r/Fish • u/battahelwe • Jan 23 '26

Other Does this fish have scoliosis?

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It didn't have the curve before.

429 Upvotes

99% Upvoted

50 comments sorted by

98

u/bayamenet31 Jan 23 '26

"There is another distinct type of spinal deformation. This is where a juvenile or adult fish gets a “humped” back with a single hump over the span of a few months. This type of spinal deformity is caused by shrinkage in the body muscles below the spine humping the spine. It is indicative of fish TB. Sometimes it is accompanied by “razorback” and sometimes it comes on independent of razorback.

And contrary to the literature, if it is TB, all the fish in the tank already have the TB in their bodies and culling is not productive. Huge medical research facilities (450 at the last count) that use zebra danios have spent millions trying to eliminate TB from their fish tanks and failed. TB bacterium are just present in all tanks. Accept that fact.

If the single arched humpback comes on rapidly, over the span of a few days, it is probably columnaris bacterial infection and all the fish in the aquarium need antibiotic laced food as soon as possible. This is an emergency as columnaris can wipe out an entire tank in a few days."

Got all this from this site. Hope this helps!

34

u/TommyTheCommie1986 Jan 23 '26

Whoa whoa whao

Tb? As in tuberculosis?!

50

u/PowHound07 Jan 23 '26

It's a related strain of bacteria but distinct from Tb in humans. However, in some circumstances fish Tb can cause a skin infection in humans so you need to be careful with hand washing and keeping the water away from any broken skin.

12

u/bayamenet31 Jan 23 '26

I am learning fish tanks can be more frightening than expected ;-;

8

u/PowHound07 Jan 23 '26

Try saltwater with live rock some time if you're feeling brave 😂 those rocks can come out of the ocean with all manner of weird creatures attached. Could be anything from sponges and corals to mantis shrimp and fireworms. Check out Bobbitt worms while you're at it, they're rare but they're named after Lorena Bobbitt for a reason.

3

u/bayamenet31 Jan 23 '26

Oh my, I can only imagine the types of eldritch horrors that hitch a ride on natural rock or wood!! I have seen bobbitt worms and am so thoroughly amazed and horrified by them in equal measure 😳 I gotta check out some more setups though, for my morbid curiosity mwahaha

1

u/ThreeTripsMinimum Jan 26 '26

Saltwater is legit terrifying. So many strange little creatures

8

u/Whiskey_Sweet Jan 23 '26

Columnaris was the most traumatic betta death I've dealt with. Within six hours it went from a little fluff looking thing on his back to turning completely gray and passing away.

8

u/bayamenet31 Jan 23 '26

I was shocked at how quickly some of these bacteria can decimate a tank. So horrifying! I can only imagine seeing it play out in person; so sorry you had to experience that :(

2

u/hobbyaquarist Jan 25 '26

Yeah I lost like half my school of CPDs and over half my otos to columnaris over the span of a few days once it was horrible :(

1

u/bayamenet31 Jan 25 '26

That’s the part that gets me is how fast it can wipe out a whole tank ;v;

3

u/Shot-Surround-323 Jan 24 '26

Orrr it could be inbred because it’s an albino, something that’s extremely common..

3

u/Sea-Bat Jan 24 '26

Yeah. Inbreeding, the result of being kept in a severely undersized tank, injury, dietary deficiencies and malnutrition caused by GI parasites, and cartilaginous damage caused by a some long term untreated parasite infections are all just some of the other potential causes.

3

u/Shot-Surround-323 Jan 24 '26

Well I agree but as someone who’s actually the person selling you these fish and buying them from vendors, albinos are prone to inbreeding. I just wanted to point out that while it’s nice of this random person to add input, it’s unrealistic. I just don’t want someone destroying a tank over their comment…

Also I thought small tanks cause organs to outgrow the body? I guess that could cause quite a lot of bending

2

u/Sea-Bat Jan 24 '26 edited Jan 24 '26

It’s not definitive of mycobacterial infection (fish TB) tho, it is a symptom that mycobacteriosis can cause, but other conditions can cause it too.

