# Zebra Danio with curved spine



## sbetsy

Hi Folks!

So I have had a few problems with ich while setting up our (60g) tank this spring but things have been going along swimmingly for a while until today.

When I got home from work today I noticed that our largest danio (about 1.5 inch long body, 2 inches total) had a pretty curved spine. His spine was never _totally_ straight but he didn't look this bad. Also, he was sort of floating around aimlessly. He had no lesions and his fins were not clamped. It didn't really look like he was using his fins at all - they were just sort of floating in the current from the filter. The past few days he has been much less active than normal. I looked up curved spines in our aquarium handbook and did a quick search on google. I panicked and told my husband that I thought it might be TB. He freaked out too and went over to look at the fish. By that point the danio was stuck against the filter. My husband was about to leave the house and he decided to euthanize the fish before he left (because he knew I couldn't do it while he was gone) so that we wouldn't risk contagion to the other fish. He's used to euthanizing at work but I just can't do it. 

So now I've been reading more and I'm worried that it wasn't TB and we euthanized the danio unnecessarily. Awful. Other possibilities are genetic deformities (but that doesn't explain the lethargy and weakness and sudden change in spine shape) or perhaps some unusual parasite? I read at one site that poor diet may be responsible but we feed our fish a combination of:

Omega One: 1. freeze dried mysis shrimp, 2. veggie flakes, 3. shrimp pellets and 4. super color flakes
Top Fin: 5. tropical flakes and 6. freeze-dried blood worms
Aqueon 7. Bottom Feeder Tablets
8. Frozen Emerald Entree Omnivorous Formula by San Francisco Bay Brand
Our feeding schedule is daily super color flakes or tropical flakes with shrimp pellets or bottom feeder tablets daily with veggie flakes, mysis shrimp, bloodworms or frozen food formula 2-3 times per week as dietary supplements. Bloodworms no more than 1 time every 10 days or so. 

I feel like the diet is pretty good. Could the frozen food have introduced some funky parasite? We just started the frozen food recently. 

Water parameters: 

Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 20
Ph: 8.1
Alkilinity: 120
Hardness: 150
Weekly water changes - 20-30%
New water treated with Aqueon plus water conditioner (chlorine and chloramine) and stability.

Other info:
semi-planted tank with anachris, moss ball, sword plant, corkscrew vals, scarlet temple, water onions, anubias, unknown plant with green leaves growing from red lava type rock.

Previous infestations of ich treated with Rid ich+ (successfully? but with fish death) and Coppersafe (successfully after new fish were introduced to replace dead fish from previous infestation). Everybody has been healthy since May - since the second ich infestation. The infested fish were removed to a qt tank and both tanks were treated. Infested fish stayed in qt for 30 days after treatment and signs of disease were gone. 

Tank size - 60 gallon (4 ft by 2 ft by 1 ft approximately) and HOB Marineland Emperor filter, large airstone. Over head lighting in tank hood. Heater set to 79 degrees. 

Substrate: light colored sand. 
Decorations: Driftwood, smooth stones large and small, plastic pagoda, plastic hiding rock cave and tiki hut purchased at Petsmart. Plastic ornaments rotated periodically - only 2 in the tank at a time. 

Tank Occupants: 2 angelfish (3 inches top to bottom), 3 rasporas (less than 1 inch), 4 black skirt tetras (1-2 inches), 4 remaining zebra long-fin danios (1 to 1.5 inches), loaches (less than 2 inches). Note - I know that we should have more of a lot of these fish because they are happier in larger groups but we haven't added any since the ich deaths because we are really sick of the diseases at our local Petsmart and the summer has been too busy to explore other options. But we would like to add more fish to make sure our fish are happier. 

Any ideas? I really want to figure out what is going on because I want to keep my fish healthy and the tank has been so happy lately!


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## snyderguy

It might be scoliosis

Do you have a picture?


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## Revolution1221

some fish especially guppies are born with bent spines it may start out not bad but it will get progresivley worse i have noticed with guppies that have it that it reaches a point where suddenly it gets ten times worse in a short period of time and thats when you know its time to euthenize them when they start having troubles swimming around. With guppies it seems to make it worse when they get pregnant but im not sure.


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## sbetsy

So the swimming problems may have been due to the curved spine and they were exacerbated as the fish grew? I peeked at the remaining danios a couple of minutes ago and they look a little red around the gills. I can't remember if they looked like that before. I don't spend that much time looking at the danios. I spend more time looking at the angels and the loaches. I'm a bad fish mom.


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## sbetsy

snyderguy said:


> It might be scoliosis
> 
> Do you have a picture?


Sorry - no picture. I didn't think to take one before my husband euthanized him.


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## Revolution1221

sbetsy said:


> So the swimming problems may have been due to the curved spine and they were exacerbated as the fish grew? I peeked at the remaining danios a couple of minutes ago and they look a little red around the gills. I can't remember if they looked like that before. I don't spend that much time looking at the danios. I spend more time looking at the angels and the loaches. I'm a bad fish mom.


most zebra danios do have slightly transparent gill flaps so a little pink can show through but you should try and get a picture of them so its easier to assess it could potentially be gill disease have you notice it on any other fish?


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## sbetsy

I'll try to do a picture. The other fish in the tank have no red around the gills - they look okay.


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## sbetsy

I never got a picture, but the rest of the fish looked good. Until today, when one of my angelfish attacked a danio and ate his eye. ************.


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## Revolution1221

sbetsy said:


> I never got a picture, but the rest of the fish looked good. Until today, when one of my angelfish attacked a danio and ate his eye. ************.


yeah angelfish really arn't the best for a community setting they can devolop aggression as they age.


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## emc7

nutrition, birth (hatch?) defect or disease (not common, but you do see it on symptom lists). Are the angels showing their tubes? They get mean when spawning. Danios are often suggested tankmates for angels with the hope the angels can't catch them. You're food list looks ok, but angels like meaty food and get cranky on veggie food. Are they eating the color flake? My angels are picky and eat some colors of flake, but not others.


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## sbetsy

The angels definitely seem to prefer the meatier foods - like the mysis shrimp or the blood worms but they like the omega super color flakes - they are pretty fishy. They aren't crazy about the veggie flakes but the other fish like them a lot. They eat the shrimp pellets too - which seems odd to me because I got those for the loaches. I'm not sure about the tubes. I don't know what to look for. I have 2 angels only so I don't know what the odds are that I have a male and a female. I have noticed that the bigger one is more aggressive as of late. If this continues, I'll move the community fish out so they stay safe.


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## emc7

just do a google image search on angelfish breeding tube. When they appear, the fish are interested and you have a chance of sexing them.


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