Rashi is Ingrid's moor who is slowly turning orange:

On his tail he has white growth or spots that Ingrid is trying to identify. These are pictures and scrapes done by Ingrid to try to figure out what this is. This is the story as it is unfolding on GAB and Koivet

March 15:

Pictures are here!

So many fins all over the place, I'm not exactly sure which one the affected fin in this pic is...I think it's the right caudle, upper lobe.

Close up:

Right caudle, upper lobe

Close up

The next two are the left caudle, lower lobe, with arrows pointing to spots.

Right caudle, lower lobe. The pink line indicates where I'm thinking of taking a snip for a look on the EM.

Close up of above

Right caudle, upper and lower lobes

Close up

Ingrid then decided to swab the white growth with iodine and at the same time snip a sample so that she could have a closer look under the microscope

March 21

Yesterday, my buddy Jay helped me get a sample of Rashi's fin and swab the fins down with iodine. I documented some of the process, but couldn't take pictures during the procedure. I looked at a piece of fin under a light microscope and managed to get some pictures. It was not easy to focus, because things were moving as the water on the slide evaporated and produced a micro-current. Quite a frustrating experience really. Nothing jumped out at me as amiss, but I'll share the micrographs in case those of you with more experience notice anything. I saw some potentially pathogens, but everything I've read say you can easily see ich and stuff at combined power of 100x. The stuff I saw was noticable at 400x. Frustrated by nhaving no clue about what I was looking at, I stained a piece of fin with Wright Stain (methylene blue and eosin Y). The slime coat stained blue, but there were a number of pink cells with large nuclei hanging around too. I don't know what they were, but I got a pic in case anyone else does!

Rashi responded well to the whole ordeal. Within minutes she was back to her usual begging/gravel rummaging. SOmething interesting is she's seemed more perky since the swab. I haven't seen any bottom-sitting. Maybe the iodine killed something that was cauing her pain? My husband's theory is that Rashi was still morning the loss of her favorite plant, and the swabbing was shock therapy. It will be interesting to see if and when she returns to bottom-sitting. I don't see much difference in the appearence of the spots, but I did notice a little milkiness on the left side of Rashi's head, behind the gill cover and reaching up towards her dorsum. I'm thinking it's slime production in response to some irritation sustained yesterday, but I will keep a close eye on it.

Without further ado, here are the pictures.

Biopsy Setup:

Here is what the fin looked like after I took the sample and swabbed. A bit of redness, but no bleeding during the procedure. The milkiness has gone away

Now the micrographs. All powers are combined objective and eyepiece.

First, a view at 40x. The slime coat is on the right side of the pic. I don't know if those holes were there before or if they were sustained during the procedure or messing with the sample after. The picture on the right at 100x, showing the radiating tips of the rays (I think).

Some kind of bumps of something, also 100x.

The next 4 are inside the largest bump, at 400x.

Some images of the slime coat at 400x. Sorry for the high contrast.

A "mystery spot." Hard to capture, because it's just a mass of colorless celss sitting about the tissue. 200x

The large-nucleus cells that stained pink with Wright's. The morphology of most is distorted because the slide dried out too much. I enlarged one with good morphology.

Here are the micrographs of the mucus scrape. I saw large cells, dark cells with tiny black things swarmming in them, a lumpy thing and a tan cell that could be some kind of microbe. Only saw one tan cell and one lumpy thing.

1. Mucus with some large cells, 100x, 200x, and 400x

2. The dark cells. There were several of these scattered about. 200x, 200x, 400x

After the swabbing Ingrid found that the spots receded

3. The lumpy thing. To me, this seems like the most abnormal part of the scrape. I wonder if it's a piece of one of the spots? It reminds me of a wart, but less organized. 200x, 400x, and zoomed in

4. Finally, the tan cell. 400x and zoomed in

March 23

The spots on the upper lobe of the right caudal have definitely receeded. The ones on the lower lobe have not. They appear to be more numerous than the pictures I posted earlier, but they looked like that right before the swabbing too. I'm starting to think the spots on the upper right caudal are of different origin than the spots on the lower. They looked kind of different from the star (smaller, less protruding), and they seemed to have responded to iodine treatment. There are also some spots on the right anal fin that I didn't notice before. I went back and examined some pics from before the swabbing, and those spots were there then too. Pictures of upper lobe of left caudal with no spots.

Right lower lobe after swab

The upper lobe of the right caudal yesterday. To the left before the swab. After the swab to the right

The next day however, Ingrid found that the spots had returned

March 24
Ugh. Rashi was bottom-sitting again at lunch, and it appears the spots are back too! I took a mucus scrape of the lower right caudal (the fin with the most prominent spots) and I got some more micrographs. I also got pics of the re-emerging spots. I'll get them sized and uploaded and post back soon. I'm thinking of doing another swab tonight. Rashi will never eat out of my hand at this rate. They just keep doing scary things to her

1. New spots on left lower caudal, the fin I had taken a sample from 3 days ago.

2. Spots on the right lower caudal, where I took the mucus scrape. No obvious change to these spots.

3. New spots on the right upper caudal. These seemed to be going away, but there they are again.

After the success of the first swab, Ingrid swabbed again this time for about one minute being more thorough.

March 27

Just finished swabbing. Rashi seems much more disturbed by it this time. She's been sitting on the bottom with her dorsal fin down for about 5 minutes now. Hope she's OK! I had her out for about 1 minute, and iodine was on the entire caudal, anal, and ventral fins. I also got some on the dorsal I believe.

When I came home at lunch, she was hanging out at mid-level (ie not on the bottom!), but when I reached in to adjust her airstone, she went to the bottom to hide under some leaves. She hates me. I've been home for about 2 hours, and haven't seen her on the bottom in that time. She hasn't been doing much, though. She shed some of her slime coat, probably in response to the iodine swabbing, but looks pretty good otherwise. The caudal fins are starting to look a bit ragged from the treatments I think.

Looking at those fins, and thinking about the complete lack of bleeding when I took a sample, makes me wonder about the blood supply to the fins. I mean, her tail is so ridiculously long, and apparently not well vascularized. It seems possible that she's not getting enough of her immune system to those cells, because of the limited vascularization. However, you'd think that if that were the case, she wouldn't have much sensation there so wouldn't be bothered by them being infected. Also, that doesn't explain the spots on the less exaggerated anal fin.

March 28

Well, she hasn't been bottom-sitting, so that's a consistent result of the iodine treatment. It's taking a toll on her fins, though. They look quite ragged. The spots aren't obvious at all right now, but we'll see how it goes over the next few days.

Overview of the caudal fins from the right

and from the left.

Close up of the left anal fin, still appears to have a spot or two.

Left caudal, lower/mid lobe.

The next three are the right caudal, lower lobe. This is the fin that has had the most prominent spots, and from which I took a mucus sample.

Wouldn't it be nice if she never returned to bottom-sitting and the fins grow back in nice and healthy, spot-free?

A few days later Ingrid found that the spots seemed still gone. The damage from the swab was healing nicely and Rashi seemed to be doing well swimming around more than usual.

April 1

Here are some pictures from today. The fins are looking good! Even the lower right caudal is spot-free.
View from the right:

The lower lobes:

The lower right lobe:

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