White thing on angelfish long fin/veil

[joelfernandes]

I noticed today a white “cotton-like” blob on my angelfish long fin/veil(?) is it a kind of fungus?

What should I do? Water parameters are normal (ph 8.2, ammonia/nitrite 0, nitrate 5)

I'm away for about a week and have someone to feed the fish twice in the following days. Is there anything that can/should be done while I'm away? Water changes will not be possible until Friday

 

[TNG]

I’d apply fungal treatment. That ventral fin was damaged allowing fungal infection to take hold if the water is not pristine. Once treated, that blob should fall off within a day or two.
The bit of fin below that blob will fall off, but it will grow back.
Follow the treatment instructions carefully though, remove carbon if you have it in your filter, and you may need a separate tank. The treatment will turn the water green if it contains Malachite Green.

 

[Colin_T]

I would add some salt instead of the fish medication. But either should work.

You can add rock salt (often sold as aquarium salt), swimming pool salt, or any non iodised salt (sodium chloride) to the aquarium at the dose rate of 1 heaped tablespoon per 20 litres (5 gallons) 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 (5 gallons), but 1 heaped tablespoon per 20 litres of water normally gets rid of fungus in 24 hours.

Keep the salt level like this for 1 week and it should be gone by the time you get back.

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.

 

[GaryE]

I would carefully net the fish and drip betadine or iodine directly on the infected injury. Then the fish would go into a recovery tank with clean water. Don't have it out of the water for more than a few seconds, and have something under it to soak up the med. Aim to only hit the affected area.

Then sort out what in your routine allowed that. The water change regime is probably low, or the tank may be overcrowded.

 

[biofish]

I had an angelfish with a similar ailment- unfortunately I couldn’t figure out a cure, but salting the aquarium did seem to slow it down, but I could’ve started too late in treatment. I think he could’ve made a recovery, but he died after a water change and probably couldn’t handle the hardness of the new water with his lowered immunity.

I hope your little guy recovers!

 

[joelfernandes]

Thank you, all. This was very helpful. Salt ftw!

Fortunately, the issue was gone within a couple of weeks. His behaviour seems normal, and no signs of the issue coming back.