cotton stuff killing my fish

[whitwebb]

My tank is slowly being overtaken by this cotton looking stuff. I am guessing it is that fungus flexobacter but i am not positive. I will have a fish die suddenly about once every 2 weeks and within a few hours (if i don't notice the dead fish right away) it is completely covered by this cottony stuff. Any suggestions?
Thanks so much in advance!

[unirdna]

I've always used Maroxy to kill fungus (I think it's just copper sulfate). I know that it will kick the crap out of the fluffy stuff. What I do NOT know is how your plants will react.

[SCMurphy]

Copper is bad for plants and shrimp and in high enough levels for fish. Unfortunately I can't offer an alternate solution.

[Indy]

Hospital tank?

[unirdna]

Yeah, Indy. I agree, a hospital tank is the best way to handle a fungal infection on your fish. But whitewebb is looking for a way to kill all the stuff growing in/on his tank.

[g8wayg8r]

Hospital tanks may be nice for tanks that don't have a lot of plants. There is no way on this earth I could ever remove one of my pristilla or lemon tetras from my planted tank without destroying the plants I have worked so hard to grow.

I've got a pristilla tetra with some sort of white patch/spot/ whatever just below the dorsal fin. I just noticed it and if it continues to grow I'm going to need something to kill (I presume) the fungus. I can read articles about the different medacines but most aren't made with planted tanks in mind and usually tell you that your plants are trashed if you use their product. Having someone share their first hand experience with such matters would be a great help in case I've got a problem in the making.

[mjprather]

How about Malachite green or Formalin. Would these damage the plants? From what I have read I would guess the answer is yes. Anyone else have insight on this?

Reference

[corigan]

Originally Posted by mjprather

How about Malachite green or Formalin. Would these damage the plants? From what I have read I would guess the answer is yes. Anyone else have insight on this?

Reference

Used both of them in quick cure to kill ich. Those are the ingredients in the product. Used it at half dose, not one plant melted/died in the process of using it over a 10-14 day period to make sure I killed the ich cycle.

Matt

[amanda huggenkiss]

Does the white cottony stuff appear before or after the fish dies? Because if you don't see it before, it's possible it's not the thing that's killing your fish.

How long has your tank been set up? I'm asking because while a tank is breaking in, before the bacteria has a chance to become established, leftover food and dead fish won't be broken down properly and will... look white and fuzzy. I'm not sure if it's mold or what, but I just set up a new tank a couple months ago and was reminded of that phase of the cycle (luckily no dead fish, just fuzzy leftover food).

[Rosko_22]

g8wayg8r:

I've got a pristilla tetra with some sort of white patch/spot/ whatever just below the dorsal fin.

Watch that spot carefully, my g/f just lost a zebra danio last weekend that had a white patch/spot/whatever under it's dorsal fin. Once we noticed it, the fish was dead a couple of days later. She thinks it may have been columnaris or fungus.


This is a picture of the fish, the day before it died.



If it bares any resemblance you might want to act quickly, it didn't take long for this fish to go from totally fine to dead. Even with the spot, it acted normally until the day it died.

[g8wayg8r]

The spot on the pristilla is gone with no sign. That's the good news. Unfortunately, I've got another one that is almost eaten alive with fungus. It's got white fluffy patches and a huge brown spot that is growing into the fish. I suspect it got into a fight and was injured. I've tried some treatments that are safe for the plants but it looks like the fish is going to die. None of the other fish seem to be bothered, however. I would love to remove the fish but I just can't figure out a way to do it without destroying the tank.

I read an article about tetras in general being prone to disease. Anybody else have that experience?

[convicted_convict]

You may be able to catch it at feeding time. Tricking it might work, drop some food and when it comes up, grab it with the net. It may work, there is an option for ya to get it into a Q-tank.

[anonapersona]

I just took two cardinals out of a heavily planted tank, it took probably over an hour, I'm not sure -- it seemed like forever!

I used one big, white net and one small green net. I read somewhere that fish dont see white as well as green but I don't know if that is true.

I used the small net to herd the fish around the tank, the big net was poised so that I could snap it against the glass if the right fish came by.

The fish are very curious, so if you move very, very slowly, they won't spook too much and they will come back to investigate the still net.

Eventually, the right fish went past the big net and eventually I actually caught it. It took an extraordinary amount of patience. I was very limited in where I could set up since I had to have the light on, it was hard to chase the fish out from behind the stump. They stayed in the base of a big sword and I couldn't even begin to work them out of there -- so I just waited. They got more and more curious, and it was a normal feeding time so they were expecting a treat but I didn't feed them at all. That made them come to the front in anticipation.

I have no idea what was wrong with these two fish, one had a sunken belly, the other had big zits on its tail and the tail was sort of deformed by the growths. I've had two fish die in there of unknown causes, a cory and a serpae terta and I found the bodies. I think I may be mising a lot of cardinals but I can't tell, too many to count. This is a tank I'd like to add discus to, but now I'm not sure about risking them to some disease.

[g8wayg8r]

Funny you should mention deformity on a Cardinal Tetra. About seven months ago, I had a Neon that was deformed by some sort of disease. What ever it was seem to get the best of them. None survived. Of course, my water parameters were horrible at that time. I don't think that was the agent that deformed the Neons but I'm sure it stressed them well enough so they had no chance of recovery.

I just couldn't stand watching that sick Pristilla so I got a net and a stick and captured it much the same way you nabbed your Cardinals. With a large dose of patience I was able to chase the sick Pristilla between the tank glass and net. I snared it and put it into a quarantine tank I bought at Petsmart. It's one of those 5-gallon bow front kits made by All-Glass and it was on clearance. Anyway, my local pet shop sells Jungle Fungus Eliminator. That and a tablespoon of salt looks like it has the cotton and red sores on the way out. It's only been a day but the change is truly remarkable. I'll keep the little fellow in the tank for a week or two. I've cut some pennywort and watersprite from the big(ger) tank to make it more like home. Hope it works.

[anonapersona]

Originally Posted by g8wayg8r

....With a large dose of patience I was able to chase the sick Pristilla between the tank glass and net. I snared it and put it into a quarantine tank I bought at Petsmart. ..... It's only been a day but the change is truly remarkable.

Bravo! Well done!