I have written in off and on for over a year now about my once beautiful calico fancy tale Snootchy. First he was diagonal on the bottom...months later he was sidewise at the service...I have been given much advise and most of it concerns the water quality. Ph 7.2, 0 nitrates, 0 amonia, 6 Kh. 2 wisper filters and airstones. Currently my 40 gallon tank is home to Snootchy, a balck moor and another fancy tail, 3 cordies and a chinese placo. Snottchy is about 4", the other goldies about 3". NO ON is having any problems or has had any problems except Snootchy. For the past couple of months he has been isolated in a breeder net becuase his non mobilness, except for occiasional upside down swims, has made him an easy mark for picking at. He had some black edges on fins that were regrowing beautifully. A few weeks ago, there was what seemed to be fungus spotting on him. I treated the tank with Maracyn. It cleared up. Whenever he would seem to be stronger nad restless in the net I would try him in the tank again, and agian he woulds be picked on and agian I would return him to the nest and agian the fungus, and again the maracyn and agian he would recover. Yesterday morning he seemed fine, that afternon his fins were totally frayed and he was VERY fingusy!!!!I imediatley started back on the maracyn...Ive done the pea thing and that hasnt affected him. The only thing that seemed to effect him in a positive manner has been frequent syphoning and 20-25% water changes usualyy 2X weekly. IM desperate Help!

hey marv im soorry to hear about ur fish. continue with the syphoning and maby try another anti bacterial med. polyGaurd is a great one. and you can treat ur hole tank as well with out bothering/stressing them out with it. wen u finnish with the treatment he is on now do 20% daily water changes for a week and adding 1 tsp per gallon.(this should help it ot coming back) and do regular water chnges and gravel cleanings every week.
also do u have a pic? u can alo get breeding cantainors to put in your tank if a fish is sick and being picked on. that way he is still in the cycled tank and it works a lot better then just neting ones.( fish still tend to pick o him though the net and stresses then out major.) u said u did the pea thing. wut did u do and for how long? and did he eat it?

Thnak you for responding Kissez, I dont feel so alone now. Periodically I give my fish peas for a day or two. But with Snootchy I have tried it even more often in an attempt to get him floating/swimming correctly. Usually for 2-3 days I would feed him peas only. It did not affect his swimming. I ma out of maracyn and have dosed the tank with trisulfa? for 2 days now. His fins are like sticks and he has spots of fungus as well as scales that are visble as if he is dropsy. I dont think he is going to make it this time. He has been such a fighter as we have been coping for over a year now with his variuos problems. but he looks so bad now Im tempted to put him out of his misery. I agree he may be picked on in the net, but I have nothing else to put him in right now. I have maracyn-II should I try that next?

i agree with dosing with a different med. you'll want to make sure to match as many symptoms for the medication given, to be sure the right meds are being used.

the only thing i can think of, is that your fish and its sickness has become immune to maracyn because of the repeated use. perhaps the 5 day dose jusy wasnt quite enough to get it all, then after being picked on and becoming stressed, it was able to take hold again, perhaps this is why it has come back, and so strongly this time.

i do not have the knowledge to recommend a good medication (i have only used maracyn so far for my fish)
also for furure refernce, it is recommended to run the medications longer than what is prescribed on the box (box say 5 for treatment, i have run for 10, just to make sure i got it all) depending on the medication chosen, you can ask other members how long to use the product.

with any medication, keep eyes on water quality for some meds kill all bugs, good and bad.

you sound like you are doing a good job with your fish, i hope you can clear this problem up for good
-Toot

Thank you Toot. Snootchy looks worse than ever tonight. Im going to try a different medication tomorrow or perhaps just get more maracyn since it has worked well in the past. I also need to syphon but Im afraid to do it too much since I dont think daily syphoning of 25% could be a good thing as some might suggest. I usually do it 2X weekly. In the past I have had problems with the Kh which was the reason that was suggested for Snootchies problems, as in causing Ph crashes. Although the Ph alsways seems to be within 7-7.5. Im using a buffering powder I got from the same firm I got my Progold from. It keeps the Ph higher than the 7 I always used to keep it at but at least it keeps the KH up. At any rate the other goldies are absolutley fine(knock on wood) I hope Snootchy last until I can get the maracyn tomorrow...

I have got Snootchy into a plastic breeder box in the tank. At least now the other fish cant pick on him. I also got some more maracyn and although he is still sorry looking, at least he's not worse and actually a little better. Still fungusy and and scales a bit pointy but he's hanging in there! Thank you for all your help everyone!

Just as an update. Snootchy is stabilized and seems to be responding to the maracyn. His head is still fungusy but much better. The bggiest problem is that now that he is feeling better the breeder box is bugging him and he wants to get out. He barely fits in there as it is, but I dont dare to let him out until he can stand up the other guys in the tank. Does anybody know if lack of lagea is a problem in atank? My pleco keeps it so clean I wonder if he needs some sort of suplements. Other than commercial algea pellets, does anyone know what an algea eater can eat that I can provide? He didint touch the lettuce i offerd him.