# white "dry skin" looking area on leopard danio



## stephanieleah (Oct 31, 2009)

Hi all

I have a leopard danio that looks and is sort of acting sick. I've taken a video of him and posted it here:

YouTube - Sick Leopard Danio?

At the end of the video, I show the fish in question. The beginning of the video pans the whole tank to see how the other normal fish are behaving. Does he seem sick? I couldn't get a clear picture of the fish otherwise I'd post it. I'll post the best of what I got.

Here are the diagnostics (thanks for the guidance, Lupin!)

Quick history: The leopard danios were just added just over a week ago. I had taken one of them back to the LFS because it was clearly ill, same dry skin look on it, and one of mine already died (but I thought it was due to my overfeeding blood worms). They all came from the same tank, which had just changed its supplier and was receiving lots of sick fish (I saw four or five dead fish during my visit there, quite disturbing).

1. What is the size of your tank?
30GAL

2. What are your water parameters? State the brand of test kit used.
AMM-0 NITRITE-0 NITRATE-5 API TEST KIT

3. Is your aquarium set up freshwater or brackish water?
FRESH

4. How long the aquarium has been set up?
2 MONTHS

5. What fish do you have? How many are in your tank? How big are they? How long have you had them?
6 HALF FULL SIZED BLACK SKIRT TETRAS (1 MONTH)
3 BABY YO YO LOACHES (1 WEEK)
5 LEOPARD DANIOS, FULL SIZE I THINK (1 WEEK)
1 BN PLECO (2 MONTH)

6. Were the fish placed under quarantine period (minus the first batch from the point wherein the tank is ready to accommodate the inhabitants)?
NO

7. What temperature is the tank water currently?
77 DEGREES

8. Are there live plants in the aquarium?
YES

9. What filter are you using? State brand, maintenance routine and power capacity.
YES, EMPEROR 280 (MARINELAND) NOT SURE WHAT THE REST MEANS

10. Any other equipment used (aside from heater and filter which are two very important components of the tank)?
NO

11. Does your aquarium receive natural sunlight at any given part of the day? What is your lighting schedule (assuming you do not rely on sunlight for our viewing pleasure)?
YES SOME SUNLIGHT AND ABOUT 14 HOURS PER DAY OF FLORESCENT LIGHTING

12. When did you perform your last water change and how much water was changed? How often do you change your water? Do you vacuum the substrate?
PERFORMED WEEKLY WC YESTERDAY, 40%, VACCUUMED GRAVEL THOROUGHLY

13. What foods do you provide your fish? What is the feeding schedule? FLAKES, AND BLOOD WORMS BEFORE I CHANGE THE WATER

14. What unusual signs have you observed in your fish?
JUST SLOW SWIMMING ON THE BOTTOM OF TANK, NOT BEING AS SOCIAL WITH OTHER FISH
SKIN ON FRONT HALF OF BODY LOOKS WHITISH AND DRY (NOT LIKE SAND SO I DON'T THINK IT'S ICK)
OTHERS HAVE IT TOO BUT THEY ARE ACTING NORMAL AND DON'T HAVE IT ON SO MUCH OF THEIR BODY LIKE THIS ONE

15. Have you treated your fish ahead of diagnosis? If so, what treatments did you use? State your reasons for planning ahead of proper diagnosis. 
NO


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## stephanieleah (Oct 31, 2009)

Sadly, I didn't get any feedback on this thread, and also I didn't get any information from the hours of internet research I did to find out what disease this fish had. It must be something unusual or maybe not a treatable disease. The closest I came to was Neon Tetra Disease but even that didn't totally describe what my fish looked like. When I had first purchased these fish, I had to return one of them because he looked like my diseased fish and the LFS employee agreed that it was definitely a sick fish.

Anyway, one morning since I posted this I woke up and in addition to the frayed looking scales, there was a red spot on the fish. So I immediately put him in a QT. Once I put him in there I could see more red on him (I may have put him in water that was too cold or something because, sadly, he died within 12 hours. Every other fish in the tank seem to be doing fine, so hopefully this case is closed.


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## JouteiMike (Oct 7, 2006)

I'm sorry to hear the bad news of losing your fish, and that your post was not noticed earlier. It appears that your fish had columnaris, which is a bacterial infection and antibiotics would be needed to treat it. If left untreated it can lead to red ulcerations like you noticed.

Columnaris (Flexibacteria); Aquarium/Pond Treatment, Prevention; Fungus, Saprolegnia

Here is a good site that explains about it and about treatment options for future references.

Feel free to ask any questions.


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