HELP!!! - Wounded Fish + White Fungus

[nickag9]

Hey guys,

I've got a 20 gallon long tank with 4 "dwarf" sunfish in it. Two of them are Bluespotted Sunfish and the other two are Banded Sunfish. Well, it looks like the largest of the 4 decided to pick on one of the smaller fish as one of my Banded Sunfish is now missing most of his left side fin. I also noticed today that his left side is covered in a white fungus... I pulled him out and put him in my hospital tank as soon as I saw the fungus, but what can I do now??? He seems to be acting fine (other than swimming slowly) and he was eating when I noticed the fungus. Anyway, let me know the best way to treat the fungus and how I can help nurse him back to health. Thanks!

Crappy pics of the fungus and his wounded fin... I'll try to get some better ones later.

 

[nickag9]

Ok since my fish seems to be getting worse and no one has responded I'll go into more detail. My answers are in red, please help if you can...

1. What is the size of your tank? 20 gallon long

2. What are your water parameters? Ammonia - 0ppm, Nitrite - 0ppm, Nitrate - 30ppm

3. Is your aquarium set up freshwater or brackish water? Freshwater

4. How long the aquarium has been set up? 3 months

5. What fish do you have? How many are in your tank? How big are they? How long have you had them? 2 Enneacanthus Obesus (Banded Sunfish) and 2 Enneacanthus Gloriosus (Blue Spotted Sunfish). One of the Banded Sunfish is about 2 inches long, the other 3 fish are just under 1.5 inches. All 4 fish have been in the tank about a month.

6. Were the fish placed under quarantine period (minus the first batch from the point wherein the tank is ready to accommodate the inhabitants)? No

7. What temperature is the tank water currently? Room Temp ~ 72*

8. Are there live plants in the aquarium? No

9. What filter are you using? Two AquaClear 30 HOB filters, cleaned once a month on an alternating schedule, using two foam inserts and one bio bag in each filter

10. Any other equipment used (aside from heater and filter which are two very important components of the tank)? No

11. Does your aquarium receive natural sunlight at any given part of the day? What is your lighting schedule (assuming you do not rely on sunlight for our viewing pleasure)? Minimum natural sunlight, Eclipse tank light is on about 6-7 hours a day

12. When did you perform your last water change and how much water was changed? How often do you change your water? Do you vacuum the substrate? 25% water change weekly with gravel vac, last change was last Tuesday, 50% change scheduled for tomorrow

13. What foods do you provide your fish? What is the feeding schedule? Freeze Dried Bloodworms and Shrimp, one feeding of each daily

14. What unusual signs have you observed in your fish? Damaged fin, white fuzz on 40% of body, slow moving and now he is not eating

15. Have you treated your fish ahead of diagnosis? If so, what treatments did you use? State your reasons for planning ahead of proper diagnosis. One dose of Melafix so far, awaiting further instructions...

16. Insert photos of fish in question and full tank shot if necessary. Pictures in the post above

 

[boldtogether]

Put the fish in a cheap 10g with a small HOB "seeded" with some BB from an established filter, 100w heater @85-88F and medicate with Melafix, double dose, for 5 days. Aerate with a bubble stone as this wont cause to much turbulence but good circulation. Dont feed the fish.
BTW...DOSE ONLY ONCE. NOT EACH DAY. LET THE FISH BE IN THAT SOLUTION FOR 5 DAYS, THEN CHANGE 50-75% WATER AND DOSE A REGULAR DOSE AND KEEP THE FISH IN THERE FOR ANOTHER 5 DAYS.
Pimafix will also be another med you could use even combining the two meds for extreme cases of damage.
This regimine has worked 98% of the cases Ive done it and I swear by Melaleuca oil.
If your not squimish about handling the fish, you could hold it in your hand and apply small drops of Melafix dirrectly.
I use Melaleuca oil (100%pure) directly to open wounds and fungus areas with incredible results...like full recovery in literally days.
There is also a salt regimine that I have used but this is more advanced and could burn the fishes' gills...however, 1tbs salt/5gal is widely used to fight fungus and I recommend it, but the fish keepers out there are probably split 50/50 as to the use of salt in FW aquaria.

Good Luck. I hope the fish makes it.

 

[dragongirl]

I have been using salt in my freshwater 46 gallon since i set it up and have had no fungus issues. I recommend salt as long as your careful not to overdose. Isolating the sick fish is definitely a good idea to prevent the fungus from spreading to the others but you can use the salt in your main tank to kill anything that may already be in the water. raising the temperature has also proven to help kill fungus and ich but only raise the temp by 1 degree every two hours so they don't go into shock. About 84 to 86 degrees usually works nicely.

I also have known melafix to be very safe if you want to actually treat the fish. It is organic and wont harm anyone as long as you follow instructions on the label.

Hope I could be of some help

 

[nickag9]

The fish did not make it through the night... The fungus or infection spread too rapidly and he couldn't handle it.

My question now becomes, what do I do next? As far as I could tell the fish that died had some kind of wound that got infected or grew a fungus. My tank parameters were normal yesterday but to be safe I plan to do a 50% water change tonight and dose with some salt to help keep the remaining fish calm and hopefully healthy. My only other concern is the filter I put on my hospital tank. I removed one of the AC30 filters from the main tank to filter the new 5.5 gallon tank when I set it up. Now that this filter has been exposed to the sick fish and the meds do I need to do anything with it before I put it back on the main tank? I still have a bag of activated carbon I can put in it, but do I need to clean it or disenfect it before it goes back on the main tank? I don't want to kill any of my BB but at the same time I don't want any of my other fish getting sick and dying. Also, do I need to do anything in particular to the hospital tank when I empty it or will cleaning it with warm water be enough? Sorry for all of the questions, this is my first experience with a sick fish and it's my first fish fatality. At this point my main concern is keeping those numbers at one... Thanks.

 

[Aquanero]

I would rinse the filter and change the media as you would in your monthly cleaning. As far as the other fish go if they have no open wounds they should be fine. Do a 50% water change twice this week. I had a severum awhile back that took a beating and developed a nasty fungal infection. I held him and poured peroxid directly over the infected area (stay away from gills) placed him in a salt soultion of 1 tsp in the 10 gal hospital tank and it cleared in couple days. I kept it isolated for two weeks untill he started healing well and was eating, doing 50% water changes every day. That worked for me.