Disease & Illness Diagnosis And Treatment

UPDATES -
10/26/2008 - A couple of new links added and a couple of old/bad links removed.

NOTE - If you are having trouble figuring out what is wrong with your Tropical Fish or Goldfish, please come to the Freshwater Emergency Rooms at one of the forums to the right. See near the bottom of this page for a form you can copy/paste and fill out as much information as possible so people trying to help do not have to ask a lot of questions and can get right to helping you.
You can also check for a local fish veterinarian using these sites:
http://www.aquavets.com/ - "This web portal provides access to searchable online databases of Aquatic Veterinarians and Disease Diagnostic Laboratories involved with the health, welfare and medicine of any aquatic animal...". I suggest clicking "Search For A Vet", then putting your Country and State, then check off Ornamental Fish and Other, then check off Private Veterinary Practice, Academic Education (Undergrad or Grad), Continuing Education and Government Agency. Using this for my area, the only one that I was able to find was the nearby University Vet School. I know that my local PetsMart has a Veterinary office within the store but I'm not sure if they treat fish.
http://www.fishdoc.net/index.php - Has a "Find A Vet" section.
http://www.koivetforum.com/ - There is often a veterinarian in the forums or chat rooms so make sure you try KoiVet.com for your Koi and Goldfish issues.
Non-Disease Diagnosis:
Are Your Fish Really Suffering From Disease? A guide to non-disease causes of illness http://www3.sympatico.ca/drosera1/fish/illness.htm (GoldLenny)

Shock diagnosis: http://groups.msn.com/FishHealth/shock.msnw (Hailey)
The original page on "Shock Diagnosis" is shut down but the original article can still be found here, on the Internet Wayback Archive, which takes a snapshot of every page on the internet and archives the pages... just in case something like this ever happens to your favorite site... so here's the new link... http://web.archive.org/web/20040131193318/http://groups.msn.com/FishHealth/shock.msnw
If you ever need to find a copy of one of your old favorites, if you have the URL, you can just go to the Internet Wayback Archive http://www.archive.org/web/web.php and copy/paste or type out the URL in the search field and then you should find that page. You may have to check a few of the snapshots to find one that works right. I'm not sure why this happens, but sometimes the Wayback Archive will crawl a page and pick up the background only, which happened to the two 2008 archived pages on the above link but the 2004 links worked fine.
Stress Related Problems:
http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/FA005 (DataGuru from TheGAB.org)
http://www.cs.duke.edu/~narten/faq/stress.html (GoldLenny)
http://www.peteducation.com/article.cfm?cls=16&cat=1791&articleid=2476 (GoldLenny)
http://faq.thekrib.com/begin-stress.html (GoldLenny)
http://www.aquariumfish.net/information/signs_of_stress_and_disease.htm (GoldLenny)
http://www.algone.com/fishstress.php (GoldLenny)
Tropical Fish Disease Diagnosis & Treatment:
http://www.fishpalace.org/Disease.html (GoldLenny) (This original Pandora's Disease page is no longer active but you can still see the entire page and images by viewing the Internet Archived page hosted on the Wayback Machine at http://web.archive.org/web/20051217230513/http://www.fishpalace.org/disease.html

http://www.2cah.com/pandora/Disease.html (Hailey - Mirror Site for above but it's not working any longer either so use the Web Archive link above.)

http://www.fishdoc.co.uk/disease/clinicalsigns.htm (GoldLenny)

http://www.fishdoc.co.uk/disease/diseasehome.htm (GoldLenny)

http://www.fishdoc.co.uk/treatments/treatmenthome.htm (GoldLenny)

http://fish.mongabay.com/disease.htm (GoldLenny)

http://www.klsnet.com/files/fishchart.htm (GoldLenny)

http://www.fishyfarmacy.com/diseases.html (GoldLenny)

http://www.flippersandfins.net/HITHarticle2.htm - Hole-In-The-Head (HITH) Disease Article(Cooltow1)

http://www.oscarfish.com/cms_view_article.php?aid=51 - Article on "Bloat" affecting Oscars, Cichlids and others. (Hailey)

http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/FA041 - In-depth Article on Parasites (Hailey)

Goldfish Disease Diagnosis & Treatment:
http://www.aquarticles.com/articles/ponds/Kebus_Salt_Treatments.html (GoldLenny)

http://thegab.org/Articles/DiagnosisChart.html (GoldLenny)

http://www.goldfishinfo.com/ailment1.htm (and page 2)(GoldLenny)

http://www.koivet.com/html/glossary/glossary_cat.php?category=Symptoms&name=Symptoms%2B%22ro=Symptoms (GoldLenny)

http://www.kokosgoldfish.com/disease.html (GoldLenny)

http://www.fishpondinfo.com/health.htm (GoldLenny)

http://www.fishdoc.co.uk/index.htm (GoldLenny)

http://www.avianandexotic.com/csfishes/csf001.pdf (Practical Koi & Goldfish Medicine .pdf Document)(GoldLenny)

http://thegab.org/Links/GoldfishProcedures.html (Goldfish Veterinary Procedures)(GoldLenny)

