Possible Cotton Wool Disease

[Sprizmo]

Request Help - Possible Cotton Wool Disease

Tank size: 120L
tank age: 5 months
pH: 7.4
ammonia: 0.00
nitrite: 0.00
nitrate: 20 ppm
kH: 6
gH: 14
tank temp: 25 C

Fish Symptoms (include full description including lesion, color, location, fish behavior):
Celestial Pearl Danio, female, sitting very near the surface under amazon frogbit leaves with a hazy white cotton wool like substance around it. Not moving, just coasting stationary. Managed to isolate the fish in a 2 litre jug for now in case contagious.

Volume and Frequency of water changes:
Every 2 weeks, 40 litres of water. Did one earlier today and noticed this after filling tank back up

Chemical Additives or Media in your tank:
None

Tank inhabitants:
10 x Celestial Pearl Danios
3 x Three Spot Gourami
2 x Bristlenose Catfish

Recent additions to your tank (living or decoration):
None

Exposure to chemicals:
None

Digital photo (include if possible):
Couldn't get one before isolating. Isn't a lot or white stuff, just enough for me to notice. Should I isolate the fish in a jug? Or add it back in? No other fish show signs.

Just looking for advice or possible medications to use. Gourami's mean I can't use Pimafix, catfish can't use salt?

 

[Colin_T]

need pictures of the fish.

catfish can tolerate salt.

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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.

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, 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.

 

[Sprizmo]

Okay thanks. Should I put the fish back in with the rest of the tank in this case?

Will try and get a picture.

 

[Sprizmo]

Not the clearest but kind of shows the issues.

 

[Essjay]

The fish in the photo has dropsy as well - the scales are sticking out like a pine cone. Dropsy is a symptom of an underlying disease rather than a disease itself, and the underlying disease could have many causes, a lot of which are incurable eg a virus infection. Dropsy occurs when the underlying disease has progressed far enough to cause kidney failure, and I'm sorry to say it is almost impossible to save a fish once things have reached this point.

 

[Sprizmo]

The fish in the photo has dropsy as well - the scales are sticking out like a pine cone. Dropsy is a symptom of an underlying disease rather than a disease itself, and the underlying disease could have many causes, a lot of which are incurable eg a virus infection. Dropsy occurs when the underlying disease has progressed far enough to cause kidney failure, and I'm sorry to say it is almost impossible to save a fish once things have reached this point.

Okay. None of the other fish in the tank have this and I take it dropsy isn't contagious? Should I salt the rest of the tank to be safe? Or just monitor it?

 

[Essjay]

Whether it's infectious or not depends on the underlying disease, though usually it's only one fish affected.

I'll leave it to Colin_T to answer the salt question.

 

[Lynnzer]

No way back from that I'm afraid. CPD's are fragile already and this looks to be the end of days for this poor fish.
Any disease that it's picked up has probably been in the original tank so whatever it was, the chances are that some sort of virus or bacteria is still in the tank.
Salt may well work to resolve the underlying tank issue but not the fish's health I'm afraid.
I have several CPD's in my competition tank (in the link below) and have lost a few to unknown causes, but the addition of salt some weeks ago seems to have improved things.

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HAVE YOU VOTED YET​

 

[Colin_T]

the fish has excess mucous and either has an external bacterial or external protozoan infection causing the scales to stick out.

try 2 heaped tablespoons of salt for every 20 litres of water. Keep salt in tank for 2 weeks and monitor the fish. If it stops eating, euthanise it.

before you add salt, wipe the inside of the glass down, and do a huge (75-80%) water change and gravel clean the substrate.

Give the filter a clean too if it hasn't been done in the last 2 weeks. Wash filter media/ materials in a bucket of tank water and re-use the media. Tip the bucket of dirty water on the lawn.