FishProfiles.com Message Forums

My elephant nose was/is itching, itching, itching, than a ring of white (looking like a form of ringworm) formed, then onto cotton growth. I had used Revive prior but can not find it any longer. So, this time I used Melafix. Went away on day 2; however, day 5 more itching, itching, and itching. Cotton growth came back. I then used Pimafix and Melafix together (on day 3 now). Rainbow fish (my big male) now has a fungus growth over one of his eyes and a red spot inside his eye. My tank is cloudy as heck fomr the Pimafix, and my fish seem to be getting sicker with this med. What can I use?

See my profile (link below) for fish and setup.

Curiosity killed the cat, but satisfaction brought it back.

Since you did not post your water parameters, my first choice of treatment would be a large water change with a strong dose of substrate vacuuming and a remedial filter maintenance. Follow it on the second day with a large water change.

Your "itching" or flicking symptom sounds like and initial fish reaction to parasites or to high nitrate levels. This symptom in all likelihood resulted in an avrasion followed by a secondary bacteraial infection that manifested as white fuzzy growth or a possible fungal infection of the injury.

Since you don't know what the infection is, treat the most likely thing in the easiest possible way - change water and provide a clean environment. See how the fish respond to a massive water change (50% or more) on two consecutive days.


__________
"To steal ideas from one person is plagiarism; to steal from many is research."
researched from Steven Wright

Bob, thanks for your help, here is what I have for you.
Water test results:
ph-8.0
NO2 - 0
NO3 -0
Amm - 0
KH - 161.1 (9dkh)
GH - 35.8 (2 dgh)
Temp - 78 degrees
weekly water change of 21 gals
lots of plants and gravel/sand mix bottom.
Tank has been set up for 2 years now.
Last week when this started, I did a 50% water change, then after 7 days of frist treatment did another 21 gal change before starting treatment 2, which was 4 days ago.
Hope this info helps.
ps: the area where he itches is right where the breakout is (cotton growth) and when it is gone, he stops itching.



See my profile (link below) for fish and setup.

Curiosity killed the cat, but satisfaction brought it back.

I would take your a water sample to your LFS to be tested for nitrites and nitrates. Unless your aquarium is very heavily planted, it is unlikely that your nitrates are 0. They may not be readable with your test kit as my test kit does not appear to read below 10 ppm. It is just a double check for your chemicals.

Since

the area where he itches is right where the breakout is (cotton growth) and when it is gone, he stops itching

, the "breakout" is a secondary reaction to the wound that occurs at that point.

I am going to going to diagnose the "fuzzy" symptom as an external bacterial infection. Key to killing the symptom is frequent water changes to improve or maintain water changes coupled with a broad spectrum anti-biotic such as Maracyn 1 or 2 as well as erythromycin.

Do not treat the fish in the tank! Use a clean one gallon container for your hospital tank. Dissolve the meds in a cup of warm water then place into the container. Add water from your aquarium, then place the fish in the container for three or four hours.

__________
"To steal ideas from one person is plagiarism; to steal from many is research."
researched from Steven Wright

so, those meds should not hurt my elephant nose. He is my pride and joy.

I have Maracyn-Two and it states 1 tablet for 5 gal. I have a 5 gal bucket I can use. Or, are you saying I should put a high dose (dose for 5 gal) into a 1 gal and let them be treated for 4 hours?

PS, I do have lots of plants, but I would not say heavily planted.

Pss: Used different test and NO3 shows 5, and NO2 shows still 0

See my profile (link below) for fish and setup.

Curiosity killed the cat, but satisfaction brought it back.

Cardinal now has a patch. Bob, what was that dose again? Meds for 5 gal into 1 gal and let fish sit for 4 hours? Or meds for 5 gal into a 5 gal bucket?

See my profile (link below) for fish and setup.

Curiosity killed the cat, but satisfaction brought it back.

Just added 1 Coralife UV Sterilizer in hopes that this will also help.

See my profile (link below) for fish and setup.

Curiosity killed the cat, but satisfaction brought it back.

Kitty,

Deep breath... medication dosage is always at or below the recommended dosage. A little more is not better and a lot more medication is a lot worse and often poisonous!

I recommend that you use a one gallon container to treat your sick fish because:
o You have a controlled environment to treat the fish,
o You have a known volume of water to dose,
o You will not destroy your biofilter.

