A really bad day

[pcnicholson]

Wow, was yesterday bad. It started yesterday morning with my Betta, I noticed he had a little white spot above his upper lip. Over the course of the day this spot grew rapidly into a patch. I decided yesterday afternoon to put him in my 3 gal Q tank just to be sure. Q tank wasn't fully cycled yet so I did a 60% water change before I put him in there. This morning he was dead. The white area had taken over the whole front of his face. (I had dosed the tank with Melafix) Since he had come out of my 55 gal with the majority of my other fish, what do you think I should do now? Dose the 55 with something or wait it out. This is the same tank that had a rasbora die with a stuck open jaw so I'm hoping I'm not going to lose all the fish. Everyone else seems fine as of this morning. Any advice?

Params
0 amm
0 nitrite
20 nitrate
kh 7 degrees
ph 7.0

Any and all advice is welcome.

[KateCB]

The nitrate seems very high? May not be anything, but I wouldn't be happy with a reading of 20 - I use the API liquid kits and the nitrate should be around 0.5.....other than that I would be inclined to dose the tank with melafix, and perhaps use an all round tonic like liquisil - sounds like there is a problem somewhere - better safe than sorry - only my opinion though!

[Malefic23]

Melafix is a good fish tonic to promote healing and help with bacterial infections. A white spot that grows rapidly sounds more fungal. If you get another infected fish, try Pimafix instead of melafix. It's more fungal specific, just be carefull not to overdose your Q tank.

[pcnicholson]

Nitrates are high since I had just dosed ferts the day before. I have a heavily planted tank and it just goes through nitrate like you wouldnt believe.

I'm wondering if I should just dose the main tank with something just as a preventative?

[ct-death]

NitrAtes are fine. 20 or less is good.

Melafix does not treat Fungal infections, which is what that sounded like to me.

As for your tank, I would not treat the tank and dump in chemicals unless you know what you are treating. Otherwise you are simply stressing the fish out for no reason which in turn would actually make them more susceptible to illnesses.

Fungal infections require either a weak (stressed) fish or a wound to infest in order to set in. Think of this like an infected cut. If you keep the cut clean, no infection. No cut, no place for the infection to set in.

the best thing you can do is to provide as clean a water as you can and keep a close eye on your tank for the next 3-4 days.

Personally I think you will be fine, just be vigilant. ;)