Persistant Fungal infection. What to do next?

Pombe

AC Members
Feb 4, 2005
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Kingston, ON
A couple weeks ago I bought a pair of blue rams. Within a day of arriving in my tank the female started to show visible Ich. I raised the temperature to 30C and added 2 tsp of salt per gallon to treat the ich and threw some melafix in for good measure. After a week the visible ich was gone but replaced with cottony balls of fungus on the base of the tail and the all over the membrane of the fins. I treated with Melafix and Primafix with no effect for one week. I have now been administering Maroxy for 5 days and the fungus does not seem getting any better.

I'm looking for suggestions as to what to do next. The ram is still very active, and is eating, but I dont know how long she'll be able to tolerate this fungus as the infection is the worse that I've ever seen in my relatively short time keeping fish.

thanks in advance.

pombe.
 
Check out the sticky for the salt/heat treatment, you may even have ich still lurking around, I think it takes more than a week to clear up...
Is your carbon removed from your filter? Are you doing water changes?
 
I am familiar with the treatment of Ich, which is why I still have a bunch of salt in the water and elevated temperature. What I'm seeing is not Ich itself but a fungal infection that appeared secondarily.

The carbon is out, I changed half the water last week before I started the maroxy. Water parameters are all good.
 
I'd suspect something other than fungus. Secondary ailments are pretty common, but what this sounds like is either bacterial, or possibly viral. The lack of stress to the fish plus the fact that it's not responding to the salt makes me think it's more viral. Anyway to get a picture?
 
Sorry, it wasn't clear if you were still doing the salt and heat thing, I just said to refer to the article for a timeline on how long it takes for ich to be cleared up for sure, I don't know off hand!!!

I would keep up with the water changes, maybe 25%+ every other day or so. It is one of the best ways to help heal up some infections. Also, alot of people on here are not very fond of meds. but maybe you could try a different kind if what you are using doesn't seem to be working. I have seen maracyn recommended frequently.
 
OnionGirl: what kind of viral infection would cause white fluffy patches though? Could this be columnaris? I thought that the salt would have taken care of that possibility... I'll try to get a pic when I get home from work.

Holly: no worries. its hard to tell between the somewhat experienced people with few posts and total newbies. The life cycle of Ich is something like 3 weeks at my temperature, so I'm going to keep the salt in there for a while longer than that to be safe.
 
an now with pictures.

here are a couple of picks of the affected fish.

ramfins.jpg

lots of reflection from the body, but can see the spots on the fins. The pectoral fins also have a bunch of big fluffs on them.

ramfungus.jpg

Body is clear of spots as far as I can tell (therefore not Ich?).

What do you think?
 
I have seen that before on Blue rams I have bought... all I can say is good luck!!

Every one that I've seen that has that has never gotten rid of it. I have tried about everything I could think of to rid the fish of it and nothing worked! The fish store where I got them from stopped selling them because their fish had it too. The lady that runs the shop is very knowledgable about fish, has every kind of book and access to just about any medication out there. This is a smaller fish only shop that is owned by a nice couple that really care about the hobby. She was unable to every get it cleared up and I can tell you she tried a lot of different remedies and meds. Everything from all natural herbal treatments to some pretty strong antibotics. She had a name for it that escapes me right now, but it was not a fungus. The best luck either one of us had was to actually pick it off the fish after catching them and then lowering the PH in the tank. It would not cure the fish, but seemed to stop it from spreading. And that was in PH in the 5.8 to 6.0 range... pretty hard to sustain that over a long period with our water!

Anyway, Probably not what you wanted to hear and I'm sorry for you and your fish. But if you happen to find a successful remedy, I'd sure love to know about it!!

Best of luck,
 
I personally would try to betadine the infected areas. Here's what you do with this procedure.

Get a bottle of betadine from the first aid section in your grocery or department store. Get a q-tip and soak it in the betadine. Net your fish, and keep them in the net as this will help them stay wet. Support them with your hand (sometimes it help if one person holds the fish while another applies the betadine), and gently dab the areas on the fins, avoid the eyes, gills, and mouth as many fish react poorly if the betadine makes contact with them. Make sure you do both sides of the fish. In between doing one side and the other, I like to put them back in the tank but keep them in the net to let them rest for a minute.

I would like to give a warning on this... fish which are severly stressed are often put over the top by this treatment, and may die, so it's totally up to you whether you would like to try it or not. I have, however, successfully used this to treat various ailments of fish and have had success stories using it on oscars, bettas, discus, mollies, and guppies.
 
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