Fish with white on fins

Silvermist80

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Can I get some help identifying this? I am really tired, I started a new job that has me exhausted. I dont think it's ich, but maybe fungus? Hoping he's OK for overnight. I know my water is overdue for a change with my work schedule. Any help is appreciated. Will treat and do water change tomorrow. Thanks.
 

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Looks like fungus.

Wipe the inside of the glass down with a clean fish sponge.

Do a 75% water change and gravel clean the substrate. 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.
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 them. Tip the bucket of dirty water on the garden/ lawn. Cleaning the filter means less gunk and cleaner water with fewer pathogens.

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

Add some salt, (see directions below).

--------------------
SALT
You can add rock salt (often sold as aquarium salt) or swimming pool salt to the aquarium at the dose rate of 1 heaped tablespoon per 20 litres 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.

If you only have livebearers (guppies, platies, swordtails, mollies), goldfish or rainbowfish in the tank you can double that dose rate, so you would add 2 heaped tablespoons per 20 litres and if there is no improvement after 48 hours, then increase it so there is a total of 4 heaped tablespoons of salt per 20 litres.

Keep the salt level like this for at least 2 weeks but no longer than 4 weeks otherwise kidney damage can occur. Kidney damage is more likely to occur in fish from soft water (tetras, Corydoras, angelfish, Bettas & gouramis, loaches) that are exposed to high levels of salt for an extended period of time, and is not an issue with livebearers, rainbowfish or other salt tolerant species.

The salt will not affect the beneficial filter bacteria but the higher dose rate (4 heaped tablespoons per 20 litres) will affect some plants and some snails. The lower dose rate (1-2 heaped tablespoons per 20 litres) will not affect 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.
 
Looks like fungus.

Wipe the inside of the glass down with a clean fish sponge.

Do a 75% water change and gravel clean the substrate. 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.
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 them. Tip the bucket of dirty water on the garden/ lawn. Cleaning the filter means less gunk and cleaner water with fewer pathogens.

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

Add some salt, (see directions below).

--------------------
SALT
You can add rock salt (often sold as aquarium salt) or swimming pool salt to the aquarium at the dose rate of 1 heaped tablespoon per 20 litres 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.

If you only have livebearers (guppies, platies, swordtails, mollies), goldfish or rainbowfish in the tank you can double that dose rate, so you would add 2 heaped tablespoons per 20 litres and if there is no improvement after 48 hours, then increase it so there is a total of 4 heaped tablespoons of salt per 20 litres.

Keep the salt level like this for at least 2 weeks but no longer than 4 weeks otherwise kidney damage can occur. Kidney damage is more likely to occur in fish from soft water (tetras, Corydoras, angelfish, Bettas & gouramis, loaches) that are exposed to high levels of salt for an extended period of time, and is not an issue with livebearers, rainbowfish or other salt tolerant species.

The salt will not affect the beneficial filter bacteria but the higher dose rate (4 heaped tablespoons per 20 litres) will affect some plants and some snails. The lower dose rate (1-2 heaped tablespoons per 20 litres) will not affect 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.
I was going to move him to a hospital tank for treatment. Is salt an effective treatment for fungus? If not, I think I have a few medicines around or could go purchase some. So far it's just the one fish.
 
Leave him where he is because any handling can damage him further and cause the fungus to spread. White fluffy fungus gets into open wounds and normally only occurs if a fish has been injured or handled roughly.

Salt is a safe and effective treatment for fungus.
 
Leave him where he is because any handling can damage him further and cause the fungus to spread. White fluffy fungus gets into open wounds and normally only occurs if a fish has been injured or handled roughly.

Salt is a safe and effective treatment for fungus.
Well, he's in with some fish that aren't so good with salt. Bristlenose plecos, corydoras, zebra danios
 
They will be fine with 1 or 2 heaped tablespoons of salt per 20 litres, for 2 weeks.
 
Well, usually your advice is pretty good, but salt unfortunately doesn't cure everything, as evidenced. I lost the fish in the photo, he just kept getting worse and then my angelfish started biting at him, giving him more fungus. I think moving to a hospital tank would've been much less traumatic. I doubled the dose as instructed when it didn't work, fish still died. .y plecos are turning dull. It also spread to other fish. So I moved all sick fish to a hospital tank, medicated with fungal medicine... one that was getting pretty sick is already looking better. I did a water change on the main tank to immediately lower the salt content, other fish are looking better. The salt thing worked on my guppies with Columnaris, but got it wrong this time. Lost a fish to bad advice, but I guess you can't win them all.
 
You need to find out what caused the problem to begin with so it doesn't happen again. Salt does treat fungus but what caused the injuries that allowed the fungus to infect the fish?
 

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