Treating fungal infection

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Biotoper

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Dec 18, 2004
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Yesterday I noticed one of my harlequins has a small patch of cottony white fungus on his chest under his pectoral fin. He also sometimes stops swimming and sinks and starts to roll over. I've had him for about two weeks. I researched it on the web and it looks like it's a fungal infection, which the sites said is not contagious, but rather a secondary infection resulting from some kind of initial stress/abrasion/etc. My water looks good - 0 ammonia (maybe a slight green tint but nowhere near 0.25 ppm - the first interval on my test kit), O nitrite, ~5 ppm nitrate, and none of my other fish have any visible fungi. I did have two of the rasbora jump into my filter the first night, and it was a real struggle to fish them out, so maybe he cut himself then.

Anyway, what should I do? I'm hesitant to add any medication to the tank, but maybe there's a good fungicide that won't have any bad effects on the tank. I tried to fish him out to maybe try a salt bath (just in a bucket - I don't have a quarantine tank), but too many hiding places made that impossible.

Thanks for your help.
 

Cloud-9

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May 11, 2003
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Reidsville, GA
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fungus

It's probably not a good idea to try to catch the fish and subject it to more handling. I had a betta that got sucked into a Supreme power filter. I got him out and put him back in the tank, but he also ended up with fungus. A pictus cat that had gotten tangled up in the dealer's net (the dealer had to cut the net with a razor) also ended up with fungus. Once I kept mostly cichlids. My orange pike bit the entire back end off of a Firemouth. Immediately, fungus attacked the wounded area. The entire backend of the Firemouth looked like cotton ball.

The first happened when I was young and ignorant. I added Aquari-Sol and somebody must have been looking out for the betta because it worked. The pictus incident happened when I was older and slightly more informed. I cured it (don't remember what I used). The Firemouth was a challenge. I could not believe the fish was still alive. I tried all kinds of treatments, with varying success but not quite curing the fish. Just keeping it alive. Finally, I pulled out the big gun and cleaned out the remnants of the previous medication, changed part of the water, and added Kanacyn. Sure enough, the fungus went away immediately, the fish started eating again. It looked ugly, but definitely recovering. I stopped the treatment too soon, the fungus came back immediately. Within 12 hours, the fish died. I guess that is why for the last ten few years, I go for the big gun right away.

I would probably hesitate to do that in your case. Kanacyn ain't cheap. Besides, that would basically mean handling the poor fish again. Honestly, I don't know how long a small fish like that can live with fungus. Maybe Melafix would work. You might try that. Melafix ain't gonna hurt your tank.
 

Biotoper

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Dec 18, 2004
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Thanks for the advice, Cloud-9. Well, I thought I should treat it sooner rather than later, so I already went to the LFS, looked through their fungicide selection, and decided on Pimafix (Melafix says it's for bacteria, pima for fungus). When I got home, I googled pimafix and didn't come up with any horror stories, so I went ahead and added it.

It says repeat for 7 days and then do a 25% water change. I realize now that at 30ml per day as recommended, the 118ml bottle I bought ($7) is only going to last 4 days. :( Hmm, not really worth it for my $2.50 rasbora in financial terms, but I'll have the warm feeling of keeping Bubba alive.
 
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