FishProfiles.com Message Forums

Alright folks, it's back. The mouth fungus on the Rainbowfish. I have isolated the 3 fish with the fungus, and have used Pima on the tank they were in.
Statistics:
55 Gallon 77F Amm 0 Nitrites 0 Nitrates 10
Of the three fish affected, one is the one that had it previously and was treated (twice). I used Jungle Labs Fungus Elim.
Obviously the Fungus Elim didn't do it the first time.
I haven't treated the fish yet. I want to eradicate this stuff this time.
Recommendations? LHG what do you think?
Thanks in advance,
Dan

55G -5x Bosemani, 3x Emerald Cory,3x Red Rainbow, 3x Turquoise Rainbow. 20G-Empty. 10G -4x Danio 3x Cory Fry 1 Gold Mystery Snail. 10G- 1x CAE, 2x Tetra 1x ADF

Well the jungle stuff has the furan and salt options covered, so I guess that leaves the organic dyes as an option, maybe go for something with malachite green and formalin in a compound (make sure you get new stock, formalin is evil past its sell by, paraformaldehydes kill fish so fast you wont believe it), failing that go for trimoprethrin sulfa.

Other thing to consider is perhaps something causing a constant reinfection, and sometimes with rainbows that can be a habituated feeding behaviour. Do your rainbows feed from the substrate often? They can be very susceptible to lip erosion, and they rarely feed from the bottom in nature.What foods are you using, and what are the cagemates? Please list all present species if you can. Do you have multiple aquaria , perhaps use the same nets or gravel cleaner in both tanks? Even your hands could do it. Sometimes it can be about the human putting fresh fungi and bacteria in one tank from another, if that may be the case either have seperate equipment or treat multiple tanks at the same time, chuck cleaning equipments in buckets with the same med youuse for contact sterilisation , that sort of thing. Often repeat issues when meds have cleared the problem once are down to reinfestation caused by circumstances. Some diseases a fish may have no immunity counter for, they can only be eliminated. Most people treat an ailment and then a fish aquires immunity to it, thus lessening the chances of reinfestation, but the odd fungi, odd bacteria cannot have a resistance to it aquired, so you basically have to blitz it from everything that fish can conceivably come into contact with.

Thanks for the input, I do have multiple tanks... 55G 20G and 10G but I do have seperate equipment, buckets etc for all three tanks. The only items that would be common between tanks are the nets, but after each use, they are given a bath in a very hot water/white vinegar mixture. Then allowed to air dry thouroughly.
We feed a varied diet, bloodworms, brine shrimp, tetra min flakes, shrimp pellets and hikari sinking wafers.
The stocking of the 55 is: 1x Dwarf Gourami, 8x Boesmani, 3x Corydoras Aeneus.
Yes, they Rainbows do appear to browse the bottom of the tank. All of the fish seem to love the sinking wafers.
In looking at the Rainbows in the Hospital tank, they really do just have a fuzzy upper or lower lip. There are no tufts etc.... I am just wondering if it is just raw fish skin, eroded from gravel contact whilst browsing???
In that case, maybe I should proceed with Mela/Pima and see what happens.
Any idea on how to keep them off the gravel?
The only other thing I have noticed, is that the original Rainbow that is now in the hospital tank has been gasping/panting ever since the original fungus and treatment session. I always just chalked it up to gill damage from being at wal-mart and the fungus. None of the other rainbows are exibiting the gasping.
Sorry about the massive post!
Dan

55G -5x Bosemani, 3x Emerald Cory,3x Red Rainbow, 3x Turquoise Rainbow. 20G-Empty. 10G -4x Danio 3x Cory Fry 1 Gold Mystery Snail. 10G- 1x CAE, 2x Tetra 1x ADF

Well cories and plecs can feed at night, and im assumming the hikari wafers are mostly for them, so just drop them in after lights out, and limit the amount of flake you use. You could try a small size floating cichlid pellet instead of flake, they tend to float for longer and make less mess.Its all much the same to a rainbow.

The only other thing I have noticed, is that the original Rainbow that is now in the hospital tank has been gasping/panting ever since the original fungus and treatment session. I always just chalked it up to gill damage from being at wal-mart and the fungus. None of the other rainbows are exibiting the gasping.

Could well be, takes time to heal that kind of damage, unless of course hes stressed from being alone, they can get a little panicky without a shoal. As you know they have a high o2 requirement, so they really do show symptoms of gill damage when other fish might not.

Something I have noticed with my Rainbows is that when they got that it infected the entire 55 gallon so by moving them out of the 55 to the hospital tank and treating them there you cured them but left the fungus in the 55, and by putting them back in the 55 you reinfect the fish you just cured. You only dosed the 55 with the Pima and Mela right? Sometimes this fungus is too strong. I had to dose the 55 with those two for 3 months before it eliminated the fungus.

mts.gif" border="0"> I vote do you?
My Tanks at Photobucket

Here's my take on it..... It's lip erosion from gravel grazing.
It clears up while in the hospital tank because it has no gravel!!!
I only medicated once in the hospital tank, and then stopped to see if it was just erosion. The lips started to look a little better, and did not progress at all.
I finally put the Rainbows back into community, and everybody is just fine.
I'll be getting a food that floats longer next time at LFS.
Dan

55G -5x Bosemani, 3x Emerald Cory,3x Red Rainbow, 3x Turquoise Rainbow. 20G-Empty. 10G -4x Danio 3x Cory Fry 1 Gold Mystery Snail. 10G- 1x CAE, 2x Tetra 1x ADF