Fungal infection?

[fishkeeper07]

Hello,

About 5 week ago I noticed a 'shiny' white and silver/grey patch on one of my clown loaches that spanned most of one side of his body. My nitrates were reading a little high (around 60ppm) so I did several large water changes until they were down to 20ppm. The patch did not go away and one of my other clowns started to show a similar much smaller patch so I started treating with Paraguard. I just finished treating the tank for 10 days and also did 3 x 1.5 hour baths in the higher concentration of the solution. About a week ago I noticed that my 8 inch synodontis nigriventris started showing small patches and had sort of 'cloudy' eyes. He also has some white on where the two parts of his body meet (sorry, I don't know how to better explain it, see the attached photo) and has became more reclusive (especially after doing the Paraguard baths). The patches on him are small and don't show on camera and I can't say for certain if the are just nicks or something more sinister.

Over the course of the last few days I have started to notice symptoms on all 5 of my clown loaches. They are all quite young and about 1.5-2.5 inches in length. The weird thing is that the symptoms seem to vary from fish to fish. Some have that large shiny patch, others have duller, smaller white patches on their heads, a few have fins that a starting to deteriorate (no fuzz, just bits missing) and now I've noticed two have otherwise healthy looking fins with stringy white material coming off them (although it is quite short so no sure if it's fungus or a parasite). All the loaches show good color and seem to be active and eating, but I'm worried as whatever they have seems to be getting worse and has been unaffected by Paraguard.

Below are my tank details:

50 gallon freshwater tank (5x2" clown loaches, 1x8" synodontis nigriventris, 1x5" Chinese algae eater, 3 x 1" white cloud minnow).
Tank has been set up for about 2 months.
Using a Filstar XP M canister filter (carbon removed due to Paraguard treatment)
Typically do 20% water change/grave vacuum weekly, have not done on in the last 10 days due to Paraguard treatment.

I am thinking that I need to treat with an antibiotic? Should I be using Maracyn, Maracyn-2 or something else? Any advice on what I should do next would be greatly appreciated! I would really like to save these fish.

Thank you.

 

[fishkeeper07]

I should mention that those white and silver shiny patches are not raised or fuzzy.

 

[Delapool]

How are they going? To me that sounds like a bacterial infection if it is jumping from fish to fish.

 

[fishkeeper07]

The clown loaches seem ok, they are out eating and acting normally. Just these weird marks showing up. The catfish however has been acting a bit reclusive and less animated than normal since performing the dips in Paraguard. I hope he's ok, it's been a few days since the last dip and he still seems 'dopey'.

I think I am going to start treatment with Maracyn and Maracyn-2 tonight. I know clown loaches tend to be quite delicate when it comes to treatment, I hope this is the correct course of action.

I just relized I did not post my water parameters in the original post:
Ph: 7.4
Amonia: 0ppm
Nitrites: 0ppm
Nitrates: 20ppm

I did a 50% water change yesterday and noticed the first bucket of water came out quite brown. I wonder if this could be a result of the Paraguard treatment? I checked the suction to the filter intake (Filstar XP2) and it doesn't seem to be that strong (ie it is not pulling in small bits that float near it and I cannot feel the suction on my hand). Water is definitely being pulled through though as it is coming out the outtake. Is this normal?

Also, I noticed lots of small white flakes and stringy things (about 1-2cm long) floating in the tank after vacuuming the gravel. Could this be bacteria?

Any help at all would be much appreciated!!!

 

[Delapool]

The clown loaches seem ok, they are out eating and acting normally. Just these weird marks showing up. The catfish however has been acting a bit reclusive and less animated than normal since performing the dips in Paraguard. I hope he's ok, it's been a few days since the last dip and he still seems 'dopey'.

I think I am going to start treatment with Maracyn and Maracyn-2 tonight. I know clown loaches tend to be quite delicate when it comes to treatment, I hope this is the correct course of action.

I just relized I did not post my water parameters in the original post:
Ph: 7.4
Amonia: 0ppm
Nitrites: 0ppm
Nitrates: 20ppm

I did a 50% water change yesterday and noticed the first bucket of water came out quite brown. I wonder if this could be a result of the Paraguard treatment? I checked the suction to the filter intake (Filstar XP2) and it doesn't seem to be that strong (ie it is not pulling in small bits that float near it and I cannot feel the suction on my hand). Water is definitely being pulled through though as it is coming out the outtake. Is this normal?

Also, I noticed lots of small white flakes and stringy things (about 1-2cm long) floating in the tank after vacuuming the gravel. Could this be bacteria?

Any help at all would be much appreciated!!!

It read to me as something like columnaris so I think those meds are worth a try. Would that be possible disease? The paraguard read as more low level infections but I haven't used it.

Water specs sound fine. Better than mine on nitrate What is your temp? Has anything changed in the tank?

Could the flakes be the loaches shedding? I think some more water changes and gravel vacs.

Filter - perhaps the meds have knocked the bacteria or plants / algae around and increased the load in the water. Is your tank still looking clear?