"fuzz" On Cory - Weird Locations

[AmberMc]

Help! I spent a good amount of time staring into my tank this morning (29g with 3 small angels, 4 cory, apple snails, and red ramshorns) when I saw that one of the green cories had white surrounding it's dorsal fin. Then, as it turned, I noticed a fuzzy patch on it's lower left gill. I tried to take photos, but the "stuff" was hard to see.

Fuzz on the cheek

White line around dorsal fin

I've only had all of these fish for 2 weeks, the snails a little longer. None of the other fish are showing any signs of infection. It is a fungus? I have some Liquid Fungus Cure by Aquarium Pharmacuticals, but it says it treats Mouth and Eye fungus as well as tail rot. Will this medication or disease hurt my snails? I have never seen anything quite like this. Please Help! If I get any better pictures, I will post them. Thanks!

 

[merry78]

some/most meds can harm snails, you miht be best off looking at a hospital tank setup (very cheap smallish tank with small cheap filter and heater), as you don't want to harm your snails, and you don't want your cory infecting others. also some meds will wipe out your good bacteria- another good reason to have a quarantine tank.
In the absence of any further info, daily 10-15% water changes are a good idea to help your fish cope with disease.

 

[AmberMc]

So do you think I would be better off just treating the fish that appears ill, or treating them all as a precaution? I can move the snails as long as there is no way that the disease can be spread by them.

 

[merry78]

hmmmm....
what i would do is this:
1. research around on sypmtoms/funguses etc, and be really sure that i am going to use the right med.
2. isolate sick cory in hospital tank, and treat appropriately.
3. closely observe other fish in original tank for signs of sickness.
4. if other fish get sick, do 100% water change on hospital tank, rinse thoroughly and refill. Put snails in hospital tank.
5. treat whole of original tank.
6. be doing frequent water changes if/as permitted by medication, and in snail tank.

i realise this may be a roundabout way to do things, it's just how i would do it.

sorry i can't help on your diagnosis, i do think it looks like fungus, but would prefer a more experienced member to diagnose rather than me.

best of luck, merry.

 

[-germ-]

Merry ( ) is right, fungus seems most likely although columnaris (bacterial) is also a possibility, the white mark near the fins should be the best indication, but i can't tell from the pic provided.
Your best placed to make the ID so try google imaging columnaris, mouth fungus, mouth rot or flexibacter columnaris and see what you think.
Then again the med may treat for this, does it contain phenoxyethanol?
Or mention treating the aforementioned bacteria/illness?
If you are struggling with IDing fungus/columnaris just ask and i can provide some links to reasonably good illness ID sites, problem with these is that the illnesses shown tend to be at a very severe stage which can sometimes be mis-leading.

 

[AmberMc]

Merry ( ) is right, fungus seems most likely although columnaris (bacterial) is also a possibility, the white mark near the fins should be the best indication, but i can't tell from the pic provided.
Your best placed to make the ID so try google imaging columnaris, mouth fungus, mouth rot or flexibacter columnaris and see what you think.
Then again the med may treat for this, does it contain phenoxyethanol?
Or mention treating the aforementioned bacteria/illness?
If you are struggling with IDing fungus/columnaris just ask and i can provide some links to reasonably good illness ID sites, problem with these is that the illnesses shown tend to be at a very severe stage which can sometimes be mis-leading.

You're right about them being misleading, all the photos I can get on google search seem to have the white patches covering the fish's entire body. But, so far it does sound as if it could be columnaris like you suggested - the poor thing has white stripes on either side of it's back (saddleback?) and on it's gills. CRAP! I so wish I could take a better photo, but none I have taken show the problem very well. The only thing getting me is, the fish still swims around and eats as if nothing at all is the matter, and there is no evident discoloration of any scales. The profiles from columnaris seem to think that the fish won't eat- but yet again, maybe that is the advanced stages. So what the heck can I get to treat this poor baby? Is there anything that would cover columnaris and a fungus? What about the GelTek foods? Should I treat the entire tank? All these medications have me thrown for a loop. Arg.

Edit: After looking up a few more of these medications on Petco.com... Would I be better off with a Melafix/Pimafix combination or Amipicillan or Tetracycline GelTek? I would probably get a water additive as well as the GelTek, in case the fish stops eating.