Bacterial Infection - Grey spots?

[Lesabrettype]

I've had this clown for about a year. She's always been lethargic with slight respiration issues - her gills were flared - so I thought it could just be a permanent thing. She's been in a system with lots of other clowns - no one else has shown any symptoms. When I got her, I treated for bacterial, I didn't like the grey spots I saw, i used nitrofuracin green. She seemed to bounce back, was still kinda a picky eater, lethargic, etc. She recently started to get worse, the grey spots came back, or atleast got worse. I was having a hard time determining if they were just her coloring. Anyways, I put her and her male in a hospital tank with nitrofuracin green, followed the directions, came home to a dead fish. She went from alive to dead in 8 hours (I was at work). I'm thinking this is a longer term bacterial thing? Is bacterial contagious, again, no one else has ever shown symptoms. I think the bloating is from being dead. Was not bloated this morning.

 

[Maritimer]

Sorry to see that you lost her - she was a beautiful fish. Did she always have that grey band along the top of her white bars?

Bacterial infections aren't generally contagious fish-to-fish, so long as the water conditions aren't septic.

~Bruce

 

[Lesabrettype]

No that came when she died. She did have some light greyish spots - similar to ammonia burn.

 

[Brew12]

I'm sorry you lost her.

To echo what Bruce said, bacteria typically aren't contagious. Obviously, our aquariums are far from sterile and if a fish with a bacteria infection is in the water with other fish all of the fish will be exposed. A healthy fish will not have any problems with bacterial exposure which is why we don't consider it contagious. It takes another health issue such as a parasite or a wound to allow bacteria to take hold on a fish.