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BKG

SeemsFishy

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Does anyone know what this is ? I’ve had this fish for 4 yrs now and never have issues but this problem is just getting worse. It is eating fine and still plenty of movement and doesn’t seem bothered by it but I’m guessing it’s fungus from somewhere . Everything else in the tank is fine and all the time I’ve had this fish none of the other fish even bother with him it’s like he is the boss in the tank but he never bothers with anyone just does it’s own thing all the time.
 
I had that on my last one. Trouble is you can't treat it because they can't handle medications. A guy at Waterlife assured me Protozin would work but it didn't, and probably just made it worse, imo.
I stopped keeping them after that.
 
It looks like excess mucous (not fungus) on a burnt area on the fish.

Cleaning the tank daily for a couple of weeks might help or salt. If they don't then you can try something like Waterlife Myxazin, which is safer for scaleless fish than Waterlife Protozin. Most medications can be used at half strength for scaleless fishes.

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WHAT TO DO NOW?
Test the water for ammonia, nitrite, nitrate and pH. Post the results in numbers here.

Wipe the inside of the glass down with a clean fish sponge. This removes the biofilm on the glass and the biofilm will contain lots of harmful bacteria, fungus, protozoans and various other microscopic life forms.

Do a 75% water change and gravel clean the substrate every day for a week. The water changes and gravel cleaning will reduce the number of disease organisms in the water and provide a cleaner environment for the fish to recover in. It also removes a lot of the gunk and this means any medication can work on treating the fish instead of being wasted killing the pathogens in the gunk.
Make sure any new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it is added to the tank.

Clean the filter if it hasn't been done in the last 2 weeks. However, if the filter is less than 6 weeks old, do not clean it. Wash the filter materials/ media in a bucket of tank water and re-use the media. Tip the bucket of dirty water on the garden/ lawn. Cleaning the filter means less gunk and cleaner water with fewer pathogens so any medication (if needed) will work more effectively on the fish.

Increase surface turbulence/ aeration to maximise the dissolved oxygen in the water.

Post a picture showing the entire aquarium.

Make sure the fish has a safe place to hide and it doesn't have rough parts that can make this worse.

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SALT
You can add rock salt (often sold as aquarium salt), swimming pool salt, or any non iodised salt (sodium chloride) to the aquarium at the dose rate of 1 heaped tablespoon per 20 litres (5 gallons) of water. If there is no improvement after 48 hours you can double that dose rate so there is 2 heaped tablespoons of salt per 20 litres.

Keep the salt level like this for 1 to 2 weeks. If there's no improvement after a few days with salt, stop using it and water change it out.

The salt will not affect the beneficial filter bacteria, fish, plants, shrimp or snails.

After you use salt and the fish have recovered, you do a 10% water change each day for a week using only fresh water that has been dechlorinated. Then do a 20% water change each day for a week. Then you can do bigger water changes after that. This dilutes the salt out of the tank slowly so it doesn't harm the fish.

If you do water changes while using salt, you need to treat the new water with salt before adding it to the tank. This will keep the salt level stable in the tank and minimise stress on the fish.

When you first add salt, add the salt to a small bucket of tank water and dissolve the salt. Then slowly pour the salt water into the tank near the filter outlet. Add the salt over a couple of minutes.
 
so, I'm curious ( I can't make out the abbreviation ) what is a BKG???
 
It should be BGK

Apteronotus albifrons

The black ghost knifefish is a tropical fish belonging to the ghost knifefish family. They originate in freshwater habitats in South America where they range from Venezuela to the Paraguay–Paraná River, including the Amazon Basin. They are popular in aquaria

 
Most medications can be used at half strength for scaleless fishes.
These are not scaleless fish, but their electrical systems mean they're a very different kettle o' fish when it comes to medications. They react badly to most.
 

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