Tuberculosis?

[The reginator]

My community tank with various dwarf cichlids was doing fine until I introduced a borelli about 3 months back. First there was an outbreak of whitespot, the treatment of which killed my honsloi. Then, one by one, my crenicaras all died. The filimentosa was the largest so I took it to my local exotic vet who said that it looked something like tuberculosis. Since then some of my cichlids have been dying off at a frightening rate, the most recent being an agassizi who has started to go downhill. The only unaffected ones seem to be a male cac, a female pandurini and the borelli. Is there anything I can do? A friend who keeps tetras told me that it's almost impossible to eradicate TB as some fish will be carriers and immune. I really don't want a tank that has to be killed off and restarted, and the healthy fish seem fine.. HELP!

 

[fishgeek]

unfortunately no proven treatment for tuberculosis in fish
erythromycin, rifampicin,kanamycin have been suggested though no good scientific evidence to support them
substrate cleansing is imortant as mycobacteria can be harboured here

it is supposed to be very widespread in most fish anyway so mo guarantee that culling and destocking wouldn't have a similar problem

if the vet you took the fish too wanted to do things properly then a smear of the granuloma for microscopy would be appropriate, immunohistochemistry is probably the best (eassiest from m sample of spleen/liver or such)
bacterial culture and sensitivty testing would certainly aid any treatment regime you may undertake, though growth of mycobacteria can require specialist media's

start by ensuring good water quality
ich i find to be more common in stressed or immunocompromised fish
maybe reduce numbers in the tank and keep the system closed with a long 2 mth QT period

andrew