Hi again

I would like to know the differences between fungal and bacterial infections, what are the symptoms of each and whether anyone had any pictures of each. I am still trying to work out what my Black moor has got, I am treating him with fungal medicine at the mo but I am not convinced I am right and I wondered if any of you experience people would know.

Hi Bubblefish, I can't see another thread anywhere about your fish's fungal infection, so could you give us more details of the symptoms and answer as many questions as you can in the red box.

Some bacterial infections look similar to fungus, columnaris especially. Also some parasitical infections can result in a slimey white film that can be mistaken for fungus.

Please post back the details and we will do our best to diagnose the condition.

Hi - thanks for this.

PH 7.5, Ammonia 0.25, No2 0.25 and No3 is 5. My No3 dropped from 15 to 5 within a week and I presume this has happened due to medicating.

My tank is 13 gallons and I only have the one Black moor in there and I think he is 2 inches. It has been running for about 5 or 6 weeks. My readings seem very consistent.

Saturday morning I found him at the bottom of the tank with his top fin down, he struggled to swim to me. I think his swim bladder is affected as he had a slight lean when swimming (Please understand that he wasn't in anyway on his side) but his swimming looked strange. He has a white fluffy spot on his tail which on Friday turned a brownish colour. The fluff seems to make a hole in his tails as the fluff appears to go through the tail. This white fluff keeps re-appearing and has done for the past 5-6 weeks.

My tank is a Rekord 60 and I am using the correct media, I am taking out the black one when medicating. My partner told me that he thinks there is not enough air in the tank so on Saturday we gave him an air curtain which he seemes to like, he likes swimming in it.

I also noticed a stale smell when the feeding lid is lifted.

A lady in a petstore told me to feed him live bloodworms once a week as he could be constipated. (I used to feed him 1/2 a pea every Monday). I also bought a live worm feeder and he seemed to enjoy them. He normally eats sinking pellets which I soak 1st.

As you can probably tell I am tearing myself apart wondering whats wrong with him. Any help would be useful

Thanks Bubblefish, I found your other thread about not sleeping and read the above post.

First of all how are you ammonia and nitrIte readings doing now? The levels you listed above are considered 'safe' but the ideal readings are zero. It seems you tank has cycled but as mentioned in the other thread you may have do more frequent water changes and gravel vacs until you get zero readings. Especially when dealing with sick fish - they just don't have the immunity to cope with even the slightest hiccup in water parameters.

White fluffy spots that turn brown and leave holes in the fin? That sounds like columnaris or cotton wool disease. It is a bacterial disease that is hard to get rid off and can become systemic infecting the insides of the fish.

What medication are you using now? If it is not recommended to treat bacterial infections I suggest you change. Ask at your petstore for something to treat columnaris/cotton wool bacterial disease.

Just a note. Some medications react badly with salt, to be on the safe side I do not salt and medicate at the same time.

Aww thanks for this. I am using Protozin for whitespot fungus velvet and costia. They do one called Myxazin which is for a broad spectrum bactericide/fungistat. Doyou think that this would be better?

thanks again

If I were to use the other medication, how long do I have to leave it before I can switch to another, obviously I have taken the carbon pad out.

thanks

Yep, I know the products you are referring to, I use them myself. Definately go for the Myxazin and don't be afraid to do 2 treatments, ie. 10 days. Columnaris is a very hardy bug that's hard to kill.

The good news is that Myxacin is gentle on your water parameters and won't send your cycle crashing but please keep a close eye on your readings and do a large water change after day 5.

One more thing with Myxacin is that you need to read the fine print to get the right dose. With your type of filter you only need to use half the standard daily dose.

They recommend 48hrs between changing medication but you can reduce this to 24hrs if you do a large water change, at least 60%.

Hi

Some medicaines say that you have to leave the tank 48 hours before using another medicine - is this the case in the one I need ? I don't want to leave him for too long

thanks

We must have posted at the same time. Check my reply before your last one.

Are aquarium salt and tonic salt the same thing?

Am I better using the myxazin than salt and once/if it has cleared up, pop the black filter in and use the salt.

thanks for being so helpful

Aquarium salt and tonic salt are usually different things. I can't be sure unless you post the ingredients. Aquarium salt is just plain sea salt but tonic salt has other minerals added.

Salt is not strong enough to handle a persistant case of columnaris and it shouldn't be necessary to use it afterwards if the Myxazin does the job.