Possible Fungus Help!

[plotolover]

Hello All,

I think i may have early stages of a fungus in my tank. I have noticed over the last few weeks that my largest Red Wag Platty seems to have a White area on side and now seems to have a white area at the base of tail where Red body meets Black tail. No other fish seem to be showing any signs of anything though. I have noticed my beloved Hypostumus Pleco seems to have a whiteish gray bump right on the end of his nose and a whitish gray line along his top sucker. Everyone is eating llike pigs and swimming very well, have not seen any change in behavior over the last couple months.



Yesterday i changed out my gravel sand mix substraite for just small black gravel in an attempt to keep things cleaner. I kept the HoB filter full of water and the media is about 3 weeks old also kept all the same h2o and kept all decorations and stones in old tank water to put back in. I will be adding back some old gravel in very holy tuperware for a while to help with bacterial growth and to help keep up the population. Unfortunatly today when i arrived home from work i found one dead neon tetra and one is missing so i am assuming the worst for him.


MY TANK
6 Red Wag Plattys and one Very tiny Red Wag Platty
3 Neon Tetras so far as i can tell
5 Zebra Danios
3 Large Neon green glo tetras
1 beloved 8 in hyostomus pleco ( the love of my life)

40 Gal oceanic flat back hex tank 15 gal water change every wed paramaters are usually PH 7.2-7.4 Ammonia 0 nitrites 0 nitrates 20-30ppm KH is very low about 2degrees i believe is how it is said that would be 0-50ppm

So now my Question is should i treat with a medication or not? If so fungus med? I have heard that a combination of myracin and myracin2 by mardel are good for combating these types of things.? Can i give this much med with my pleco and what other options do i have? I am concerned in accordance with my pleco as i have herd they can be sensative to treatments??
if this is a fungus of some kind i would like to nip it as soon as poss!!!!!!! Should i wait for my bacteria to regenerate more before a treatment of some kind since i would have to remove filter pad media? Please help any advice is welcome I am a novice for sure and do not want to lose my 9yr old pleco acutally am working on getting my 140gall up and running just to give him a permanant home for life. Thanks to all in advance

 

[WILDER]

Does the white on the fish look like fluffy cotton wool?

 

[Blitz]

This is what fungus looks like
View attachment 68092

 

[plotolover]

Does the white on the fish look like fluffy cotton wool?

No on the pleco it is just a grayish white film looking with a dot on his nose on the red wag platty it is hard to tell but kind of looks fluffy. If u have any ideas as to what this could otherwise be on the pleco any info would be much apriciated. Also thank you for your reply so quickly. Should I watch the platty a bit longer to determine if it gets fluffy or do u recomend treating just in case.?? Any suggestions on waiting to treat with my low bacterial population. I am doing gravel cleaning and water changes of 15 ish gal Tommorrow and wed did do about 5-10 gal today also. I use API tap water filter water treated to 7.0 ph to replace water in tank clean 80 degrees with stress coat to match tank parameters. Thanks again

 

[plotolover]

This is what fungus looks like
View attachment 68092

It dose not look like that on my pleco just a grayish film over his top lip or top part of his sucker mouth he eats well like a begging little puppy/piggy and on the platty it could be fuzzy fluffy looking very hard to tell as it just started to appear a couple days ago. Do u have any ideas of what could be on the pleco and or about the platty??? How fast does mouth fungus take to look fluffy since I heard it can start grayish white then turn fuzzy cottony. He has been this way with no change for about a month or so that I can remember. Thanks for the photo and quick reply.

 

[WILDER]

How big is the white dot. Is it the size of a grain of salt or bigger?
Does the white dot have any red, or pink areas?
Do any of your fish flick and rub?
Do any of your fish dart around the tank, or signs of erratic swimming?

Get you some info on Columnaris.

http/www.petfish.net/articles/Bettas/columnaris.php

 

[plotolover]

How big is the white dot. Is it the size of a grain of salt or bigger?
Does the white dot have and red, or pink area?
Do any of your fish flick and rub?
Do any of your fish dart around the tank, or signs of erratic swimming?

Get you some info on Columnaris.

http/www.petfish.net/articles/Bettas/columnaris.php

Hello wilder

The spot on his nose is about the size around of a pea but flat. It is grayish though not white like snow. His upper sucker is the same color it runs along the lip like a band. No red or pink at all. No flicking or rubbing. The only fish in the tank that dart around are the Zebra Danios and after 8 months i think this is there normal behavior especially at feeding time. They appear to chase each other but i can have not seen any damage to anybodys fins or bodies, They dont seem to nip just very excitable. We acutally named them the spazzy school. Like i said it has been there for a while about a month or more and does not seem to change. He eats well and is starting to rasp on his new drift wood. He attatches to glass walls and such without problums. Could this be something else or am i just a very overly worried parent.

