Pleistophora hyphessobryconis is a protozoan/parasite disease affecting many tropical fish and goldfish (those in aquariums) Its common name is Neon Tetra Disease.
Pleistophora is spore forming within the body walls and muscle tissues of the fish.
There have been many new discoveries leading to (henneguya) from a gill parasite (will be with us shortly) . Pleistophora can last for a long while as a low level infection - this is how it spreads from fish to fish, but much heavier infections cause the fish's colour to fade and show a whitish film over the fish, very like costia or chilodinella, but a film appears under the skin not on top.
The fish lose body weight as in hexamita or TB, which leads to poor movement, lethagy - death soon follows.
I have only had some limited success with treatment in which one drug stands out. Any fish found affected should be isolated for several months as the infective spores will be seeking new hosts. Do not add new fish to an infected batch of fish that have shown symptoms for at least 12 months.
This disease also affects most of the small tetras, cichlids and some barbs, rasboras and goldfish.
I have not seen this disease in a pond upto now - it is often misidentified as costia or columnaris.
Usiing a microscope you need high power and good lenses to identify this disease - the spores are found after some searching in the body muscle liver and spleen.

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