I also recommend dissolving the meds in warm water and adding it to the container. Most of the meds that I recommended come in powdered form and are difficult to dissolve, yet you want your fish immersed in a beneficial solution. To do this, I pre-mix water and the meds to add to the hospital container at the recommended dosage or less.

Since M2 states 1 tab for 5 gallons, you can take a gallon of water from your aquarium and dissolve a tablet in that gallon. Use 1/5th of that gallon in your one gallon hospital container with 4/5ths of new water from your aquarium. It brings you to the recommended dosage. Since the problem is spreading to your other fish, you might want to pick up a 5 gallon aquarium and use it for a dosing tank.

My recommendation was to treat your sick fish for three or four hours. The period is long enough to medicate the pets but not long enough to have the hospital tank turn toxic with fish waste.

As to whether this treatment is appropriate for your elephant nose... I have never read that the fish is particularly sensitive to anti-bacterial meds. I would be cautious in regard to copper based meds.

__________
"To steal ideas from one person is plagiarism; to steal from many is research."
researched from Steven Wright

this is what I have done and what I am doing.

Done: did as you stated Bob and dipped all fish for 3 hours in Meds. (While doing this I was able to get a good look at each. Cardinal looks as if he was wounded, red gash on his side that is now showing a red strip running in the wrong direction into his blue area; Rainbow has the bubble eye and fugues looking stuff which looks as if it is coming out of his fin (tight, next to body/fin attachment area); elephant nose, his fluff is gone, but he is back to scratching; algae eater looks very red by gill cover (although he is orange) and was swimming erratically last night.

Doing: Put the three fish into 10 gal sick tank using water from large tank, turned heat up to 83, and treating them with Aquari-sol.

I just hope this works.


See my profile (link below) for fish and setup.

Curiosity killed the cat, but satisfaction brought it back.

Please let me know how the fish progress.

__________
"To steal ideas from one person is plagiarism; to steal from many is research."
researched from Steven Wright

I will just that, and again, thank you for all your help. I would have never guessed it was a parasite of some kind, the flashing did make me think maybe but there were just on other signs and the other meds (Revive) seemed to have taken care of all the fluff and itching. /:'

See my profile (link below) for fish and setup.

Curiosity killed the cat, but satisfaction brought it back.

Any diagnosis is just a guess without a microscope and positive ID on the culprit. The problem is that too many of us tend to medicate instead of observe and diagnose... present company included in that statement.



__________
"To steal ideas from one person is plagiarism; to steal from many is research."
researched from Steven Wright

Mr. Rainbow's eye is back to normal, however, there is a nice red streak on his side. He is still in sick tank. Mr. Algae eater looks as if something is eating at his gills. Very strange looking. Mr. Elephant nose is wonderful looking and back into large tank. (he was picking on larger than him, Rainbow fish)

So, sick tank will continue to be medicated. I need to lookup why the red streak, never have seen that before, just saw it this morning.

See my profile (link below) for fish and setup.

Curiosity killed the cat, but satisfaction brought it back.

large tank is so cristal clear it is almost scary. lol

Rainbow is still on the mend in small tank and not happy about it and algae eater is back into large tank.

Treating sick tank with MELAFIX and Aquari-sol. Did a 1/3rd water change last Saturday

See my profile (link below) for fish and setup.

Curiosity killed the cat, but satisfaction brought it back.

Get this - I have baby FRY!!! Don't know how this happened with all the cleaning I have done, but last night, at the top of my tank, I found at least 12 Ity, bity, witty fish. Clear looking fish. I am guessing from the Rainbow. Anyhow, I put them in a breaders net hanging off the tank in quite moving waters. Wow, who would have guessed. I hope they live.



ps. Large Male Rainbow still in sick tank

See my profile (link below) for fish and setup.

Curiosity killed the cat, but satisfaction brought it back.

It does sound like water perameters initially caused the issue, high nitrates will often trigger fungal infections in rainbows, I might risk a course of protozin and continue with melafix to be sure, then start a regimen of 20% water changes , the elephant nose would have to be removed during the treatments though, so this is gonna be a tricky one. You might find that the problems are easily solved for the other fish, but that the elephant nose will inhibit your options for treating the other fish. Its one of the many reasons that elephant noses arent generally recommended for communities.

