Goldfish has cotton wool?????????

[pndeliza]

Hello All..
I have 3 fantail goldfish and 2 black moor goldfish and two weeks ago my husband and I returned from being out for the morning to find the fish hovering at the bottom of the aquarium with white fungus on them...it was mostly on the gills, eyes and mouth but there is also some on the edges of the fins. Immediately I went to the petstore and bought Anti-Fungus to treat them. They seemed better after one dosage but just to be sure I changed 25% of the water as suggested by the directions and dosed again. Just when I thought they were better, they broke out again. I don't think they have what I am treating them for..I was suspecting it to be cotton wool but I never had sick fish before so this is a first-time battle for me. Any suggestions? This cycle has been recurring for the past two weeks and I have no idea what to do next. Thanks.

[Apocalypse_Gold]

Welcome to AA!

Fungus outbreaks are often related to water quality. What are your parameters (ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, pH) and how large is your aquarium? Melafix and Pimafix may help keep it knocked down and promote healing, as will very clean water. Also, what is listed as the active ingredient(s) in the Anti-Fungus you used?

[Devilishturtles]

Stress too, can also cause fungus, all related to water quality. Melafix and Pimafix are great things. Methelyene Blue also works well for fungus, but may also stain your aquarium acrylic.

[pndeliza]

My aquarium is 30 gallons. I just tested the water and it has a pH of 6.4, Nitrite of 0ppm and Ammonia of 0.5ppm. I don't know what the nitrate is as my test kit only tests the above 3. The temperature is at a steady 76 degrees fahrenheit. The APPLUS+ Anti-Fungus treatment has Malachite Green and Arciflavine Hydrochloride as active ingredients. Any good? I have always had Ammonia problems and I think it may have triggered this fungal outbreak. I bought a water conditioner to eliminate the ammonia and it's called ACE Ammonia Chloramine Eliminator by Jungle. I don't think it works very well because I still have high ammonia levels sometimes at a peak of between 2.5ppm and 5ppm. I do have a bubble wall in the aquarium as well as 3 large aquarium plants. Because of how dirty goldfish are I even have two filters running 24 hours a day to try to eliminate as much waste as possible.

[Apocalypse_Gold]

I'm not surprised by the high ammonia. Most ammonia removers are garbage. Major water changes are definitely in order. What is your pwc regimen? What kind of filters are you running and how often do you clean them? If the junk just breaks down in the filter rather than in your tank, you still get ammonia. Do some water changes with deep gravel vacs and rinse your filter media in the water you took out. If you use tap water or add new media you will lose all your beneficial bacteria. Also, how much do you feed them? The ammonia in your tank ultimately must come from the food you add. Yet another question...what is your tap water's pH?

[DepotFish]

You will eventually be overstocked when these fish grow. I suggest you use baking soda to raise the ph to 7.5ish. The low ph will only add more stress to the fish while they are already sick. Goldfish can handle into the 8's for ph but that would make any amount of ammonia toxic. I also suggest lowering the temperature to the 60's. This will allow more oxygen in the water which will help the goldfish since the fungus might impair breathing. It doesn't sound to me like your cycle ever finished.

[pndeliza]

Normally I change 25% of the water every other day..sometimes daily. I am running two biofilters and I just cleaned them yesterday. I thought maybe there was something in them that was causing the outbreaks. I cleaned them really good with a toothbrush and rinsed them well. The water today is crystal clear and again they seem to be having a good day with no fungus on them. Lets hope that it doesn't just come out of nowhere like it's been. I like to feed them in small portions a few times a day (2 or 3). It really depends if they display that they are hungry...they usually soar to the surface if they see someone near the aquarium. The pH of my tap water is between 7.0 and 7.2. I use Chlor-Out as a conditoner because my tap water is from a city line and it has a strong odor of chlorine. I believe it is the conditoner that brings it down to its current pH of 6.4.

[Apocalypse_Gold]

I would recommend switching to Seachem Prime It removes chlorine and detoxifies ammonia. It is very concentrated so its actually really cheap.

I cleaned them really good with a toothbrush and rinsed them well.

Overcleaning your filters will prevent beneficial bacteria from colonizing. What brand of filter do you have? Try using some poly-fill batting as a prefilter that you can change regularly without disturbing the rest of the filter,

[Devilishturtles]

It's been my experience with fungus, that temperature swings are a huge cause too. I would follow A_G's advice and ensure your water is in good shape. Keep doing water changes like you are doing, with dechlorinated water. Also, do you notice a temperature swing at all, between nighttime and daytime?

[pndeliza]

Friday....
The temperature remains constant from night to day, give or take a degree. The biofilters that I have are Whispers I believe...I know that one is for sure. The other, I will have to dig up the box for. Two of the fish, one fantail and one black moor still have some white on them. Each of them has a white edge to one of their fins...the fantail has it on the edge of the fin on its back, the black moor on one of it's bottom fins. Everyone else is cleared up. The white on their fins doesn't look like the cotton wool they had before. Could this be the beginning of fin rot? I was treating them with the Anti-Fungus for that same problem 'cos it treats both cottom wool and fin rot but it hasn't worked 'cos they still have the white on their fins. They certainly are a lot more active today now that they are cleared up for the most part. Any suggestions?

Saturday Morning....
Update....Woke up this morning and one of my smaller fantails who doesn't have white on its fins has what looks to me like fin rot. Its dorsal fin looks torn up a bit. Should I dose with the Anti-Fungus that treats this condition or do you recommend something better?

[Devilishturtles]

Keep doing water changes, daily if need be to keep ammonia down and water clean. Acriflavine (atleast what I've heard about it) can be some powerful stuff. Maybe try treating with a melafix and pimafix combination. These are all natural "medications".

Just my opinion as to treatment. I don't know about this anti-fungus that you are using. Finrot can also be caused by bacterial problems.

[jsoong]

Echo Devilish's though on bacterial cause of your "fungus"

Columnaris can look a lot like fungus ....
http://www.mu.edu/~buxtoni/puregold/...htm#COLUMNARIS

Your med - melachite green & acriflavine are NOT anti-fungal .... Melachite green are useful for ich or other surface parasites & acriflavine is mildly useful as surface anti-septic .... Both are pretty useless for fungal or bacterial infections.

Agree that first thing is to get your water pristine. Your problem is prob secondary infection due to stress from poor water. You may treat with anti-bacterial or anti-fungal AFTER your water parameters are fixed. Persoanlly I would use salt baths for surface infections .... more info on salt & goldies on the puregold site & also koivet.com.