Fish Health - Goldfish Ulcer Disease

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Goldfish Ulcer Disease (aeromonas salmonicida)


Goldfish Ulcer Disease (aeromonas salmonicida)


This infection has many names - goldfish ulcer disease, carp erythrodermatitis or more commonly saddle-back, as the ulcers straddle the dorsal fish or are high up on the dorsal muscle.

The disease is very infectious, affects goldfish in aquariums and ponds and can remain dormant without a host for long periods.

Restocking will lead to reinfection.

Injections are the only treatment, but with small fish the injection can just add to the fishes problems.

UlcerThis is a typical ulcer brought about by a body fluke infection. An infected wound of aeromonas hydrofiller, damage done to fish by flicking and scratching.

Wounds look like open blisters, bright pink to red, with mostly a white outer ring.

Well advanced ulcers can pass as a heron wound and are often mistaken for one. When a pond or tank is infected with most fish showing ulcers its kinder to put them to sleep with over-dose of clove oil.

Mostly seen in summer, infected fish seem to feed and swim quite happily as this disease is thought to attack the vital organs and nerve centers in the latter part of the disease's progress.

Goldfish UlcerThis looks very much like a ulcer, but I strongly suspect fish TB. This is a classic wound for fish TB and quite often, as in this case, the fish has been well looked after.

Often fish carry spores for many years, but what activates the dormant spores is not known. But on a post-mortem squashed saline preps of kidney and liver show spores are very evident - very like small cysts.