I received a bunch of wild caught Bluefin Killis in the mail about 3 weeks ago. The smallest one had some fungus on its tail. I took it and separated it and treated it and the tank with some meds. A few days later it died. It was really small so I wasn't too worried about it. I was figuring that it was also stressing from the shipping. Anyway two more have this fungus as of today. The fungus seems to be near the tail on both and not on the rest of the body. I'm going to pick up a 5 gallon right now and take them all out. How should I treat them and the tank? What about the American-flag Fish that are still in the tank? Which are currently doing fine. If it will stand still for a pic I'll post it.

I received a bunch of wild caught Bluefin Killis in the mail about 3 weeks ago. The smallest one had some fungus on its tail. I took it and separated it and treated it and the tank with some meds. A few days later it died. It was really small so I wasn't too worried about it. I was figuring that it was also stressing from the shipping. Anyway two more have this fungus as of today. The fungus seems to be near the tail on both and not on the rest of the body. I'm going to pick up a 5 gallon right now and take them all out. How should I treat them and the tank? What about the American-flag Fish that are still in the tank? Which are currently doing fine. If it will stand still for a pic I'll post it.

your new fish had a hard trip and are ill now, put them in a sick tank add salt and med's for Saprolegnia - Cotton wool Fungus.
older fish are ok but may have been exposed to something new do a water change and add salt.


PLEASE SEE THIS LINK! it will help for sure.

http://www.aquaticco...ease/fungus.php

thanks, that was a very good read on the subject. I'll be doing a 25% water change in the morning. I already have water ready to go. How much salt per gallon?

Edited by HeadshotZod, 25 May 2010 - 09:36 PM.

start with 1 teasp/gal salt, add another 1 teasp/gal the next day. It could also be Flexibacter (=Columnaris) which IME is the #1 disease problem on newly caught small fish. It often attacks stressed fish first, then fungus invades.

Thank-you very much for the advice, everything cleared up over the weekend

Thank-you very much for the advice, everything cleared up over the weekend

can you list exactly what you did? this may help others that are searching on the topic. did you just do a water change? what OTC meds did you use? thanks! glad your fish are doing good!

I have found out over the years that most of our native killifish respond well to just salt and water changes when it comes to fungus type infections. I also use Furan II if they get it really bad before I catch it. I keep 3 OTC meds on hand Furan II, Clout and Aquarisol. I use Afriflavine to keep bad eggs that fungus from spreading it to good eggs, and have also used Acriflavine and salt to treat fungus if I happen to run out of Furan II or the aquarium is too small to dose with the Furan II.

I've had excellent results treating fungus with Maroxy. Usually one dose is all the fish needs for a mild case, but you are allowed to use it for 5 days in a row if needed.

I've had excellent results treating fungus with Maroxy. Usually one dose is all the fish needs for a mild case, but you are allowed to use it for 5 days in a row if needed.

Yes Maroxy is also a good product for problems like this.

Furan 2 wiped out my plants, though, so be careful. And any medication that contains copper (like CopperSafe) will liquify your live plants in hours. Just something to keep in mind.

Edit: I mean, they're really effective medications. I'm not saying not to use them. But it might be best to separate the fish that are being treated from the plants. I've got hornwort, so I just lift it out of the tank (it's submerged, wrapped around a PVC tube frame so it goes from substrate to surface) and house it in a bucket with a light on it while I'm dosing. Then I use partial water changes and activated carbon to remove all of the medication from the water before re-adding the plants.

Edited by Okiimiru, 12 August 2010 - 02:33 PM.

Furan 2 wiped out my plants, though, so be careful. And any medication that contains copper (like CopperSafe) will liquify your live plants in hours. Just something to keep in mind.

Okiimiru, you keep a lot of Ceratophylllum if I remember correctly, right? That species seems to be particularly sensitive when it comes to chemicals and medications in the water, and "liquifying", as you called it, is a pretty good description of what happens. Thankfully, not all species respond quite so dramatically. That said, if I have any really prized plants in a tank, I would remove the fish to a hospital tank and treat there instead just to be on the safe side.

I've never had problems with Maroxy and plants. I don't keep a whole lot of hornwort, so I can't say it's not going to affect it.

Okiimiru, you keep a lot of Ceratophylllum if I remember correctly, right?  That species seems to be particularly sensitive when it comes to chemicals and medications in the water, and "liquifying", as you called it, is a pretty good description of what happens.  Thankfully, not all species respond quite so dramatically.  That said, if I have any really prized plants in a tank, I would remove the fish to a hospital tank and treat there instead just to be on the safe side.

  
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Actually, ceratophyllum ("hornwort") is still in the tank right now because it survived the Furan 2 dose that wiped out the Cabomba caroliniana completely and took more than half of the population of Elodea densa.  The cladophora (marimo algae), anubias barteri and nana, flame moss, and singapore moss were unaffected.  Those extremely slow growing plants seem to not get wiped out so easily by poisons, I've found.   
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Yes, the hospital tank is a great tool.  But sometimes you just gotta dose the whole tank.  I hate it when that happens because 1.  I have to buy boxes and boxes of medication because my tank is so large and 2.  The invertebrates and plants always suffer.    
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So I try to pick medications that are fairly plant and invertebrate safe.  The medications that rely on suspended heavy metals, for example CopperSafe, will harm your non-vertebrate life.  It warns you of that on the label.  Label:  http://www.petco.com...CopperSafe.aspx  Other medications don't have any effect on plants or invertebrates at all that I've found (and I've kept dozens of species of plants over the years).  These fairly harmless medications include malachite green (effective against external parasites ... sometimes), low doses of formalin, and Jungle Labs anti-fungal fizzing tabs.  But those tabs, I've found, don't always cure the fungus.  Maybe it wasn't really fungus, maybe it was columnaris.  So it might not have been Jungle Labs' fault.  I couldn't say.  I just know it didn't work.    
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The Furan 2 was one that surprised me.  I had thought, because it was an antibiotic, that it wouldn't affect the plants and inverts at all.  But although the invertebrates were fine, the more delicate species of plants couldn't take it.   Since then I've always tested a bit of plant with the medication before dosing the whole tank.  Like the time there were evil disgusting four inch leeches in my tank (!) and I wanted to add Levamisole hydrochloride in an attempt to kill them.  (Levamisole HCl is a commercial grade farm animal dewormer.  It's also fairly nontoxic to fish in low doses).  I tested it with a plant unscientifically, so I'm not sure if the plant died because of the Levamisole HCl or because of me, but I still decided to go with darters (which eat leeches) instead of the meds.       
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So it's a pro/con situation, and you just have to remember that both pros and cons exist.  If you can, don't mix meds with plants/inverts.  It's best to put the fish in a hospital tank or to remove the plant.  But, if you can't avoid treating the whole tank, at least remember which medications will instantly liquify your plants. 

Edited by Okiimiru, 12 August 2010 - 07:19 PM.

can you list exactly what you did? this may help others that are searching on the topic. did you just do a water change? what OTC meds did you use? thanks! glad your fish are doing good!

I guess I need to figure out why I am not getting email updates from postings. Sorry, I did at least a 25% water change and added just the salt (no meds) as stated above and the world was a better place