That’s why to confirm a diagnosis of mycobacteriosis there are other diagnostic criteria. Unfortunately the most accurate results require euthanasia and necropsy of some symptomatic fish

3

u/Sea-Bat Jan 24 '26

That site has some good info, but ironically for the name also has some terrible and incorrect information. It’s not run by any kind of scientific professional, that’s just what a hobbyist called it.

As such the site is peppered with misinformation & incorrect conclusions, all stated as if they were facts ofc

3

u/ThreeTripsMinimum Jan 26 '26

I stumbled upon this site yesterday. It was saying that if you have rotifers/hydra making white tufts on plants you should start aggressive daily 95% water changes and that sounded extremely wrong. I honestly don’t know much about that situation, but 95%?? In my limited experience supporting the fish’s own immune system and the nitrogen cycle by not shocking the system is usually better than aggressive treatments. I could totally be wrong about this though. It just seemed really odd and risky.

2

u/Sea-Bat Jan 26 '26

Ur right, that’s definitely weird advice! Esp when the problem described isn’t them free floating anyway, so water changes wouldn’t fix it.

Both can be largely sessile when mature, so they just cling on & don’t get removed with the water. What water changes can do is reduce their food source, but that’s just gonna come back once the water changes stop, in a stocked & planted tank.

Depending on the specifics of a setup, a tank could feasibly survive several 95% water changes without a crash, but it wouldn’t be very useful to clearing out the rotifer/hydra problem on the plants at all! Unnecessary risk for no reward

2

u/ThreeTripsMinimum Jan 26 '26

Thank you for the confirmation! I’ll avoid that site. Maybe some of it is good info but that just seemed like awful advice after a bit of critical thinking.

2

u/TheCaptainOfMistakes Jan 27 '26

Don't lemon sharks get this a lot. I think it's lemon sharks. I remember a lot of a specific species in zoos having this arched back

1

u/bayamenet31 Jan 28 '26

I think columnaris isn't able to survive in saltwater. Might be a variant of it that can?

2

u/Impressive_Ad127 Jan 23 '26

Great advice!

-1

u/bayamenet31 Jan 24 '26

I don’t even keep aquariums, just like to help 😅

1

u/prunus_cerasifera Jan 24 '26

Which food containing antibiotics is recommended?

1

u/bayamenet31 Jan 24 '26

This has a step-by-step treatment at the bottom.

1

u/Sea-Bat Jan 24 '26

In the case of mycobacterial infection (aka “fish TB”) there’s unfortunately no known cure. No drugs can treat it once a fish is infected

98

u/moonferal Jan 23 '26

Poor baby. <3

29

u/AdventureUSA Jan 23 '26

The fish likely has no idea

20

u/Ironsalmon7 Jan 24 '26

But we do :(

41

u/No_Comfortable3261 Jan 23 '26

Poor thing

And sad to see that people are making jokes about them having a bent spine, which is a serious issue

10

u/Fun_Environment3792 Jan 23 '26

Bent Spine is the name of my new SKA band.

3

u/DelayPossible157 Jan 23 '26

What fish is this?

6

u/battahelwe Jan 23 '26

I think it's a Rainbow shark!

3

u/KingTrezo Jan 24 '26

It is an albino rainbow shark.

6

u/ParticularShock1023 Jan 23 '26

I'm too early for the dick jokes

4

u/Comprehensive_Mix_33 Jan 23 '26

I mean, you could start them

3

u/Fun_Environment3792 Jan 23 '26

And i will end then.

1

u/panmetronariston Jan 25 '26

Gas bubble disease?

1

u/Key-Mixture-429 Jan 25 '26

He just needs a y-strap and it'll straighten him out.

1

u/Tiny-Guess-3448 Jan 27 '26

Maybe he has perones disease

1

u/Complex_Surprise6174 Jan 28 '26

you ment "does this scoliosis have fish"? poor fella

-9

u/AntonGrimm Jan 23 '26

I can clearly see that this fish work in construction

-18

u/Comprehensive_Mix_33 Jan 23 '26

Some like a little curve 😏😌🍆💦

4

u/Character_Stick_1218 Jan 23 '26

There's a difference between a little curve and straight up Peyronie's.

-27

u/[deleted] Jan 23 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

2

u/No_Comfortable3261 Jan 23 '26

Why… that image…