fish lost color, had gray patches, white growth on fins, and white spots

[Jameson]

I'm writing this post to explain how I cured my diseased fish in hopes it saves some of yours.
I bought 2 new fish from my LFS. They said all of their fish are treated and don't carry disease. They both lost their appetite, began rapid breathing, and died 2 days after purchasing them. The next day I noticed one of my other fish not eating. He lost his color and had gray patches on his side with white growth on his fins.
I went back to the LFS. They acted like it was no big deal, and gave me Ich Attack which has Malachite Green to treat ich. I medicated for 1 week, and saw no results. After slowly losing 3 of my fish I went back to get a new medicine that has Formalin in it. They gave me Rid Ich Plus. They told me it would kill my plants, and to only use a half dose because of my frogs. With nothing to lose at this point I began medicating my 46 gallon planted aquarium with a 50 gallon dose. At first white spots began to get brighter on my fish. All of my fish started rubbing them selves on plants and soil. Finally after treating for 3 days with regular water changes as directed. The spots, the gray, and the white growth started disappearing. I continued treatment for 4 days after the last signs of disease for a total of 8 days, and everything is back to normal!!!

here is a list of everything that survived this medicating hell.
grass, ferns, amazon swords, moss, red tailed shark, dwarf gourami, tiger barb, tetra, rosbora, danio, yoyo loach, kuli loach African dwarf frog, manila trumpet snail, assassin snail

[Matt68005]

Sparogelia mold is frequent in pet store especially chain store tanks. Honesly, most of these people don't know anything about fish they are just doing it for a PT job. Malachite is not the best cure for fungus, the better choice would have been "fungus Cure" (Furan-2) or Methylene blue (used in science, great human/fish safe antimicrobial. Will kill Good bacteria and stain everything tho)
Im sorry you had to go this route of bad advice and bad fish, hope your plants are ok....

[Jameson]

Thank you! All of my plants are fine. The only thing that got dyed was the lighter spots of my rock back drop. I do have one question though. One of my tetras (that was the closest one to dying next) is swimming a little jerky. Is it possible that it had permanent damage. There is no signs of any other symptoms in the tank.