Also i know its off the subject but could putting cucomber in the tank for him have harmed my tetras. It was clean and grown in a home garden with no pesticides or anything. The plattys ate off it and seem to have no adverse affects. It seems odd that i lost two the very next day after having that in there. also my water paramaters have gotten better since removing the sand am 0 nitrite 0 nitrate down to 5-10ppm. So far......... Will still be testing daily and doing a water change right after im done here. And poss a smaller one tomorrow just to really keep the gravel free of floating dodos and food for now since my bacteria may be lacking from the removal of old substrait or am i wrong in assuming this. ??

As you can tell im still new to all the fine tuning of things and this is only a community aqarium with fairly hardy little guys. But i love them just the same!!!!!! Thank You again for the info and responses

One more thing i was thinking of adding a canaster filter to this tank for added support and also to use in the future to help seed my large aqarium any suggestions?

Ok after reading the info on your post i think i may have the start of this issue. I do see some whitish grayish areas on my plattys just thought i was imagining this as it is very hard to see the area on my one platty is right at the base of her body where her tail fin starts. Since this has been going on a while i would like to start treatment right away. Do you have any first hand exp with this disease what is the best med to use and will it wipe out my good bacteria. I have to treat the whole tank since currently i do not have an appropriate hospital tank. Also since it is so contagious i am worried about the other fish getting it. Is the medication ok to use on all my fish neon tetras, red wag plattys, Zebra danios, Neon Green glo tetras and ploto my beloved pleco (hypostomus) Any advice on the best med to nip this now before anyone else gets it or perishes would be GREATLY apriciated and welcom. Thank you so much for the article it helped to confirm my worries

 

[WILDER]

Just needed to make sure it wasn't parasites.

Fish can also get columnaris spots. They can be white, greyish white, or have a pink or red centre.


It sounds like your fish do have columnaris. So I would get treating.
Some columnaris spots are hard to get rid of.

If in the UK myxazin by waterlife for main tank.
The fish with the columnaris spot could do with isolating and using furanol 2 by JBL.

Yes columnaris can spread like wild fire. It can wipe a whole tank out in 24 hours.
You also need to lower your tank temp. (Get you some info)
Don't forget to increase aeration.
Remove black carbon from filter.

 

[WILDER]

Columnaris
>The hospital tank should be heated to approx. 74 degrees. 76 and above is the ideal breeding temperature for columnaris. Though there is some dispute over lowering the temperature, my experience has been that 72 is too low for the medication to work rapidly, 76+ causes the disease to breed more rapidly than the anti-biotic can kill, and 74 is "just right." Remember to keep this temperature stable.
Text (c) Lauren Weeks

 

[plotolover]

Just needed to make sure it wasn't parasites.

Fish can also get columnaris spots. They can be white, greyish white, or have a pink or red centre.


It sounds like your fish do have columnaris. So I would get treating.
Some columnaris spots are hard to get rid of.

If in the UK myxazin by waterlife for main tank.
The fish with the columnaris spot could do with isolating and using furanol 2 by JBL.

Yes columnaris can spread like wild fire. It can wipe a whole tank out in 24 hours.
You also need to lower your tank temp. (Get you some info)
Don't forget to increase aeration.
Remove black carbon from filter.

Ok i cannot isolate the big pleco as i have no other tank to put him in so the main tank will have to be treated as a whole. The water temp is 80-82 normally should i lower the main tank temp or not. Also will the furanol 2 wipe out my bio bactria? 24 hours o man not good is it a good sign that the symptoms have not worsend in a month or more on the big guy and just started showing up about two weeks ago on the plattys? Hope i have caught this in time!! AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH~!!!!!!!!!! Very scared for my lovely fishes i cannot treat until tomorrow about 2pm hope they make it. I live in the us in wisconsin and it is to late for me to go to the store now and then i have to work. Aeration is at its max two two inch tall one inch around air stones and two light bars 8 in long turned all the way up all the time. Can i leave my nitazorb pouche and phosozorb pouch in the filter while treating. O man what did i do wrong very stressed out now hope treating goes well. I feel teriable!!!!!! my water always tests good and i do weekly changes of 5gal less than 50% so 15 gal UGH. Thank you now i just hope i can find this med in the us at a pet store as i live no where near any real fish stores.

is furanol 2 the same as furan 2 i may be able to get my hands on that or what about spectrogram --- Kanamycin are these any good??
I managed to get a good pic of pleco now i just have to figure out how to get it on here help please

 

[snazy]

Just needed to make sure it wasn't parasites.

