What are these spots on my Harlequin Lancer Cat?

[1stpclsr]

Hi, I have a question that may be very difficult to answer, but any ideas would be helpful. My cousin and I, each have a harlequin lancer catfish and there is essentially no useful info about them on the internet anywhere. the ones we have came from the same batch of fry, they are about 5-6 inches long. Both of our water parameters are about the same, temperature is about the same, and we feed our fish frozen foods. Blood worms, brine shrimp, etc. when we got the fish, their appearances were fine, but they were timid, as expected when introduced to a new tank. after about a month they have since become more active day and night. But in both cases both fish have developed theses spots around their torso areas close to fins. No idea what they are, what caused them, but they wont really heal, but they also don't appear to affect the fish. plus there are tufts of little white spots around the back of the head that appear like tiny tiny cotton balls. these do come and go. I know its not ich but I am completely stumped. please any advice, thoughts, or ideas would be appreciated.

 

[in_the_seance]

try cotton-wool disease

 

[1stpclsr]

Would it effect only one fish in the tank though? or would it have spread after about a month? none of my other fish have anything like it

 

[thebiggerthebetter]

Beautiful rare fish they are. Looks like a type of fungus.

Please provide as much info as you can from this list, including first and foremost water parameters and with what test kit they were taken: http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/f...ish-Health-Diagnostics-(Read-before-posting-)

 

[1stpclsr]

I have a 120 gallon tank, with sand substrate, no live plants. Fake plants with Malaysian drift woods, calcium buffer rocks, and wonderstone. I have a single air pump plugged into a 12" bubble bar. Filtration is Fluval Cannister, temperature was at 80 when thermometer broke, haven't adjusted temp since. I only have a ph test kit by API and I keep it around 6.8, when the water does become more acidic (rarely) I do a 50% water change. tank mates include 2 Zamora cats, 6 raphaels, a sun cat, 2 bumble bees, various corys, a few plecos, bala sharks, tinfoil, Odessa, and gold barbs. totaling about 60 fish id estimate. the fish are fed frozen bloodworms and frozen haddock daily, with a mix of frozen brine shrimp, plankton and krill. and also they get carnivore pellets, shrimp pellets, catfish/ pleco chips when I think about it. RARELY do they get flake food, and this happens at night when my blue LEDs are on. Behaviorally the Harlequin is absolutely fine. no scratching or hiding. swims around playfully at different levels of the tank. eats anything and everything, especially loves the haddock and blood worms. Im truly stumped.

 

[thebiggerthebetter]

I'd recommend getting an API Freshwater Master kit, liquid test like this one: http://www.petsolutions.com/C/Aquarium-Test-Kits/I/Api-Freshwater-Master-Kit.aspx because IMHO it is essential to know ammonia, nitrite and nitrate levels, not only temp and pH. Hardness is also desirable to know.

My other thoughts included excessive mucus but that woud be just whitish, opaque and not have color - what's on your fish does not look like it. Heater burns is another possibility but again, I doubt it - the pattern and the wounds do not go well with it.

Bagroides melapterus should tolerate acidic pH without any problems, albeit no fish can tolerate or cope very well with frequent pH swings. http://www.planetcatfish.com/common/species.php?species_id=766 - are you sure of the ID?

It may look like an ammonia burn but if he and his tankmates are fine, I, again, doubt it. (Still, sounds like there is a lot of fish and a lot of food, which means elevated ammonia is possible)

You could try a small, prophylactic doze of Malachite Green or maybe Rid-ich - it not only for ich, which this is not, but also has an antifungal property and treats some other external parasites, or try just a general antifungal medicine, again, at maybe 1/3 the doze, try several times, say once a week for 3 weeks and see if that has any effect.

Your question might be better answered in the "Freshwater fish deseases" forum: http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?35-Freshwater-Diseases-and-Health-Issues

Good luck!

 

[in_the_seance]

Would it effect only one fish in the tank though? or would it have spread after about a month? none of my other fish have anything like it

i've had a harlequin for five months and she seems really sensitive to little ph fluctuations so i do smaller water changes more often after she got cotton-wool or whatever, i thought fungal too so i treated with Methylene Blue but no effect, then she had one of those lesion/ulcer looking things appear. i treated with maracyn and maracyn 2. it seemed to do the trick. none of my other fish got it

 

[1stpclsr]

Ok, I will try Maracyn, if that worked for you.. I appreciate the advice!

 

[1stpclsr]

Thanks for all of your input, Im gonna try maracyn since it worked for the other person first, but regardless I will be getting the master test kit that you recommended. But yeah none of my other fish have anything wrong with them at all.

 

[thebiggerthebetter]

Let us know please how you get on. Maracyn is a good, wide spectrum antibiotic of the penicillin kind of action http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erythromycin.

However, Maracyn 2 appears to me to be of completely different class of meds - of the tettracycline group and they treat different bacterial cultures - Maracyn=Erythromycin is for gram-positive bacteria; tetracycline is for gram-negative bacteria. It is unclear from the In-The-Seance post whether he used a combo or a succession or what. I guess it was a combo.

Lupin recommends Maracyn Plus much better, which uses altogether different drugs. From Lupin's great thread: http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/f...5289-List-of-Treatments-and-Contraindications

Maracyn
Active ingredients: Erythromycin
Diseases: gram positive bacterial infections, fin and tail rot, popeye, body fungus
Comments:
These antibiotics prevent protein synthesis and effect the cells ability to reproduce.

Further information can be found under the name Erythromycin.

Maracyn 2
Active ingredients: Minocycline
Diseases: gram negative bacterial infections, dropsy, hemorrhage septicemia, popeye, fin and tail rot.
Contraindications:
Minocycline is found to be a synthetic tetracycline. These antibiotics prevent protein synthesis and effect the cells ability to reproduce.

Compatible with Maracyn (erythromycin).

Maracyn Plus
Active Ingredients: sulfadimidine and trimethoprim
Diseases: bacterial infections
Contraindications:
Much more preferred to a combination of Maracyn (erythromycin) and Maracyn 2 (minocycline).

Compatible with MediGold or Metromeds. Dose per instructions written on the bottle.