Should I try Paraguard?

[RachelG]

I've been looking into some medications for my platy, who has a little round sore on her chin/lower lip with white stuff on it. It's a bit fuzzy, and seems to break off in strings. It looks like a little white pimple when not breaking off. I'm still not sure what this is. She's had it for almost a week, and before that there was similar fuzzy stuff on the corners of her mouth, but those spots went away during the ich outbreak and the current fuzzy sore popped up afterward. The platy is eating well and acting normal. She has one other platy tankmate at the moment, who appears to be healthy(And may be pregnant!)

I found some info on Paraguard by Seachem, and it looks like a good all-around medication that might work with whatever the problem is. It also says it treats ich, and the same platy had ich last week. I treated with salt and heat, and the ich seems to have been eradicated now, but would the paraguard be useful to eliminate any leftover ich organisms that may be in the tank?

I have been treating the tank with salt at 2 teaspons per gallon, and have been dosing melafix and Pimafix daily. Should I do water changes and add carbon to remove this stuff if I decide to use Paraguard?

I have moderately hard water with a ph of 8, if that would affect the Paraguard at all. I don't use carbon in the filter. the tank is ten gallons, ammonia/nitrite zero, nitrate about ten or less. Latest water change was four gallons two days ago.

 

[Oohitsae]

Look up columnaris and see if that looks like what your platy may have? If so, then paraguard won't work for that, but will likely help with the ich. It's more of a preventative than a treatment, something you use when the fish look like they may be catching something, but haven't got it yet. If it is columnaris you'll want a more aggressive treatment like furan-2, nitrofuracin green, and/or other medications for cotton mouth/columnaris.

As for removing salt, you'll want to remove as much as you can with water changes, I don't believe carbon will take salt out, and then try the paraguard if it's not what i think it is and Epsom salts at 1tbs/5g, Non fragranced if it is. Also, if it's columnaris, lower your temp as low as the platys can be comfortable in and add as much air circulation as you have available.

Hope this helps, not trying to scare you, but in my experience, with what your describing it is usually columnaris.

 

[RachelG]

Look up columnaris and see if that looks like what your platy may have? If so, then paraguard won't work for that, but will likely help with the ich. It's more of a preventative than a treatment, something you use when the fish look like they may be catching something, but haven't got it yet. If it is columnaris you'll want a more aggressive treatment like furan-2, nitrofuracin green, and/or other medications for cotton mouth/columnaris.

As for removing salt, you'll want to remove as much as you can with water changes, I don't believe carbon will take salt out, and then try the paraguard if it's not what i think it is and Epsom salts at 1tbs/5g, Non fragranced if it is. Also, if it's columnaris, lower your temp as low as the platys can be comfortable in and add as much air circulation as you have available.

Hope this helps, not trying to scare you, but in my experience, with what your describing it is usually columnaris.

I'm pretty sure it isn't columnaris. It doesn't look like the pictures of columnaris-infected fish I've seen around the internet. Also, it would have gotten progressively worse very quickly in my tank's heat and spread to the other fish, wouldn't it? It disappeared, then came back, and only on one small spot below the mouth. If this is columnaris, then I've got an odd-looking case of it. But as long as the other fish doesn't get infected and the infected fish does not get any worse, then I'm reluctant to try the stronger meds. If it does get worse, I will see if I can get some furan-2. (But the last few times I've been to the local fish stores, they have all been sold out of F2! I might have to look into getting something else.)

My temperature is sitting at about 80-82 degrees thanks to the weather. I can't get it lower than that, unfortunately. And it was much higher than that with the other week's heat wave! In the future I might have to invest in a chiller for the summer heat. I never thought an aquarium would heat up like that.

 

[Oohitsae]

I'm pretty sure it isn't columnaris. It doesn't look like the pictures of columnaris-infected fish I've seen around the internet. Also, it would have gotten progressively worse very quickly in my tank's heat and spread to the other fish, wouldn't it? It disappeared, then came back, and only on one small spot below the mouth. If this is columnaris, then I've got an odd-looking case of it. But as long as the other fish doesn't get infected and the infected fish does not get any worse, then I'm reluctant to try the stronger meds. If it does get worse, I will see if I can get some furan-2. (But the last few times I've been to the local fish stores, they have all been sold out of F2! I might have to look into getting something else.)

My temperature is sitting at about 80-82 degrees thanks to the weather. I can't get it lower than that, unfortunately. And it was much higher than that with the other week's heat wave! In the future I might have to invest in a chiller for the summer heat. I never thought an aquarium would heat up like that.

Okay, good! There are 2 different strains of it, one progresses more slowly, which is what you would have if you had it, and it's also easier to treat. The more aggressive strain is very difficult to treat and will kill a fish within a couple days which medication does nothing for affected fish and only prevents others from getting it. But, if it doesn't look like the pictures, that's great! But I'm not sure what else it would be.

Could it be a scrape/scab? Sometimes they look white and can occasionally become "stringy" as you said. If so, try melafix or something over paraguard. But paraguard is definitely a good preventative and sometimes helps with mild parasitic infections so if you don't think it's either, try that and see if it helps.