General Information
Fish Tuberculosis is an extremely dangerous disease. It is very contagious and can wipe out your entire aquarium with little warning. Infection of this disease causes small nodules on the surface of fresh water fish. Be aware that humans can contract fish tuberculosis through cracks in the skin, cuts, etc while rearranging decor, cleaning the tank and more.

Diagnosis
Here is a list of symptoms your fish may have if they are infected, as you can see by the list it would be very difficult to diagnose as these symptoms are the same for many other fish illnesses.

• loss of appetite
• fish remains in seclusion and out of site
• rapid breathing (respiration)
• eyes appear to be cloudy or “popping out”
• fish lies on its side near bottom of aquarium
• stomach of fish appears to be sunken
• whittish blotches on exterior
• degraded and frayed fins

Treatment
Treatment of fish tuberculosis is very difficult and oftentimes unsuccessful. Once the external symptoms are starting to show, it is normally too late. All fish should be removed from the tank and placed inside a hospital tank. If possible, place the fish that are most affected into a separate hospital tank. Both tanks must be treated with a strong anti-biotic such as Melafix or Pimafix. The diseased aquarium that the fish tuberculosis started in should be stripped and disinfected right away. All of the substrate must be thrown out, or clean through many stages of a bleack and water solution. When removing fish with tuberculosis, do it with extreme care since this disease can be passed on to humans although it is extremely rare. When the infection occurs in humans, it is usually in the form of an infected nodule in the skin.