Loaches Online Forum

Would you please list for me any fish in which you have personally seen signs of "Skinny Disease", or Chronic Wasting Syndrome? How widespread is it? Are species other than loaches seen with similar symptoms?

Clowns Yoyos I have seen myself.

Has anyone seen evidence of or attempted to treat this in other species?
What was the course of the 'disease'?
What actions did you take?
What was the outcome?
Has anyone done any microscopic investigations or seen scientific papers addressing this issue?

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks,
shari

I have seen "Skinny Disease" in Clowns, Yoyos, Kubotais, Rostratas and Sidthimunki's. The only ones I have had personal experience of with "Skinny Disease" are the Sidthimunki's and these were treated with Levimasole.

It took around 4 months for the symptoms to get to the point that it was obvious what it was, 4 of the sid's started to grow really well while 6 didn't, of these 6 there was a major difference between the worst of these and the least affected. All 10 a growing really well now along with another 10 that have been added recently .

I used to see it in other fish, but since I am now only working with loaches and plecos it's only loaches.

I bought a group of 6 clowns. One died immediately, 4 were in excellent shape, and one showed signs of skinny. The fish never gained an ounce and lost most of it's color with it's skin turning to an almost translucent quality and the bones were very much in evidence. He was nothing but skin and bones at one point.

I decided to take the plunge and use Levimasole. There wasn't much of a change but yet he just seemed to act better. It took a good month before you could notice that he was beginning to lose the translucent look he had and was assuming the normal skin tones of a clown.

He is now - about 4 months down the line - beginning to put on a few ounces and looks like a clown now. I don't think he'll ever catch up with the other clowns in size, but at least he's still going.


He was just getting some color in this shot. You can't really see the bones but the area behind the gills on his back was all shunken in.

I've seen it once in striatas. Bought a group of four, one had it bad and died a few days afterward. No treatment info though, sorry.
Also seen it in clowns and kubotais in dealer tanks.

Clowns, B. kubotai, Y. sidthimunki, Y. nigrolineata. All seem to react positively to treatment with Levamilsole hydrochloride. The Y. nigrolineata seemed to require many more multiple treatments than the others, but it definitely worked.

Emma

thank you all. I'm building a generic email to send to a variety of scientific researchers in the field and want as complete a list as possible.

Thanks again.

i think i have seen clowns, yoyos and kubotai in a shop.

I have had a dwarf gourami that slowly wasted away, becoming increasingly emaciated to the point where it was effectively skeletal. I don't know if this was skinny, but if this info is of any use...

One of My largest Modesta died from this. I wish I had known this Forum befor I lost him, he was my favorite fish. He did not eat for a few months and eventually he was just skinn and bones with a big head.

sophie wrote:I have had a dwarf gourami that slowly wasted away, becoming increasingly emaciated to the point where it was effectively skeletal. I don't know if this was skinny, but if this info is of any use...

I have a lavender (blue/gold) gourami that is in the process of doing this right now. I have isolated her and she gets plenty of bloodworms and veggie flakes all to herself, but she continues to lose weight. I'm not sure why. She was in the tank with the loaches until I isolated her.

I am beginning to suspect that one of my yoyos has skinny. He has not grown since I got them, and is beginning to lose weight now, even though I see him eating like a pig with the others.

I suppose there is a chance that the two are connected but I hadn't considered it before. I had suspected the gourami had fish TB but have ruled that out since there have been no symptoms other than losing weight. Parasites would make sense, which seems to be the trouble with "skinny disease", too.

I've seen histrionica with it.

As regards gouramis, check the PFK website. iIgot an E-mail from them today and apparently there's an incurable virus affecting particularly Dwarfs at present.

Martin.

Martin Thoene wrote: As regards gouramis, check the PFK website. iIgot an E-mail from them today and apparently there's an incurable virus affecting particularly Dwarfs at present.

Martin.

I got that e-mail, too.