B. Macrostoma - Diseases

Quick Links:

• Ich / Velvet / Protozoan Disease
• Hunger Strikes (Intestinal Parasites)
• Gill Flukes
• Fungal Infections
• Dropsy

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For those of us who have had a sick Mac, it is painfully obvious that there is a great lack of information out there regarding disease and treatment for macs. The methods and diseases below are those which I have personally encountered and successfully treated. Mostly by trial and error and learning as I go along. Although what I write here is specifically for macs, I'm sure that they are equally valid when treating other wild bettas. Once again, I have to state that these are the methods that have worked for me, if you have other methods or medications which you are more comfortable using, then go for it! After all, because macs are relatively new to the aquarium hobby, we're still developing methods and treatments as we go along.

Ich / Velvet / Protozoan Disease

See Pics of fish with ICH.

I would be highly suspicious if there is any experience hobbyist that have never had a bout with Ich / Velvet. Protozoan disease is one of the most common diseases in the hobby and is usually quite easily treated.

I have found that the majority of protozoan outbreaks in my tanks, occur in tanks with pH greater than 6 (perhaps even 5.5 or so). It seems like low pH conditions discourages the occurrence of Ich / Velvet. Hence from my experience, if you keep wild macs in pH less than 5.5 or so, generally you won't have to worry about Ich / Velvet. Outbreaks normally occur in my captive bred tanks where the pH can be up to 7.

Symptoms
I won't bother describing the disease since it is so common, but i'll point you to a website that has some good information.
http://www.fishlore.com/Disease.htm

Treatment
For Ich / Velvet, prevention is always better than cure. It is not really known how the parasites make it to our taps and into the tank, hence there is always a chance that even established tanks may be infected by a mere water change. For prevention, a couple of drops of AQUARISOL at each water change should be sufficient. I have found that the dosage on the bottle works fine for this purpose. But make sure there are no inverts or scaleless fish in the tank, copper is bad for them.

For outbreaks already in progress, any copper based medication will easily take care of the parasites. IF YOU HAVE INVERTS OR SCALELESS FISH, DO NOT USE COPPER!!! Copper kills inverts and scaleless fish like loaches and some L-cats, so if you have these in the tank, remember to remove them before treatment. Otherwise an alternative treatment is using Malachite Green. But beware, this stuff stains everything it comes in contact with, so use with caution. Malachite Green has also been known to cause cancer in lab animals, so definitely use with caution.

Remember to raise the temperature as high as you can go without the fish being stressed. This speeds up the life-cycle of the parasite and hence speeds up treatment. Macs like it cool, so keep close watch on them as you are adjusting the temperature. When they start breathing hard "panting", you probably want to turn it down slightly or acclimate them at a slower rate. I have managed to get the temperature up to 80deg F when SLOWLY increased over 24 hrs.

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Hunger Strikes (Intestinal Parasites)

Nothing is worse than watching your beloved fish waste away. And in the case of macs, starving to death can take up to 2 months. Although there may be several cause of hunger strikes, it seems like the predominant cause among macs due to internal parasites. Although I haven't yet had a chance to confirm under a microscope, I have reason to believe that Hexamitiasis, which is generally associated with Hole-in-the-head disease, (http://www.drsfostersmith.com/pic/article.cfm?articleid=675) may be a primary culprit.

My experience with Hunger Strikes caused by intestinal parasites is that it is contagious. In the early days when i was still trying to figure this disease out, I had to sit and watch as one by one my macs stopped eating and wasted away before my very eyes. Hence I feel very strongly about QT-ing every new arrival and that either separate nets or net dips should be used when handling fish from different tanks.

Stress may also be a cause for hunger strikes, so don't be surprised if your new arrival, especially wild ones, doesn't eat when he / she first arrives. But usually they'll snap out of it after a day or two. If they don't, then you should start treating for intestinal issues.

Symptoms
The symptoms are rather obvious, your usually hungry pigs suddenly have no desire for food. In early stages of the illness, they will initially seem interested in the food, even tasting it, but then they just spit it back out again. Eventually they will ignore the food altogether. Stringy white slimy poo is indicative of moderate to advanced illness. Fish that have been on hunger strike for a long time will have sunken bellies and a very obviously thin tail. Their fins will be clamped. Their tail fin will be especially clamped such that instead of a nice fan shaped tail, it will be closed and tapered to a point. Sick fish will generally be skittish and like to hide out at the back of the tank or in a hidey hole somewhere. (this last symptom should not be confused with male brooding behavior).

Here's a pic of a fish on hunger strike. She's noticeably skinny with sunken belly and clamped fins.

Photo Courtesy of macrostoma.net. Used with permission.

Treatment
The most effective treatment I have found so far is Metronidazole (Metro). You'll find it in LFS' sold as metro plus, hex-a-mit and hex out.

