14 replies to this topic

[pseudechisbutleri]

Please fill out as much as possible below and give us a description of what is wrong with your fish.

Type of fish: Nightfish
Symptoms: Small but potentially expanding fungus on tail
Other tank mates: Another nightfish
Tank size / capacity: 60L
Type of Food fed: Frozen brine shrimp and bloodworm, live earthworms and mosquito larvae
Feeding frequency/amount: Every one to two days
Substrate: White sand
Type of filtration: AquaClear 50
Frequency of filter cleans: 0
Frequency and % volume of water changes: 25% every week
Last water change: Never
PH: ~7.6
KH: Unknown
GH: Unknown 
Nitrite: Unknown
Nitrate: Unknown
Ammonia: Unknown
Phosphate: Unknown
Water temp: Unknown, between 10 to 23
Medications used recently to date: None
Any recent changes..new fish/filters/power outages etc etc:

 

The little guy seems to be ok (with the exception of the sunken stomach, but that's easily fixed with some food) but my main concern is a tiny bit of fungus growing on the tip of tail. I recently lost another nightfish to fungus and I'm worried for the new one.

Edited by pseudechisbutleri, 08 January 2018 - 08:16 AM.

[Delapool]

Is it definitely fungal do you think? Most fungal infections I’ve had (not that many), have responded well to any anti-fungal med. Usually I’ll try pimafix or melafix as cheap in large tanks and don’t seem to damage plants for a quick win. Mostly as I’d have to pull tank apart to catch them as well and plants have sometimes been more expensive than fish.

If it persists, than perhaps bacterial.

Sometimes clean water (several water changes) and no ammonia (as per usual) gets a result. Some thoughts.

[pseudechisbutleri]

Pretty sure it's fungal, I've seen too many examples, it's a cotton-like growth growing the the tail, which appears to be somewhat reduced, possibly due to Gambusia before being caught. In the past, I've tried many treatments: pimafix, tea tree oil, methylene blue, but none of them worked. I'm trying aquarium salt at the moment, as well as physically removing as much of the fungus as possible with a cotton bud, hopefully that works.

[Delapool]

I’ve never done it but have heard of people using 3% H2O2 and cotton bud.

One that I have had success with is potassium permanganate. Only trouble is finding the link. And I ordered it online. Will see if I can find link, guessing someone will have a better idea.

Both of them I’d never dose whole of main tank water column tbh.

[Delapool]

Entertaining read. I used to have a link from a UK discus keepers site on mixing in 1 litre container - think the site is no more.

http://www.koiknowle...rmanganate.html

[Delapool]

Other links - I never dosed above 2ppm.

https://web.archive....um-permanganate

http://www.simplydis...pp_usage3.shtml

http://www.theaquari...um_permanganate

[pseudechisbutleri]

If the salt is ineffective, I'll go out and get a bottle of H2O2 tomorrow, and if the H2O2 is also ineffective, potassium permanganate might be the path to go.

[Delapool]

Good luck

It least it’s on tail I guess, not around gills .

[pseudechisbutleri]

Cheers mate.

[Delapool]

Any success ?

[Ageofaquariums]

I'd expect it to be bacterial, flexabacta infections are super common with wild caught fish like this. Its generally related to the increase in temperature from the wild to the aquarium. Very easy for slight handling damage to get infected. Temperature below 24 degrees C is the most important part of treatment IMHO.

[malawiman85]

Yeah fungus unlikely. Make sure your water is clean and look out for other signs of disease. If it is fungus, have a go with methylene blue.

[pseudechisbutleri]

Sorry for the late reply, kinda forgot about this thread, lol.

 

I'm pretty sure it was a fungus, while it was in the wild, it was probably injured by Gambusia (hence the lack of a tail) and caused the fungus to develop around the wound.

 

I scraped off as much fungus as I could with a cotton bud, then I put aquarium salt into the water, and the fungus didn't come back and the night fish recovered

 

However, it jumped out of the aquarium a few days later and died .

[Delapool]

Sad news

How much salt out of interest?

[pseudechisbutleri]

I didn't measure precisely, but around 2 tablespoons. By the way, I moved it to the main aquarium, which doesn't have salt, and thus, excessive salt is ruled out.