If you really cant seperate your fish you will just have to run a spotless tank, keep on with the neutral treatments like melafix, and really start measuring the water qualities with a test kit, and keep on top of them. Clarity is no indication of cleanliness, some people will have tea coloured tanks that register cleaner than yours on a test kit.You will need to know your exact readings of ammonia , nitrite, and nitrate at the bare minimum.

I was told by Dr. Foster & Smith that I could use Aquarium Pharmaceuticals Fungus Cure-and
Aquarium Products Aquarisol, I really think this is Gill Flukes or some kind of parasite. The infection is a result to the parasites. My elephantnose is again starting to flash and I just put the Large Rainbow back into the large tank after finishing his treatment and now looks good (I used Jungles Fungus Clear) My reading still show what I have posted in the beginning, which I thought where good unless I am missing something.
ph-8.0
NO2 - 0
NO3 -5
Amm - 0
KH - 161.1 (9dkh)
GH - 35.8 (2 dgh)
Temp - 82 degrees now

Every week I do takeout and replace, with week-old aged water, 21 gals. I want to take the fry out of the large tank and put them into my small tank and treat the large tank with Aquarisol. What are your thoughts and what else should I be watching for? All and any help is welcomed


See my profile (link below) for fish and setup.

Curiosity killed the cat, but satisfaction brought it back.

WEll, guess what. Not even a full 4 weeks, and it's back. Elephant nose has fungus on his back, Rainbow has cone over the same eye and white fluff in gill of same side as cone eye. Last night I added Melfix until I get more meds and new heater for sick tank. The Melafix seems to have helped the elephant nose, maybe because I caught it in the very eary stage. Saturday, I cleaned the tank; just as before, 1/3 of water out; then Sunday, took another 7 gal out for the fry tank, (just the top of the water for them. Sunday early eve, spots and cone. Added Melafix. This morning cone and spot almost clear like. you can see where it was what white fluff is gone.

When is this going to end

Oh, water conditions are still the same as above.


See my profile (link below) for fish and setup.

Curiosity killed the cat, but satisfaction brought it back.

Not wishing to say I told you so, But I told you so. Ive seen rainbows get fungal reinfection a lot of times, even if the water quality is fine. What usually shifts it for me is replacing as much water as possible with water changes every 3 days or so (20%) and a quick combo treatment of protozin and melafix, followed with use of carbon filtration at the end of the course. Trouble is, you cant do that with a mormyrid in the tank, the protozin will drop him . There may be protozoa build up in the water that is not giving specific symptoms, and causing the fish to be more susceptible to fungal infections. Almost another variant on "old tank syndrome " if you will. The rainbows and the elephant nose are reinfecting each other. Sometimes certain combinations of fish dont work well for very subtle reasons.

Meds safe enough to treat elephant noses will be very gentle, and sometimes fungus is persistant. Id be tempted to have the elephant nose seperated and treated gently and kept where he wont be reinfested, and the rainbows treated elsewhere with more powerful meds.

It is not because of old water, unless this is bad news. Before and After readings.
ph-8.0
NO2 - 0 - used two different kits, same reading (yes, I have plants)
NO3 -0
Amm - 0
KH - 161.1 (9dkh)
GH - 35.8 (2 dgh)
Temp - 82
I am beginning to think maybe it is the large water changes I do which are monthly along with deep cleaning. I am also thinking I am not getting rid if the full infection on my rainbow, or I am treating it for the wrong thing. His gill (only 1) looks white inside. I am going to try to take a picture tonight. His eye is fine now and fluff on Elephant nose is gone. They are all acting just fine, eating and swimming as if nothing in their world is wrong. As soon as my new heater comes in, I will put Mr. Rainbow in QT and treat with stronger meds regardless of how he looks. It must be internal infection. And is showing through the gills. Almost like what gunk, thick not fluffy. I cannot find anything on the internet that describes this look. Again, I will try and take a picture, it is just so hard to get that side of him and have him still long enough for a picture.


Tank setup: 60 Gallon, Eheim pro 2026, 1-Ebo-Jager 250 watt heaters,1 Turbo-Twist 6x 18 watt U.V. Sterilizer,& 1 Rena 400 air pump

See my profile (link below) for fish and setup.

Curiosity killed the cat, but satisfaction brought it back.