help black ghosr knife dieing!!!

[HeatherMay]

I have a 90 galln with a BGK, 4 angels, 2 bolivian rams, 2 plecos and a spotted raphael catfish. Last nigjt I noticed my BGK just laying in his fake log and there was some white stuff on and around the log. I got him out and he has this white film on him too almost like a fungus maybe? I did a 50% water change and addrd some stress zyme. Also removed the icky log. I added like 4 tbsp salt which is not much but figured it may help my other fish if they get sick. I know bgk don't do well in salt but I didn't think he would make it over night. I used a tad salt before on my angels and he was ok. Today he is still alive but not well. What do I do? Ammonia and everything is good

 

[pip walters]

If he has a white film, this is normally excess slime produced by the fish to try and rid themselves of parasites. It could be something like costia, whitespot (ich), trichodina or chilodonella. knife fish are not tolerant of copper based treatmets, so can be difficult.

A short term salt bath will kill chilodonella and help remove other ectoparasites by stimulating the fish to produce even more body slime to slough off the parasites and is normally recommended at 15 to 25 ppt (15g to 25g per litre). Try the lowest dose first. Place the fish in this solution and remove as soon as it appears to show signs of stress and place him back in his aquarium.

I recently treated some elephant noses - another scaleless fish that is difficult to treat - for chilodonella with the highest dose (25ppt) and didn't lose a single fish, so hopefully, your BGK will tolerate it too.

No promises here, but if you think he is dieing, you have nothing to lose in trying