Fish Poop Diagnosis:

http://www.kokosgoldfish.com/GoldfishPoop.html (GoldLenny)
http://www.goldfishutopia.com/information.php?pID=20&sid=47b516cf720bf290b1f9cef759437d05 (GoldLenny)
http://www.fishyfarmacy.com/fish_diseases/fecal_disorders.html (GoldLenny)
http://thegab.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2364 (Goldfish Poop Pictures Forum Thread - with explanations)(GoldLenny)

Articles on the use of salt in FW aquariums & osmoregulation:

http://www.aquarticles.com/articles/ponds/Kebus_Salt_Treatments.html (GoldLenny)

http://groups.msn.com/FishHealth/osmoregulation.msnw (Hailey)

http://www.fishdoc.co.uk/water/osmoregulation.htm (GoldLenny)

http://www.goldfishinfo.com/salt.htm (GoldLenny)

http://www.skepticalaquarist.com/docs/health/salt.shtml - Salt or NO Salt (GoldLenny)

http://badmanstropicalfish.com/articles/article22.html - The Great Salt Myth (GoldLenny)

http://www.badmanstropicalfish.com/articles/article5.html - To Salt or NOT to Salt (GoldLenny)
http://www.algone.com/salt_in_fresh.php - Salt in Freshwater (GoldLenny)

http://www.algone.com/salinity.htm - Saltwater Salinity & Specific Gravity (GoldLenny)

http://thegab.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=5427 - TheGab.org (Goldfish & Aquarium Board) forum thread on Calcium and the Osmoregulatory System. (GoldLenny)

http://www.koivet.com/forums/showthread.php?t=15967 - KoiVet.com LONG forum thread on Salt, Chloride and other minerals/chemicals related to Salt & Osmoregulation. (GoldLenny)

Medications & Medicated Fish Foods -
http://thegab.org/Articles/MedicineCabinet.html (Medicine Cabinet)(GoldLenny)
http://thegab.org/Articles/Medications.html (Descriptions of Medicines)(GoldLenny)
http://www.pondrx.com/categories/249.html (Medications For Sale-3 pages)(GoldLenny)
http://thegab.org/Articles/MedicatedFood.html (Descriptions of Medicated Fish Foods)(GoldLenny)
http://www.goldfishconnection.com/shop/listing.php?parentId=5 (Medicated Foods For Sale)(GoldLenny)
http://thegab.org/Articles/MedicatedGelFood.html (DIY Medicated Fish Food)(GoldLenny)
http://www.pondrx.com/home.php?cat=251 (Medicated Foods For Sale)(GoldLenny)
And if all else fails...
Humane euthanasia: http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-the-most-humane-way-to-euthanize-a-fish.htm (Hailey)
Clove Oil Method Of Euthanasia: http://www.aquatic-hobbyist.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=14 (GoldLenny)
Necropsy (Autopsy) and Anatomy Information -
http://thegab.org/Articles/GoldfishInternalAnatomy.html (GoldLenny)
http://thegab.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=6126&highlight (GoldLenny)
http://myfwc.com/Fishing/Fishes/anatomy.html (GoldLenny)

Anatomy, Physiology & Cell Biology 100 - (A very comprehensive college level online guide):
http://trc.ucdavis.edu/mjguinan/apc100/modules/index.html (GoldLenny)

IF YOU DO VISIT ONE OF THE MANY FORUMS FOR HELP, TRY TO PROVIDE AS MUCH INFORMATION ABOUT YOUR FISH PROBLEM. HERE IS A GUIDELINE, PREPARED BY HAILEY, A VERY GOOD FISH KEEPER. COPY AND PASTE THIS FORM INTO YOUR EMAIL OR POST AND THEN FILL IN AS MANY ANSWERS AS POSSIBLE TO HELP THOSE TRYING TO HELP YOU:
We understand that if you are having a problem, especially one resulting is sick fish, you want help as soon as possible. In order to give you answers as quickly as we can, we need you to provide answers to as many of the questions below as possible, especially test readings. It would be best if you cut and paste this entire set of questions into your first post to be sure you answer each inquiry.

Test readings (in numbers) for:
Ammonia:
Nitrite:
Nitrate:
pH:
GH:
KH:
Also post your tap water baseline numbers if known. If not known, now would be a good time to start finding out what they are. See my article on this page http://goldlenny.blogspot.com/2007/05/find-your-tap-source-water-baseline.html
Temperature:

Tank size:

Tank inhabitants (number and type of fish or other aquatic life):

Water change amount and when the last one was done:
Filter maintenance and what exactly did you do:

How long the tank has been set up:

Water or filter additives or pH adjusters used:

Recent (within 2 weeks) changes or additions to the tank:

Full description of the problem you have been having, including any odd behavior of the inhabitants or appearance of the tank or inhabitants…some common examples are:

Fish behavior-
separating from school
hiding
breathing rapidly
hanging at surface
sitting on bottom
having difficulty swimming
scraping body on ornaments/plants/gravel

Fish appearance-
pale or different in color (describe)
raised spots/tufts of cottony material/cloudy patches on skin
fins fraying
chunks missing from fins
open sores
bent spine

Tank appearance-
whitish cloudy water
greenish cloudy water
excessive algae (specify color)

Hailey

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GoldLenny
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