Re: Mycobacteria

[Wright Huntley <jwwiii at pacbell_net>]

Tyrone Genade wrote:

> If the primary symptoms are skin lesions then have swabs taken (or 
> send the fish in for a necropsy) and get a professional opinion.

I'm not aware of anyone in the US properly equipped to do a microbial 
analysis. In general, you cannot culture Mycobacterium for the same 
reasons they are so hard to treat. The waxy coating seems to make it 
most difficult to culture them in vitro. [It is so rare that there 
aren't a huge pool of experts to help us out here, either.]

Watching for symptoms seems to be the only diagnostic method that works, 
and symptoms (mostly skin lesions) are so slow to develop that it is 
easy to miss them for a while. By then, the dying fish has saturated the 
tank with bacteria and healthy fish are starting to go.

Be quick to isolate any fish with skin eruptions/ulcers you cannot 
otherwise identify (e.g., cottonmouth, velvet, ich, etc.).

Wright

-- 
Wright Huntley -- 209 521-0557 -- 731 Loletta Ave, Modesto CA 95351

"The main political divide of our time is between those who trust
   the state and those who do not." -- Alberto Mingardi

                  http://www.sfbaka.net/


---------------
See http://www.aka.org/AKA/subkillietalk.html to unsubscribe
Join the AKA at http://www.aka.org/AKA/Applic.htm