How common is Fish TB in Australia?

[aidanmary]

This may be deemed as off topic but I am posting it on here as I believe that the saltwater aquarium community is based upon hobbiest who were or are still into fresh water aquariums and as i currently have a goldfish with symptoms of fish tb I am not only concerned that if the fish does have it whether or not myself or my family could get sick but also if it could spread into the reef tank by accident.
Over the last 2 days I have noticed a rapid decline in my 5yo commet who went from healthy and eating to all of a sudden swimming in spirals in the tank and being overly disoriented. yesterday he was swimming erratically in spirals and I noticed red streaks in his fins which I have noticed happens when a goldfish is not well.
today he is barely moving and has a very strong curve in his spine when he is laying on the bottom he does not appear to be interested in food and still had red streaks through his tail.
this has happened in the space of 2 days and the only change that has happened to the tank he lives in withing the last 12 months is that I added a peppermint cat fish from another small tank that I shut down in the living room. he has some either diss colored scales or possibly missing scales but doesn't look overt emmaciated and has had the diss colored scales for a whole as he is getting a bit old (or so I thought)
could any fish gurus help me out and let me know what they think the probability is and if I should be concerned about the reef tank.
thanks.

[colg]

I used to have my tank as a planted freshwater system with local wild caught rainbow fish. I had quite a few outbreaks of fish tb. I know that it can be passed on to humans but if you minimize putting your hands in the tank and wash afterwards I didn't think it was a problem. Probably best to keep hands out if you have any sores or cuts.
I didn't sterilize my tank and haven't seen any symptoms since switching to marine. I used to salt bath the fresh water fish that were sick so maybe elevated salt levels help fend off the virus? It should be noted that all fish showing signs of tb eventually died on me..
I just red the below article and it seems maybe I should have thought about sterizing my tank when I switched over...
http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2003-07/sp/feature/

In answer to your question. As long as you don't cross contaminate your tanks I wouldn't think you'd have a problem but that is only my opinion.

Cheers,
Col

[aidanmary]

I did read that it was very common in Rainbows. how did you know for sure it was fish tb and how fast was the onset and progression of the disease. my fish has gone from heathy to his last breaths in 2 days and I don't know if it's tb of just internal parasites/bacterial infection ect ect

[aidanmary]

poor guy, we have had him for around 5 years and he's always been a fighter even though my care the fresh water tank has slacked off.

[aidanmary]

with TB does the fish's spine stay constantly curved as when be manages to sit upright he does straighten out it only curves when he is swimming and then rests on his side. sorry mods is this is going outside the forum rules regarding relevance to saltwater aquariums I just don't have any other mediums to ask these questions please move to relevant thread if not allowed here.

[colg]

I was told by a mate who is a fisheries biologist. I was told that a lot of rainbows had it locally but showed no symptoms until they were heavily stressed.
It would normally be a slow onset, with legions on the fins and flanks as the first symptoms. With the fish progressively showing worse condition. If left to their own devices in my tank it would be about 1-2 weeks before they were paralyzed. If given salt baths this was extended but ultimately they met the same end. Curved spine was apparent at all times in some specimens and not at all in others.

[aidanmary]

ok thanks for the info I guess there is no way of determining for sure without a biopsy which I'm not likely to get done.
hopefully he either recovers or doesn't suffer for too long. I've given Epsom salt bath and peas soaked in Epsom salts to try and get rid of any potential blockages

[colg]

How's it going?

[aidanmary]

I asked on one of the Facebook pages dedicated to goldfish and koi and they say tb is very uncommon in goldfish and that the symptoms more lean towards nitrate poisoning due to poor maintaince.
I've moved him into a hospital tank and doing water changes every second day so hopefully he gets better but no improvement as of yet he is still eating but he's swimming is very poor.

[Tone]

I'd be inclined to think that most amateur 'diagnosis' of fish maladies is wrong ... poor water husbandry is largely the culprit.