Spotted Gar fungal infection

[boeingn747]

I have a young spotted Gar about 1-1.5yr old. He/she is approx 13-15" long. Eats raw shrimp and live feeders. Housed in a 220 gallon tank. Tank mates include 12-14" common pleco. Water parameters = ph: 7.7, ammonia: 0ppm, nitrate: 10-15ppm nitrate: 0ppm, temp: 81.2. I have a 40gallon quarantine tank that is always treated with melafix and pima fix for all new feeder fish. I buy one month at a time and quarantine for about 1-2 weeks prior to feeding. One day I noticed my pleco sucking on the side of the gar. About the same time I noticed some discolored areas in the general spot where I found the pleco feeding on his side. I immediately removed the pleco and put him in a 120gal tank that I have set up. I assumed that the discolored spots were from the pleco so I did a small water change followed by a double dose of stress coat and I treated the tank with melafix and pima fix. He is still eating just fine at this point. Next day I notice the spots are worse now taking up the majority of each side. I add another dose of both MF and PF and add aquarium salt and bump the temp up to 85°. The following day (day 3) i notice that he hasn't eaten anything. I call a local fish store and they recommend kanaplex. I treat the tank every other day with kanaplex. At this point what looks to be fungas is covered 90% of his body with head and gills completely fine along with a stip from head to tail on his top (back). On day 9 I notice a couple of my feeders are now showing some sings of disease, such as a few have gill flukes and there are a few with clamped fins and look emaciated. I now figure that one of the feeders was sick and gave whatever to my gar. I stop feeding feeders and treat both tanks with PraziPro, and api general cure. I am on day 10 with my gar looking slightly better with some of the cotton like fungas starting to fall off. I am looking for some help or medication suggestions. I do currently have SulfaPlex, MetroPlex, and NeoPlex, that I have not yet tried. I am just not sure what else to do. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Photos are of gar healthy and then with fungas and then one from today.

 

[Colin_T]

Hi and welcome to the forum

Melafix and Pimafix don't do much except make your aquarium smell like a wet Eucalyptus forest.

Kanamycin, SulfaPlex, MetroPlex, and NeoPlex are all anti-biotics that won't treat fungal infections regardless of what seachem says on their website.

Anti-biotics should only be used on known bacterial infections that have not responded to normal fish treatments. Improper use and mis-use of anti-biotics has lead to drug resistant bacteria that kill people, animals, birds, reptiles and fish.

The fish looks like it is covered in fungus. Clean water and salt would normally fix it and many other minor problems. I would wipe the inside of the glass down with a clean fish sponge. Clean the filter because the anti-biotics will have wiped out the good filter bacteria. Then do a huge (80-90%) water change and gravel clean the substrate (if there's any gravel in the tank). Make sure any new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it's added to the tank. Then add some salt (see directions below).

----------------------
SALT
You can add rock salt (often sold as aquarium salt), sea salt or swimming pool salt to the aquarium at the dose rate of 2 heaped tablespoon per 20 litres (5 gallons) of water.

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 4 heaped tablespoons per 20 litres.

I'm not sure how much salt freshwater garfish can take so use the lower dose (2 heaped tablespoons 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, 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 will not affect 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.

----------------------
In future if you have to write long threads, try to put some paragraphs in and have a space between paragraphs. It makes it easier to read.

The following link has information on what to do if your fish get sick. It's long and boring but worth a read if you are interested.

What to do if your fish gets sick

If your fish ever looks sick or unwell, then the following steps might help. Test the Water and Clean the Tank. Test the water quality for ammonia, nitrite, nitrate and pH and write the results down in numbers. Check it for general hardness (GH) and carbonate hardness (KH) too if you can, but...

www.fishforums.net

 

[boeingn747]

Hi and welcome to the forum

Melafix and Pimafix don't do much except make your aquarium smell like a wet Eucalyptus forest.

Kanamycin, SulfaPlex, MetroPlex, and NeoPlex are all anti-biotics that won't treat fungal infections regardless of what seachem says on their website.

Anti-biotics should only be used on known bacterial infections that have not responded to normal fish treatments. Improper use and mis-use of anti-biotics has lead to drug resistant bacteria that kill people, animals, birds, reptiles and fish.

The fish looks like it is covered in fungus. Clean water and salt would normally fix it and many other minor problems. I would wipe the inside of the glass down with a clean fish sponge. Clean the filter because the anti-biotics will have wiped out the good filter bacteria. Then do a huge (80-90%) water change and gravel clean the substrate (if there's any gravel in the tank). Make sure any new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it's added to the tank. Then add some salt (see directions below).

----------------------
SALT
You can add rock salt (often sold as aquarium salt), sea salt or swimming pool salt to the aquarium at the dose rate of 2 heaped tablespoon per 20 litres (5 gallons) of water.

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 4 heaped tablespoons per 20 litres.

I'm not sure how much salt freshwater garfish can take so use the lower dose (2 heaped tablespoons 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, 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 will not affect 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.

----------------------
In future if you have to write long threads, try to put some paragraphs in and have a space between paragraphs. It makes it easier to read.

The following link has information on what to do if your fish get sick. It's long and boring but worth a read if you are interested.

What to do if your fish gets sick

If your fish ever looks sick or unwell, then the following steps might help. Test the Water and Clean the Tank. Test the water quality for ammonia, nitrite, nitrate and pH and write the results down in numbers. Check it for general hardness (GH) and carbonate hardness (KH) too if you can, but...

www.fishforums.net

Thanks for the response.
For starters, I belong to a couple aquarium groups and don't often post, but often find that most people that post a question or a problem there is always a million questions that get asked before an actual answer is given. Usually because of a lack of detail. So I was only trying to give a detailed explanation of my specific situation. To hopefully give enough information to get a good answer. In the future I will try to keep them shorter or use paragraphs.

Moving on to my Gar.
I am almost positive that this fungal infection was a secondary infection that got worse than the first problem. I have been treating the tank with aquarium salt as directed on the box. I typically only use melafix and pimafix as first step or as a preventative. I have had good luck in the past with both products, but do agree that it stinks and does not treat any major issues.

Today, Sunday 11/15/20 my Gar is looking so much better. I wouldn't say completely out of the woods yet, but I would say that he is definitely getting better. He ate last night for the first time in over a week and a half.

One last question.
When I do my water changes as you prescribed or any water changes in general. Should I be adding my chemicals (ex. Stress coat, stress zyme, tap water conditioner etc) to the amount of water that I am replacing or should I be adding to the size of the tank? In the past on a 25% water change i would add chemicals to the tank size and not the 25% of new water. I am asking because i feel like I go through a lot of chemicals.


Here is a photo from today. I do notice what looks to be blood on his right side.

Thanks again for your help.
Brandon

 

[Colin_T]

New water should always be treated in a separate container before it is added to a tank containing fish or other life forms. This prevents chlorine/ chloramine getting into the tank and poisoning the fish.

The only thing you normally need to add to tap water is a dechlorinator to remove the chlorine/ chloramine.

If you are adding salt (using salt to treat diseases), then the new water should be treated with salt before it's added to the tank. You only add enough salt to treat the new water that is going into the tank.

If you add tap water directly to the tank (during water changes), then treat the entire tank volume with the dechlorinator just before adding the tap water so it will hopefully neutralise any chlorine/ chloramine before it harms the fish. However, adding chlorinated water to any aquarium containing fish or other livestock could result in the death of the tank inhabitants.

-------------------
The red spots on the side of the fish is blood. You need to monitor this closely and if it spreads, then a bacterial infection is probably in the tissue. If it doesn't spread then it should heal up over the next few days.