The most important thing to do if you suspect a hunger strike is to try to get the fish eating again (duh!!). The main reason for this is because the most efficient delivery method for Metro is for the fish to eat it. During the early onset of hunger strike, the fish may express limited interest in food, perhaps even trying to taste it. This is in very obvious contrast to aggressive feeding which healthy macs show.

Dissolve 1/4 tsp of metro into a tablespoon of water and soak your mac's favorite food in the solution for 15 min or so. Then proceed to feed it to the fish. Hopefully the macs will ingest some metro as they try to taste the food or even actually swallow some. Feed them twice a day. Remember to remove any uneaten food or it will foul the water. Feed any other macs in the tank the same medicated food just in case they are infected too.

I find that you might have to do target feeding if they are really not interested in food. I.e. use a chopstick or something and place the food upstream of the mac such that when you release the food, it flows right across the face of your mac. That way the mac may be more tempted to take a bite with little effort on it's part.

If your mac absolutely refuses to eat anything, then plan B is to medicate the water instead of direct ingestion. Dose 250 - 300mg of 100% metro per 10-20 gal of water. My experience is that wilds are more sensitive to medication, so you want to go with the lower concentration with wilds (250mg / 20gal). Continue to try to feed medicated foods and hope for the best.

Always treat for an additional 2 or 3 days even after symptoms have disappeared to make sure that you get all the nasties.

Hunger strikes may last a long time, but macs are able to tough it out for a couple of weeks, so don't give up. Keep up the treatment and hope for the best.

IN A RELATED MATTER........
I have recently received urgent help requests from several readers of this website who were victims of dishonest mac sellers. Most of them mail-ordered macs from asian dealers who had them shipped overseas to U.S. buyers. Their macs arrived alive, but were not eating all. When I saw pictures, it was quite obvious to me that the sick macs have been in a hunger strike for quite a while before shipping. Their bellies were sunken, and fins (especially the tail) clamped. The buyers, were offered a "live arrival guarantee" and one was even offered a "2-week live guarantee", but macs take a LONG time to starve to death, so by the time the fish died, the buyers were out of luck.

It seems to me that dishonest sellers, are trying to sell fish that are already on hunger strike. Many buyers, seeing the "live arrival guarantee" or "2-week live guarantee" are lured into a false sense of comfort and purchase macs from these dishonest sellers, who send them fish on hunger strike. These sick fish will usually survive long enough to fulfill the sellers contractual obligations, but die soon after. Seems like a convenient way for scammers to get rid of their sick fish at a profit.

The lesson.. ALWAYS BUY FROM REPUTABLE SOURCES. Mac breeding has progressed by leaps and bounds since I first started working with this fine fish. In the US, F1 and even F2 fish are beginning to be readily available. So if possible, go local.

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Gill Flukes

This is usually only found in wild caught fish. Flukes are parasites which attach themselves commonly to either the body or the gills of the fish, where they suck nutrients directly from the host fish.

Symptoms
Fish are darting, "flashing" or scratching themselves against a rock, plants or other hard objects. No obvious signs of other external parasites such as Ich or Velvet.

Treatment
There are several treatments but the one I like is Praziquantal (Prazi). Treatment is as simple as dosing the tank. 1/8 teaspoon per 15-20 gal of water. One dosage should last about 48 hrs, after which do a partial water change and use activated carbon in the filter to remove the medication. Repeat as needed until fish stop flashing. Usually 1-2 treatments should be enough.

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Fungal Infections

See Pics of Fungal Infections.

Fungal infections usually occur when there are open wounds due to a fight or through a particularly bad scrape on a piece of wood or something sharp.

Symptoms
Open wounds become "fuzzy" with fungal growth. It looks as if a little cotton ball has formed over the open wound.

Treatment
There are lots of fungal treatments out there. Usually they are some form of broad spectrum antibiotics. I have used the following with success -Maroxy, Malachite Green, Methylene Blue, Jungle "Fungus Clear" and Pimafix.

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Dropsy

See Pics of Fish with Dropsy

Also known as Malawi Bloat. Now this is something you DON'T want to see on your fish. Dropsy tends to be very common in goldfish, koi and bettas. The symptoms are pretty easy to spot and unfortunately it is almost always fatal. The good news is that it doesn't seem to be very contagious which means you probably don't have to worry about it wiping out your entire fishroom. The cause for dropsy is not well understood, but its probably caused by infection of the kidney, causing fluid retention.

Symptoms
Dropsy is fairly easy to identify, the fluid retention causes the fish to bloat in a way which causes its scales stand up making the fish look like a pinecone. See link above for pics.

Treatment
Unfortunately, there is no confirmed 100% treatment. Dropsy is almost always fatal. It might be prudent to remove the affected fish to a QT tank. You can try treating with epsom salt as per "bloat" above to try to purge some of the fluid, or you may want to dose the water with mild antibiotics or like melafix in order to prevent secondary infections, but otherwise, it may just be more humane to euthanise with a good dose of clove oil.

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Plug

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