If you remember my post about the scat from earlier who had what I thought was a fungus ball on his face (looked like a big red zit). The other fish in the tank looked like they were getting some sort of whitish fungus. My friend started treating with both melafix and pimafix. At first I thought his whole tank was gonna crash. His synodontis catfish looked like its skin was peeling off and looked very very dead. Other fish were suffering from whitish smears all over their bodies. Luckily, the pimafix and melafix cleared everything up. Except for the scat. The red bump went away, but then he started getting it inside his mouth. Neither of us knew what it was so he kept treating it with pima/melafix. Now all the medicine is gone and the scats condition has worsened. I checked it out yesterday, and it looks like its face is being eaten. Thats the only way I can think of to describe it. Its all red and it looks like his mouth/face area is having a big hole eaten into it.
I have no clue as to what it is. I know a picture would be great, but since it's not my fish I can't do much about it.
If anyone has any idea what this is and knows how to treat is, your advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.
The afore mentioned scat
Forum rules
Read this before posting!!
Since this board has been up, we have found there are several questions that routinely get asked in order to help diagnose problems. If you can have that information to begin with in your post, we'll be able to help right away (if we can!) without having to wait for you to post the info we need.
1) Your water parameters - pH, Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrates and salinity (if appropriate). This is by far the most important information you can provide! Do not answer this with "Fine" "Perfect" "ok", that tells us nothing. We need hard numbers.
2) Tank size and a list of ALL inhabitants. Include algae eaters, plecos, everything. We need to know what you have and how big the tank is.
3) Feeding, water change schedule and a list of all products you are using or have added to the tank (examples: Cycle, Amquel, salt, etc)
4) What changes you've made in the tank in the last week or so. Sometimes its the little things that make all the difference.
5) How long the aquarium has been set up, and how did you cycle it? If you don't know what cycling is read this: Fishless Cycling Article and familiarize yourself with all the information. Yes. All of it.
We want to help, and providing this information will go a LONG way to getting a diagnosis and hopeful cure that much faster.
While you wait for assistance:
One of the easiest and best ways to help your fish feel better is clean water! If you are already on a regular water change schedule (50% weekly is recommended) a good step to making your fish more comfortable while waiting for diagnosis/suggestions is to do a large water change immediately. Feel free to repeat daily or as often as you can, clean water is always a good thing! Use of Amquel or Prime as a dechlor may help with any ammonia or nitrite issues, and is highly recommended.
Note - if you do not normally do large water changes, doing a sudden, large water change could shock your fish by suddenly changing their established water chemistry. Clean water is still your first goal, so in this case, do several smaller (10%) water changes over the next day or two before starting any large ones.
Read this before posting!!
Since this board has been up, we have found there are several questions that routinely get asked in order to help diagnose problems. If you can have that information to begin with in your post, we'll be able to help right away (if we can!) without having to wait for you to post the info we need.
1) Your water parameters - pH, Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrates and salinity (if appropriate). This is by far the most important information you can provide! Do not answer this with "Fine" "Perfect" "ok", that tells us nothing. We need hard numbers.
2) Tank size and a list of ALL inhabitants. Include algae eaters, plecos, everything. We need to know what you have and how big the tank is.
3) Feeding, water change schedule and a list of all products you are using or have added to the tank (examples: Cycle, Amquel, salt, etc)
4) What changes you've made in the tank in the last week or so. Sometimes its the little things that make all the difference.
5) How long the aquarium has been set up, and how did you cycle it? If you don't know what cycling is read this: Fishless Cycling Article and familiarize yourself with all the information. Yes. All of it.
We want to help, and providing this information will go a LONG way to getting a diagnosis and hopeful cure that much faster.
While you wait for assistance:
One of the easiest and best ways to help your fish feel better is clean water! If you are already on a regular water change schedule (50% weekly is recommended) a good step to making your fish more comfortable while waiting for diagnosis/suggestions is to do a large water change immediately. Feel free to repeat daily or as often as you can, clean water is always a good thing! Use of Amquel or Prime as a dechlor may help with any ammonia or nitrite issues, and is highly recommended.
Note - if you do not normally do large water changes, doing a sudden, large water change could shock your fish by suddenly changing their established water chemistry. Clean water is still your first goal, so in this case, do several smaller (10%) water changes over the next day or two before starting any large ones.
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Apocalyptictoast
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Pufferpunk
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I think I knew of someone here that had a fish like that. Some kind of flesh-eating bacteria. Fish didn't make it. You might want to put it out of it's misery.
You are getting sleepy... you only hear the sound of my voice... you must do water changes... water changes... water changes... water changes...
"The solution to pollution is dilution!"
"The solution to pollution is dilution!"
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PuffTheMagicFishy
- Figure 8 Puffer
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- Location: California
It's not hole-in-the-head, is it? It's the only thing I can think of, but I don't have much experience with fish illnesses.
If the fish is in pain, having trouble functioning, and not responding to meds, I agree with PP. A humane euthanasia is better than having its face slowly eaten away.
If the fish is in pain, having trouble functioning, and not responding to meds, I agree with PP. A humane euthanasia is better than having its face slowly eaten away.
Tanks:
20-gal feeder breeder (platties and snails)
75-gal West African Lungfish + snails
Other pets: Pacific parrotlet, Italian Greyhound, lots of plants
20-gal feeder breeder (platties and snails)
75-gal West African Lungfish + snails
Other pets: Pacific parrotlet, Italian Greyhound, lots of plants
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ToyotaRKeener
- Puffer Fry
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andregurov
- Puffer Fry
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- Location: future wetlands, Louisiana
The best guess (and photos probably wouldn't help narrow the choices) is some type of Psuedomonas or Aeromonas bacterial infection. Both of these are quite opportunistic, attacking fish with suppressed immune systems from stress or improper handling. I'm not surprised a scat would show signs of such an infection, as scats are unfortunately SERIOUSLY mistreated in shipping and receiving. Without close examination of infected tissue under microscope it is impossible to be precise in prescribing medication. Kanamycin or Tetracycline might be your best choice, either in a QT or in feed. It would also help (although it would probably be quite painful to the unfortunate fish 
) to clean the wound to remove decaying/dying tissue, and treat with a contact antibiotic cream with Neomycin sulfate (like Neosporin). Be certain to increase aeration in the tank, and do increase the salt content gradually.
Other antibiotics: sulfas (poor solubility in water), chloramphenicol (hmm .. can't find this anymore), acriflavin (never had much success with this) Good luck, I don't know if I would quite give up on the fish yet. Several ulcerative diseases can look extremely frightening, yet fish can recover if given proper water conditions and a helping dose of TLC.
J
) to clean the wound to remove decaying/dying tissue, and treat with a contact antibiotic cream with Neomycin sulfate (like Neosporin). Be certain to increase aeration in the tank, and do increase the salt content gradually. Other antibiotics: sulfas (poor solubility in water), chloramphenicol (hmm .. can't find this anymore), acriflavin (never had much success with this) Good luck, I don't know if I would quite give up on the fish yet. Several ulcerative diseases can look extremely frightening, yet fish can recover if given proper water conditions and a helping dose of TLC.
J