It looks ....FUZZY

[OceanMaiden]

Hey all Noob here with a question being relayed for yet another noob lol.
We know ich looks like the fish has been salted...but on the smaller fish its Fuzzy too. Ummm so does Alex's fish have ich or fungus. I dread to think it can be both eeeww. 8O And if it is what can I use on the initial diseases and then what can I use to clear up secondary infection and heal fins and all that.

Thanks a bunch
any help would be appreaciated

[greenmaji]

that would be fungus..

and that blue is impossible to see with the blacksoul layout (my fav.) I had to curser over your text to see it. light blue works great though..

[Devilishturtles]

Yep. Fungus. Likely from a detached ich parasite.

How often does your friend perform water changes? How are you treating for ich now?

Adding in pimafix will help treat your fungus.

[OceanMaiden]

He changes water once a week and vacuums at same time. At every water change he testts with little strip thingies and then uses ph buddy I think thats what its called to treat tanks ph if nescesary. Everything was totally fine until he bought a new fish last week...and yup dropped it straight into display tank. He said it didnt look sick or anything, it is a silver Mickey mouse platy. So I'm thinking the fungus ick crap was on her but he didnt notice it cuz it was the same color as the fish. Welll now all his fishies have got what looks like theyve been salted and some of the little spots are even fuzzy esp. on the little tiger barbs. Alex is totally freaked and says he will never shop Petco again.

I've got ick away from wlamart and it is supposed to nail ich and fungus so I hope this works for his little water babies. Two of the fish have like tears and nips in fins from scratching themselves I guess cuz they itch . So what can I put in the tank with the ickaway which is a malachite green treatment by the way that wont mess with it and will heal the fins?

[Devilishturtles]

Malachite green is a good overall fungus killer, not such a good parasite killer. It will take alot of time to treat using just the malachite green.

What kind of fish are you treating?

My advice is to start raising your temperture in your tank to 86-87F over the course of a few hours (a degree an hour). Leave it there until you see no more ich, and then leave it there for atleast a week, but preferably two weeks after that. That will rid your tank of ich. Dose the malachite green as reccomended. Keep your lights off during treatment as well, except to observe the fish. Malachite green is slightly deactivated by light.

You'll want to do regular water changes during treatment as well to remove the dead parasites, and keep good water quality.

[OceanMaiden]

He has Platys a Pleco and his tigerbarbs. I cut the dose of the med in half as it says to do so because the pleco is real sensitive to it. As for the heater he doesn't have one that you can adjust temp on. It just keeps the water continuously at 80 degrees. So what is a good brand heater you can reccommend us to go out and get that we can actually alter the temp on. I want one that has a gauge that you can turn the indicator to the degree wanted, you know nothing too confusing lol noob equipment

I will help him continue with the meds and change the water and stuff so the fung will DIE! I hate it so much just looking at it. I hate fish diseases. And as the for the heater please give us a recomendation soon so I can murder the ich as well. LOL
THANKS SO MUCH!!

[Devilishturtles]

How large is the tank?

Visitherm heaters are a great brand and are completely submersible. Any submersible heater will do though, so long as it can be adjusted easily (not all can, so beware). You'll want 50 watts per 10 gallons of water.

[greenmaji]

with fungus I would recomend keeping the water temperature in the low tropicals (around 78) but steady..

Ive always used the Marcylin for treating fungus. (1 or 2 or both with tough cases)

[Devilishturtles]

Maracyn (if that is what you mean) is an antibiotic. Won't have much effect on a fungal infection, unless the fungal infection is caused by a bacterial infection.

greenmaji is right though, fungal infections will spread a bit quicker in warmer water, but you don't want your ich to get away from you either. I'd treat both simultaneously, and quickly.

How are the fish today?

[greenmaji]

oh.. embo-jager would be my heater recomendation, there pretty dirt cheap online now.

I couldn't see there was a fungal and ich problem at the same time (the dark blue is blurry to me )

depending on the fish salt might be an option..