamped fins, before they became tired and crashed on the bottom.
So the Recommended Treatment was not started promptly, and chances of curing a fish that is crashed on the bottom are
less, but the Recommended Treatment may work and will probably protect the other fish that came in contact with the crashed fish. Click
here
for more about a Recommended Treatment.
7. Glancing
is a fish behavior where a fish rubs itself on the bottom of the aquarium, or on the gravel, or on a rock or
ornament. The fish rubs or glances because it is itchy.
An itchy fish often develops more serious Signs of Stress and Disease. If you see your fish glancing, you should immediately treat your aquarium. Click
here
for more about a Recommended Treatment.
8. Loss of Appetite If your fish is not eating or takes food in its mouth and then immediately spits it out, your fish is
showing one of the Signs of Stress and Disease.
You should be sure other fish are not making this fish miserable. Give fish that are not eating the Recommended Treatment. Click
here
for more about a Recommended Treatment.
9. Other Signs of Stress
There are many other Signs of Stress and Disease in fish. For example, there is so-called
"fin rot" where the edges of the fish's fins disintegrate, or "pop eye" where the fish's eye bulges out, or "cotton mouth" where the fish has patches that look like
cotton around it's mouth, but most of these more pronounced Signs of Stress and Disease occur after the more subtle Signs of Stress and Disease that are listed above.
"Fin rot", "pop eye", "dropsy", and "cotton mouth" are difficult to cure. But before they occur, the fish often show milder Signs of
Stress and Disease like clamped fins. If you treat a fish at the first Sign of Stress and Disease, you'll have a much better chance of curing it.
Take Immediate Action
If you see any of the symptoms listed above or
if several fish have recently died in your aquarium, you should immediately take action and treat your fish.
When fish can be cured, the Recommended Treatment is usually the same for all
of the symptoms listed above. Click
here for details on the Recommended Treatment for fish with Signs of Stress and Disease.
More Serious Diseases that are not cured by the
Recommended Treatment may require more powerful medications.
Click here for
information about such medications.
Books about Fish Disease
The books shown below are listed on Amazon.com. You can click on the image of a book to go to the page at Amazon.com, where that book is
listed and discussed. In some cases you can preview several of the pages in that book.
Click
here for a complete list of
books about Diseases of Tropical Fish at Amazon.com.
Click
here to continue on to another page in this web site
with Customer Comments and our Replies about fish diseases.
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About our Fish Photographs ...
Almost all the photographs and videos, shown on this web site, were taken
by us in our aquariums of our fish. Compare the healthy,
beautiful, energetic fish in our beautiful aquariums to the
fish in our competitors pictures. Their fish often look thin
with clamped fins and poor color.
We buy the highest quality fish, produced by the best fish
farms or caught by the best collectors of wild fish, then we take incredibly good care of our fish in our beautiful aquariums. If you compare the pictures on this site to our competitors pictures, you can instantly see, our fish and aquariums are better!
;^ }
Will the fish you get from us look like the fish in our pictures? No! This is similar to buying kittens and puppies, that will change as they grow to become cats and dogs. We stock and ship fish that are the ideal size to sell. Not so small that they will not do well when shipped. Yet not so big that they have become much more expensive. The fish in almost all of our pictures were young fish like the ones we have for sale that we raised up, and you can too!
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