Please, anyone identify what this is?

[yhbae]

Grrrr... This is the same platy that got sick about a month ago, but managed to survive this far. Tried the Fungus Iliminator, treated it for about 2 weeks but the condition was about the same. So I left it in the same tank without any medication, and hoped that she would survive. She always acted normal and fed well.

Today, I checked again very carefully and it is clearly getting worse.

Picture:

What the heck is this? Looks like a cotton fungus but the medication doesn't seem to work - I treated it for the full 2 weeks on full dosage...

 

[grimlock3000]

Try switching medicines, if you have tried and failed with a fungal med, you may need to use a different anti-fungal, or treat the infection as bacterial. I had had excellent luck with Kanacyn one a fish recently, though it took well more than the reccomended dose.

I had trouble pulling up your pic with the spaces in the file name so I mirrored it:

 

[BD8]

Have you tried Mela-Fix? It seems to help with any problem I have in my tanks, from eaten fins to bacterial infections...almost a miracle cure.

 

[yhbae]

grimlock3000, thanks for mirroring the image! I didn't realize it was the space that causes the problem - I knew for some reason, it worked in some cases but not always...

Perhaps I'll try to Mela-Fix to see if that works for me...

I have methylene blue by Kordon as well. Does it make sense to try this as well?

 

[Allivymar]

It looks like flexibacter to me (aka columnaris). I know I am forever blaming things on columnaris, but it is the #1 bacterial disease in FW fishtanks, and that looks like classic flex. Theres a very thorough article on it here: http://www.aquamaniacs.net/flex.html .

Melafix will not help; its great for mild cases of finrot, but is simply not strong enough for a more serious infection. You'll need a stronger broad spectrum antibiotic; the current favorite for flex treatment is Kanacyn.

 

[yhbae]

Allivymar, thanks again for the feedback.

I just read the article and all the symtoms sounds very similar except for one small detail - mine has been infected for over a month, and she is still alive! The article suggests that flexibacteria spreads fast, but this one is anything but fast.

I've never heard of Kanacyn and I don't think I saw it at my LFS either. I'll check it out tomorrow! Thanks!

 

[yhbae]

I'm having a heck of a time finding Kanacyn - none of my LFSes near my work or my home carries this medicine. I found it at the online store, which will take at least a week to deliver the medicine, but looks like I have no choice... :?

One more question meanwhile...

Do these bacteria survive without the host? If I move the sick fish to another tank, can I wait for X number of days and add healthy batch of fishes for breeding purpose without risking catching the same infection again?

Appreciate some feedback!

 

[Allivymar]

I wish I knew *sigh*

I had a virulent case of columnaris wipe out 4 out of 5 rams recently; one survivor. I'm terrified to add any other fish to that tank as I can't sterilise it (tis a planted tank with sand/laterite substrate), and I can't find any concrete info on removing the survivor and letting the tank go fallow for a few weeks. If you can nuke the tank after removing the sick one (I'm assuming he's the only one in there), I'd suggest it. In the meantime I'll continue my search for info on this (I HATE having a 25g tank with ONE fish in it!).

 

[yhbae]

It's definitely getting worse - I added Fungus Eliminator since that is all I have that even talks about handling bacteria, until Kanacyn arrives but not sure if she will make it... I feel especially bad on this one since she already gave me three batches of fries, totaling over 40 fries...

How do you "nuke" a tank? You probably don't mean blowing it up and buying a new one, right?

No kidding about one fish in 25g - at least my tank is only 5.5g, but still I have a breeding pair ready for me to try spawning and she has been in that tank for now almost 6 weeks! Grrr...

 

[Allivymar]

Whoops; she LOL sorry. Poor baby Are any of her fry as nice as she at least

Heh, I should clarify huh. Nuking a tank IMO means sterilising everything to kill off any disease carrying organisms. The prob with nuking my planted tank is: the plants themselves, and the fact the substrate is a mix of sand and laterite. Impossible to bleach and then dechlorinate properly. Regular sand or gravel, plastic plants, rocks, filter hardware, aerator hardware, algae scrapers, nets, etc can all be sterilised with a bleach/water solution (at least 9 parts water to 1 part bleach). Obviously discarding the used filter media is a must. Once everything has been bleached, it needs to be rinsed really well. When you think its been rinsed enough, rinse it again with water with extra dechlor added to it.

 

[yhbae]

Thanks for the clarification.... LOL...

So it sounds like alot of work for you to "nuke" your tank...

As for me, mine is a bare bottom tank with no gravel. I only have a sponge filter in there, so it should be feasible. Can I simply add alot of bleach (9:1?) into the tank with existing water and let it run for days with the sponge filter in the tank? That should kill all bacteria. Then I can empty it out and replace it with normal tap water.

Hmm... How do you de-chlorinate after this? I guess you can use the normal dechlorinator such as stress coat?

 

[Allivymar]

I'd dump the sponge media, and make sure you wipe the surfaces to remove anything which has adhered, but yeah; running the filter without the sponge for a little while should expose all the bits. No need to run for days; an hour or 2 would be fine. And yes, use your regular dechlor in the last rinse water. Just add 2 or 3 times the amount you'd normally use to ensure it removes all the chlorine.

 

[yhbae]

Thanks for the help!