Fish can also get columnaris spots. They can be white, greyish white, or have a pink or red centre.


It sounds like your fish do have columnaris. So I would get treating.
Some columnaris spots are hard to get rid of.

If in the UK myxazin by waterlife for main tank.
The fish with the columnaris spot could do with isolating and using furanol 2 by JBL.

Yes columnaris can spread like wild fire. It can wipe a whole tank out in 24 hours.
You also need to lower your tank temp. (Get you some info)
Don't forget to increase aeration.
Remove black carbon from filter.

Ok i cannot isolate the big pleco as i have no other tank to put him in so the main tank will have to be treated as a whole. The water temp is 80-82 normally should i lower the main tank temp or not. Also will the furanol 2 wipe out my bio bactria? 24 hours o man not good is it a good sign that the symptoms have not worsend in a month or more on the big guy and just started showing up about two weeks ago on the plattys? Hope i have caught this in time!! AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH~!!!!!!!!!! Very scared for my lovely fishes i cannot treat until tomorrow about 2pm hope they make it. I live in the us in wisconsin and it is to late for me to go to the store now and then i have to work. Aeration is at its max two two inch tall one inch around air stones and two light bars 8 in long turned all the way up all the time. Can i leave my nitazorb pouche and phosozorb pouch in the filter while treating. O man what did i do wrong very stressed out now hope treating goes well. I feel teriable!!!!!! my water always tests good and i do weekly changes of 5gal less than 50% so 15 gal UGH. Thank you now i just hope i can find this med in the us at a pet store as i live no where near any real fish stores.

is furanol 2 the same as furan 2 i may be able to get my hands on that or what about spectrogram --- Kanamycin are these any good??
I managed to get a good pic of pleco now i just have to figure out how to get it on here help please

Furanol and Furan 2 have different ingredients though both claim to be effective against columnaris. I would get kanamycin instead as it will not affect your filter bacteria. If you have a bad case of columnaris, you can combine with furan 2 at the same time. For urgent cases, methylene blue baths can help cure the disease too. As Wilder suggested, get the temperature down in the tank because columnaris spreads faster in warmer water and therefore can kill faster. There are different strains of columnaris, if you've got the worse one and your fish start dying, get an aggressive medicine like kanamycin+furan 2. Other strains take a lot longer, days even weeks to kill.

 

[plotolover]

Hello and again thanks for all the help!

I took my water paramaters today and they are as follows am-0 nitrites-0 nitrates-5-10ppm Kh-1-2dg almost 0 which i dont like however at this point i am not going to go messing with it. Ph is between 6.6-7.0 hard to tell as the test result colors for the two are very similar.

So i have finally figured out how to add photos and i got two that will hopefully be helpfull in getting to the proper treatment. I would like to start today if anyone sees these photos and gets back to me in time i will head to the store straight away!

So here is my tank 40gal flat back hex

Here are the symptoms i have been describing on my pleco see nose and upper sucker area

Here are the symptoms on my Red wag platty they are hard to see but look closely at the base of scales just befor tail at the top

 

[WILDER]

Nice tank.
White edging around scales can also be columnaris.

I would get treating.
What is your location? Which country? Need location to suggest a med.

 

[plotolover]

Nice tank.
White edging around scales can also be columnaris.

I would get treating.
What is your location? Which country? Need location to suggest a med.

My location is sheboygan, Wi in the united states. Please for any med you recomend could you also include if it will be detrimental to my filter bacteria so i know what to expect. I will be moitering paramaters daily and continue to feed daily morning for fish and lights out for pleco unless you suggest otherwise. I lowered my tank temp just a bit 2 degrees yesterday after the water change of 15gal. Should i continue to lower the temp slowly or not mess with it the pleco has looked this way for about a month now with no change does not seem to be spreading rapidly. Those are the only two affected fish so far as i can tell. Thank you so much for you patience with a real bonehead newbie and for giving your generous help!! As soon as you recomend a proper med i will be out the door to the pet store. Also if a med you recomend requires or has any special tricks that may not be listed on the box please advise. Hugs of apriciation Now hopefully treatment goes well!!

 

[WILDER]

Maracyn, Maracyn 2, Maracyn Plus.

You can use maracyn 1 & 2 together. But it might knock your good bacteria in your filter.
Keep lowering the temp gradually.
If you have to preform a water change during the med course. Just add the correct amount of med back to water removed.
Also don't forget to remove black carbon from filter.
Increase aeration slightly. As meds reduce 02 in the water.