Hi there, recently there has been alot of talk on this forum about fish TB.And many of the symptoms are being seen in my tank.
So far only my platies seem to be being affected, their backs become bent they are gasping and they waste away,I now remove any fish that are showing early signs.
So far my guppies are fine and so are the mollies and plecos.
Before I noticed these I had two red eye tetra that were old ( about 6years old )and they developed large pussy lumps that burst out of their sides I took them out to stop my other fish eating them .
If this is fish TB is there any way to stop it and also I have got 60 newborn platies that need to be moved to an established fry tank is ther any way of reducing the risk of cross contamination?
Please any help is gonna be a life saver as I am a breeder and I dont want to loose any of my babies.

I am sorry about your fish. The acne boil-like lumps that produce cheesy stuff and the kinking with wasting away do sound like some of the symptoms that my fish have had in the past, symptoms I attribute to fish TB. I have treated my fish with many kinds of antibiotics but the symptoms always reappear with some other fish down the line. Injections of antibiotics are the best bet but not really feasible for small fish (and require a fish vet). Someone said Kanamycin I think it was is a better antibiotic to try. I've tried erythromycin and minocycline mostly (gram negative and positive to cover both). Most of my fish appear fine to the outward observer but they all carry it. Some get sick, some don't. It can be dormant for years. For people who keep fish en masse, they usually say to kill all the fish when fish TB crops up. I don't agree with that. One reason is that I think it's pretty common. Most of the time, the fish I've had that died from it were older than most fish would be in the hands of the average uneducated aquarist. In other words, most people don't keep their fish alive in general long enough for these long term problems to occur. My common pleco is my only fish who is immune. After 13 years, he's had no symptoms. Alas, something, perhaps related to fish TB did kill my bristlenose pleco recently. I'm not sure what to tell you. If it's fish TB, it's highly contagious and basically not curable. But, even if a fish has it, they may not get sick. Once they do get sick, it's a slow, nasty death. You should soak anything you want to decontaminate in dilute bleach followed by fresh water with dechlorinator.

So what your basically saying is that I should tear down the tank and start afresh ?
I will do that any way once all these have passed on most are quite elderly in platie terms, so I wont have to wait long.
To transfer baby fish are you relly suggesting I put them in bleach water on juct wash them off in fresh water befor I transfer them to a safer tank ?

Like I said, my fish all carry fish tb but right now, few have symptoms. I've never killed any of my fish. I let them die on their own and try to stop it.

When I mentioned bleached, I was referring to disinfecting objects and not anything that is alive. Certainly do not use bleach on living animals. There is no way to really disinfect your live fish. You can treat them with all sorts of medications but, still, there is not guarantee.

Ok cool, I'll just have to keep an eye on things most of my fish seem fine now the really sick ones have gone from the tank, in fact I now have 90 new babies to deal with so they must be feelin' fine !