6 Common Fish Diseases and Their Symptoms

If you are fond of keeping fish as your pets, then you will know that your fish are exposed easily to hundreds of bacterial, fungal and parasitic infections. Take a closer look at these common diseases of fish can have.

Life in aquarium is not as easy as it seems to be. Those infections will affect the health and well-being of the fish. For your information, fish are sensitive animals as some factors, such as environmental changes can trigger stress and illness.

Some fish diseases can be treated easily, but some others are not. That’s why it is very important for fish parents to be aware to spot the signs of the diseases early. Let’s take a look at the 6 common fish diseases and their symptoms every fish parent needs to know.

1. Ich

Ich commonly happens to the stressed fish. There’re some factors triggering this disease, such as rapid temperature change and pH variations. Ich is a common disease and once it is treated immediately, it can be cured. The most important key to treat ich is eliminating the factors of stress. Ich is also one of the signs of your fish pet is stress.

The symptoms of ich include:

the appearance of white salt-like spots on the head and spreading all over the body.
rapid breathing or gasping at the surface of the water – if you have a goldfish, gasping at the surface of the water is one of the signs your goldfish is stressed.
clamped fins.
glancing or itching itself against the objects in the tank or gravel because of irritated skin.

2. Dropsy

The second common fish disease is dropsy. Dropsy is mainly caused by a bacterial infections in the kidneys. This infection triggers fluid retention. The poor water quality and presence of micro-organisms in the aquarium can also be the factors of this disease. Stressed fish are more prone to have dropsy as their immune system is weakened.

To treat this disease, you will need to do parasite treatment. You can simply apply it to your tank for around 2 days. The other way to treat this disease is eliminate the cause of the stress and ensure the good quality of the water in the tank.

Here are the symptoms of dropsy:

swollen abdomen.
loss of appetite.
sluggish or lack of energy.
protruding scales on the affected area.

3. Fin Rot

Fin rot is basically a symptom of certain fish diseases, but it can also occur as a stand-alone issue. Fin rot is basically caused by a bacterial infection. As a result, the tail or fins frays as the body’s immune system is weakened while fighting off the disease. Stress is also another factor causing fin rot, especially when the fish is bullied or injured by the other tank mates.

The symptoms of fin rot include:

fading color of the fins
a progressive deterioration of the tails and/or fins

4. Pop Eye

Pop eye is one of the fish diseases that is easy to treat and cure, but it also could be difficult to treat as it has many possible causes. That’s why it is very important to notice the symptoms early.

If there are more than one fish infected by pop eye, then you can suspect the water quality as the cause. You can carry out daily 30% water changes for around 5 days and have the pH levels checked. If your fish get pop eye because of an injury, then immediately quarantine your fish in separate tank.

The symptom of pop eye is obvious, your fish have large and protruding eyes, either one or both eyes.

5. Anchor Worms

Anchor worms are small parasites burrowed into the skin of the fish and enter the muscles. Then, the anchor worms lay their eggs in the muscles. Anchor worms are usually introduced by the new and infected fish in your tank. Anchor worm is also one of the common diseases of goldfish.

You can notice that your fish is infected by anchor worms when you see the string-like worms that are visible on our fish’s skin, inflammation on the skin and your fish keeps glancing and scratching against the objects to the infected area.

6. Lice

The newly introduced fish usually become the carrier of the lice to the aquarium. Lice usually inhabit the fish that house in an outdoor pond. Lice is able to move from the host fish to the other very quickly, so it is very important to have a quick action to control the spread of it.

The symptoms of lice in fish include: