Fluffy betta (siamese fighter)

[Adampreston88]

Hi guys,
I was hoping someone could help us.
Our betta appears to have developed some sort of fluffy fungus on its mouth.
It's only appeared over the last couple of days.
We have a selection of other fish in the tank, but the fighter is on his own.
He doesn't appear "down", he's still swimming up and down and as expected, does spend most of his time hidden in the foliage.

The other fish are fine and not showing any signs of fungus.

We have a 120 litre tank, properly filtered, heated and maintained at about 26-28 degrees.

Does anyone have any suggestions on how we can sort this as we're new to keeping tropical fish. (had the tank about 8 months)
Thanks peeps.

 

[jlbfish]

Check out these websites. Looks like columnaris (which I am currently fighting so I could be a bit biased). Most importantly I would get him out of that tank and into an ISO tank ASAP.
http://badmanstropicalfish.com/fish_...ation.html#ERM

Columnaris (Flexibacteria); Aquarium, Pond Treatment, Prevention; Fungus, Saprolegnia

 

[Adampreston88]

That sounds bang on based on visual diagnosis.
We're going to buy a quarantine tomorrow and will try the dip bath advice on the link.
Thank you very much. Are you struggling to fight it yourself??

 

[LyndaB]

Please understand that columnaris is a highly contagious disease. Quite often, fish will die before showing symptoms. If it is columnaris, it's possible that you have other fish fighting the same disease.

When I went through it in my tank, I culled the two symptomatic fish, did a 50% water change, dosed the tank at half recommended salt dosage and it never reoccurred in the tank. People who have tried to treat with meds, as far as I've heard anyway, don't usually have much luck and the disease seems to last forever without healing. I found that taking drastic measures worked best. YMMV.

 

[jlbfish]

I am, I think. It all started with one neon about 4 or 5 weeks ago. Honestly untold meds and money later and they MAY be ok. I should have just done what LyndaB said and culled him and gone from there. Good Luck! It can move fast so be careful (mine isn't and I am not really sure why)

 

[Adampreston88]

Well fingers crossed you're ok.
Mine doesn't appear to have spread yet. Going to take him out later on anyway.

Thanks so much for the advice guys

 

[Bettaluv]

First thing you need to do is get that fish in an ISO tank NOW!!! It probably is columnaris, and it probably has already spread to the other fish in the tank. Separate the fish showing the worst symptoms, but treat ALL of the fish!!! You never know which ones have caught it and which ones haven't until it's too late so don't take any chances.
GO DRASTIC MEASURES FIRST, BABY TREATMENTS LATER, just like LyndaB said.

 

[Adampreston88]

Hey. Yeah we bought a new tank and put he betta in there. He died after a couple of days though.
Sorted the main tank. Changed a load of water and treated what water was left. Everyone seems to be fine at the moment touch wood. Thanks for the advice guys.

 

[Maxkolbe]

Sorry about your beta, hope everything else makes it.

 

[Bettaluv]

Yep, its always sad when one of your fishy friends passes but hopefully all the other fish turn out ok!