Tackling fungus

[Indym]

Hi guys,

I'm dealing with a fungal looking growth on a 3.5 inch male C.Lineatus. Here is a video of the specimen in quarantine :-

At 27 seconds you can see it glancing to the right and revealing a white growth about an inch behind its eye. That growth has steadily been getting bigger. I've been treating it with melafix for the past few days and its not been working. Water quality is good with 20-30% water changes every day. The specimen is feeding well on NLS pellets, frozen mysis, frozen cyclopeeze and frozen artemia. Temps are at 27-28 degrees.

I'm very worried at this point and would welcome any help

[LaW]

Hi IndyM,

sorry to hear about these. the video wasnt clear enough.

but somehow looks like an ick to me. ick grows day by day before it drop out.

or on the pessimistic level, columnaris. A kind of gram negative bacteria which eats the flesh away and its progressive and contagious. Most of the time, the colony of bacteria of flexibacter looks like fungus.

so far i couldnt confirm which is it but the fish are active and alert. if I were you, I won't be too worried and will monitor again for a few more days and see how it goes. DUN treat unnecessarily.

A better picture do helps.

do a google search on columaris image to get a rough idea on how it really looks like or you can get a general information of it here: http://www.fishvet.com/Columnaris.pdf.

If its columaris, use antibiotic. I recommend Myazin from waterlife. it solve my columaris/mouth fungus problems on most occasion. it is easily available in many LFS. One such LFS is at C328.

all the best and need not worry. it looks like a small problem to me.

and do maintain good water condition and try not to over feed.

[FuEl]

Hi Indy,

Glad to see the dottybacks doing well. I lost the rest due to some water top up accident. Waterlife medications are rather mild and should be good for delicate wrasses. While I am not sure what that growth is, you might want to consider myxazin and sterazin. If they can be used together it would be good. If it's a viral thing there won't be much that you can do but wait for it to resolve itself.

[Indym]

Thanks for the replies guys, the whitish patch has sort of disappeared as of this morning so thats good news But with regards to the antibiotics mentioned, will it destroy my biological filter? I'm running two HOB's with biorings and various media.

Junkai - You can't be serious bro, lost all!??! Sorry to hear man. I'm crossing my fingers for the cyphos I'll bring down some of the stuff you need if you end up with a few. Two of them have my name on it .

[LaW]

I read myazin is mild on bio-system so no need to worry too much on that.

antibiotic is not totally kills all kind of bacteria. it depends on the types of it.

some example of antibiotic:

penicillin, zeocin, ampicillin, kanamycin etc etc

i love to use kanamycin as its mild on filter system and target a broad spectrum of disease causing bacteria. but you need to source it as it cannot be bought off the shelf.

[yikai]

i was sooo close to obtaining kanamycin. had a bottle of it free for all during microbiology lab but just nice for everyone. not enough to bring home.

sigh

[Indym]

I read myazin is mild on bio-system so no need to worry too much on that.

antibiotic is not totally kills all kind of bacteria. it depends on the types of it.

some example of antibiotic:

penicillin, zeocin, ampicillin, kanamycin etc etc

i love to use kanamycin as its mild on filter system and target a broad spectrum of disease causing bacteria. but you need to source it as it cannot be bought off the shelf.

Thanks Law, you've been very helpful.

[FuEl]

Kanamycin is marketed by Seachem as Kanaplex.