White opaque hairy spots on catfish

[ictiologa]

I had 4 Acanthodoras (chocolate thorny catfish) for three weeks in a 5g tank. They got ich and I treated them with Malachite Green, I applied the treatment as specified (half dose for catfish). Only one the fish survived, but he still looks lethargic and was not eating, also the slime seems to be falling off his body.

I purchased a 29 g tank and I set it up with some organic gravel and rocks to transfer the fish that survived. I added the water, stress coat, stress zyme and some ph balancer and let it run with the filter and heater on for two days. I transfered the fish four days ago. At the beginning he seems ok but the next day I noticed some kind of laceration on his head as if he had rubbed his head on something. Yesterday, some white opaque hairy spots appear in the dorsal region, one of the sides near the abdomen, and around the mouth. He still hasnt eat (is now about a week). The same stuff that is on his skin was in a piece of uneaten food.

I believe it could be cotton like disease so I use the ich treatment that has malachite green and added to the water yesterday. Today the fish seems to have a little more of this hairy stuff around and some new food that I put last night has it again.

The only readings that I have is ph=7.4 and temperature around 26 and 27 celsius.

Should I continue with the malachite green treatment or maybe I misdiagnosed and I should use some different medicine?

 

[jlk]

He has a serious fungal infection. You honestly need to invest in a good liquid test kit for ammonia, nitrite, nitrate and ph ASAP. Most lfs carry the API fw master test kit and amazon sells them inexpensively as well. Fungus issues are most common in tanks with serious water quality issues and typically are secondary to already present bacterial infections. Him sitting on rotting and fungused food is not helping matters and this needs to be removed promptly.

Start by changing 50% of the water and gravel vac'ing any leftover food and waste. Make sure you temperature match and properly condition all new water. Wait an hour or two then change another 50%. Remove the filter media to a bucket of tank water and run new carbon for a couple of hours then place the old media back in the filter. This should remove all the meds in the tank. You should then follow with an appropriate fungal treatment for 7 days such as Jungle/Tetra fungus meds which contain both an anti-fungal and antibiotics. I would do a 50% water change once a day around the same time each day before redosing the meds. Alternately, he can be given a bath in methylene blue 1-2x a day while maintaining a hefty wc schedule on the tank. It can be added to the tank but it will stain everything blue and harm any good bacteria you may have established so a bath is a safer option. Good luck!

 

[ictiologa]

Thank you very much for your reply!
Sadly my fish did not make it through the night

 

[jlk]

I am very sorry

 

[redsea]

I am really sorry about your Catfish.