# My Talk/presentation on Fish TB disease



## dwalstad (Apr 14, 2006)

Hi Fishkeepers,

I'll be giving my talk "Mycobacteriosis (Fish TB) in Aquaria" on Saturday March 1, 2008 at 1:00 PM in Raleigh NC. I'm working on talk madly right now and will have the very latest scientific information. This disease is predicted by scientists to be responsible for about 50% of disease problems in tropical aquarium fish, so its no small thing if you're keeping fish.

My talk on Fish TB is part of the Raleigh Aquarium Society's annual 3-day workshop extravaganza. I've been going to these workshops for 20 years. They're great- raffles, plant/fish/equipment auctions, native collecting trips, and a full day of talks. Other talks this year are on setting up planted aquaria (Mark Denaro), catfish, wild Bettas, collecting in Uruguay, breeding marine invertebrates, etc.

For more information about the workshop, see http://www.raleighaquariumsociety.com


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## DataGuru (Mar 11, 2005)

Very cool. Will it be posted anywhere afterwards?
I'd love to read it.


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## PlantMauller (Oct 15, 2007)

PLEASE post the notes/paper afterwards just in case I can't make it!!!


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## Tex Gal (Nov 1, 2007)

I wish I were close so I could hear this info. Would love to see any info.


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## Neon Shrimp (Apr 26, 2006)

That is a good thing you are doing. The public needs to be informed.


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## spypet (Jul 27, 2007)

good luck with your lecture.
you can use my photo here;
http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/...quarium/46969-mutation-encourage-destroy.html

can you post a sample photo here
of what _Fish TB disease_ looks like?


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## dwalstad (Apr 14, 2006)

Thanks so much for your interest. I don't know how I can easily send out this talk, since it will be on Power Point with major megabytes. Also, it includes some pictures that one scientist asked me not to put on Internet. However, I do have last year's article that was published in TFH and several overseas magazines. It's a nice article and contains the main points of what I'll be talking about. If we can get the people of APC to publish this article with pictures, I would be glad to. This is ideal. However, if they can't or won't do it, then I can just send the article without pictures to individuals who request the article.

Therefore, if you are interested in getting this article, either suggest how I should post it?? Or write to me at [email protected] and I will send it as an attachment.


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## newbie314 (Mar 2, 2007)

For presentations in power point, one can place sound clips in.
I don't know if there is a macro that will make the slide switch automatically with the sound.
But then again, the file would huge with sound.


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## dwalstad (Apr 14, 2006)

spypet said:


> can you post a sample photo here
> of what _Fish TB disease_ looks like?


Unfortunately, I don't have a suitable picture of a diseased fish. Your Endler with the curved spine might or might not have TB. I had one similarly sad looking fish autopsied. I was so sure that it had TB. It did not.

TB symptoms can be almost anything. Death without symptoms is just one.


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## modster (Jun 16, 2007)

sounds like an interesting talk. I wish i am close enough. Anyways, I have a question that I have always wanted ask. Can inverts, like shrimps and snails, carry fish TB? I know i sound very silly but i am just curious.


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## DataGuru (Mar 11, 2005)

Diana e-mailed me her article. You can download it from here:
http://thegab.org/Articles/WalstadMyco_APC.pdf


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## benigne 76 (Jan 18, 2008)

Thank you very much to you and Diana ! 

That's very interesting.  The mecanism seems to be very similar to some human mycosis, that happen because our usual bacterian flora becomes unbalanced. This can happen for example when saprophytic bacteria are killed by disinfectants... then pathogenic organisms as Candida can develop and we get mycosis. 

Ultra-cleaned environments are not healthy, even if it can be surprising !!

It's very useful too, to know that UV filters can kill these bacteria, and that they mainly stay in the cleaned water more than in filters where other bacteria keep them low. So when we can, we'd better use UV filters instead of general disinfectants for our tanks, sometimes : this could prevent the selection and development of mycobacteria. Or maybe filter on UV after a treatment, to put all bacteria to the same number again ?


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## dwalstad (Apr 14, 2006)

modster said:


> sounds like an interesting talk. I wish i am close enough. Anyways, I have a question that I have always wanted ask. Can inverts, like shrimps and snails, carry fish TB? I know i sound very silly but i am just curious.


Not silly at all. Scientists have been struggling with your question for decades. No definitive answer. Yes, snails eat mycobacteria and live mycobacteria pass into the feces. Yes, infected daphnia transmit disease to fish that eat them. Yes, amoebae are a long-term (years) environmental reservoir.

But it doesn't sound like these fish pathogens set up long-term infections in snails and other invertebrates. I suspect that chronically infected fish are the main carriers of infectious mycobacteria. This is what aquarium hobbyists need to guard against.


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## DataGuru (Mar 11, 2005)

Diana sent me the pictures for her article. The article with her pics included is here:
http://thegab.org/Articles/WalstadMyco_APC1.pdf


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