How to preserve body for autopsy?

Paul B · Jan 10, 2017

Humblefish said:
@Paul B

What!

Paul B · Jan 10, 2017

That fish, IMO has classic Nitrite toxicity. This causes those red spots or streaks and chocolate brown blood. Feeding the fish will make it worse because wastes, mostly ammonia will be excreted through the gills (which you said were a little red)

You can save those fish, Not now of course, by using (old school) 1 ppm Methylene blue which is a very low dose. Methylene blue hastens the conversion of methemoglobin back to hemoglobin. (brown blood)
If you have any vitamin C add 250mg to each 10 gallons of salt water.

Naturally I didn't make this up myself. But I still do have my old school fish disease books. I have used Methylene blue many times and sometimes use it on my worms for this very condition. Nitrite toxicity in their tank.
This book I am using was written by a Veternarian specializing in aquatic diseases "Mark P Dulin. Four other Veterinarians collaborated on this book and I have used to many times for disection

cmcoker · Jan 10, 2017

alanbetiger said:
Unfortunately I won't be an amazing help. Probably extremely little help actually. Sorry.
I agree there appears to be damage but I suspect more secondary to the issue then the primary problem. I would expect a parasite but without samples would not be able to definitively diagnosis.
Someone from the local Dallas club had a question about a obvious external parasite and I called around and finally spoke with a fish only veterinarian in New York. His personal marine fish would undergo copper treatment and praziquantel in two separate quarantine tanks. They would start in one tank then once a skin scrape, scale examination and fill scrape was negative move to the next tank. Again pass negative testing before going into his display. He still had entire tank deaths from parasites.
So much of this hobby is a psuedoscience with out true reproducible diagnostics, testing, and treatments. Most of the information is hearsay and since it worked for someone who had a bunch of tanks it must be true. The only true veterinary textbook I could find years ago was from 1980 and still said using saltwater from the ocean was a good idea for water changes.

Hey Alan! Did the fish doctor say anything about quarantining anything else wet when you talked to him? Humblefish has some articles on ich and velvet being able to encyst on snails, etc. Seems like a waste of time to go through that level of fish quarantine if you just throw everything else in...