Rainbowfish Mailing List Archive: Re: [RML] Mycobacteriosis article and one picture

Hi Diane,

I took a quick look at the article and one thing I didn't seem to see, not a zip squat natta on how often you change the water in your rainbowfish tanks. One of the things that those of us that have kept them over the years know that nitrates are a stress point for rainbows. So are temperatures above 80 degrees, probably because of lower O2 levels. I'm sure that there are a lot of other things that we can't measure in water quality that also stresses them. pH swings, which can occur (I think I remember NC water being pretty soft and low KH (buffering capacity) this causes stress on rainbowfish. WHEN they pick up these stresses they tend to be susceptible to Myco. Without the stresses and any character with open or active sores the problem absolutely goes away. THe problem is that Myco is everywhere and it's probably a silent carrier (just like Ich) which only pops up when there is a major wrong happening in a tank. It's carried on plants, Corys and any other fish you might
think about putting in your aquarium. I really don't have time for a full discussion about myco but if you want to keep it from your aquarium then you need to perform LARGE water changes. David B (TFH editor) has a great talk on why your water changes should be 50% or larger. Math and tables but it makes it pretty easy to see the reasons. People will go to some extreme methods to avoid performing water changes and end up blaming their fish deaths, (not necessarily on Myco) on strange and weird diseases. If they just bucked up and did the required water changes (LIKE WHAT HAPPENS IN NATURE) then they wouldn't have the problem. Lose the stresses lose the myco. (I've also heard this from people at the public aquariums for other types of fish). The rainbowfish can now resist the disease. It's taken me a long time to come to this conclusion but I think I've probably been keeping bows longer than most on this list and I also have the experience of keeping many tanks of them.

I posted finally finished and posted article on my experience with
Mycobacteriosis.

I also posted a recent photo of my 55 gal, which contains Yellow,
Turquoise, Red, and a pair of M. trifasciata (Goyder River). All are
infected with Mycobacteria. It was killing the fish one-by-one, but
the dying has stopped since I added a UV sterilizer. More info in the
article.

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I took a quick look at the article and one thing I didn't seem to see, not a zip squat natta on how often you change the water in your rainbowfish tanks. One of the things that those of us that have kept them over the years know that nitrates are a stress point for rainbows. So are temperatures above 80 degrees, probably because of lower O2 levels. I'm sure that there are a lot of other things that we can't measure in water quality that also stresses them. pH swings, which can occur (I think I remember NC water being pretty soft and low KH (buffering capacity) this causes stress on rainbowfish. WHEN they pick up these stresses they tend to be susceptible to Myco. Without the stresses and any character with open or active sores the problem absolutely goes away. THe problem is that Myco is everywhere and it's probably a silent carrier (just like Ich) which only pops up when there is a major wrong happening in a tank. It's carried on plants, Corys and any other fish you might think about putting in your aquarium. I really don't have time for a full discussion about myco but if you want to keep it from your aquarium then you need to perform LARGE water changes. David B (TFH editor) has a great talk on why your water changes should be 50% or larger. Math and tables but it makes it pretty easy to see the reasons. People will go to some extreme methods to avoid performing water changes and end up blaming their fish deaths, (not necessarily on Myco) on strange and weird diseases. If they just bucked up and did the required water changes (LIKE WHAT HAPPENS IN NATURE) then they wouldn't have the problem. Lose the stresses lose the myco. (I've also heard this from people at the public aquariums for other types of fish). The rainbowfish can now resist the disease. It's taken me a long time to come to this conclusion but I think I've probably been keeping bows longer than most on this list and I also have the experience of keeping many tanks of them.