Fungus disease & quaranteen

Brengun

Global Moderators
Staff member
Apr 22, 2009
5,041
4
38
61
Burrum Heads, Queensland, Australia
I bought a breeding pair of discus from a local fishkeeper.
I saw they were in a beautiful planted tank with dozens of other lovely discus and rainbowfish. The tank was a credit to its owner as it really was a nice tank.

I got my discus and took them home and since the previous owners tank looked so pristine I didn't bother to quaranteen them. Big mistake!

I had a 4 foot tank with 8 near adult L066, sterbai corydoras and planted. I thought it would make a fantasic tank to breed my discus and after a water change the day before to make it really good, I added the discus right in.

They disappeared into the plants like new fish tend to do but by the second day of them not coming out to feed I was starting to get worried.
By the third day I just had to investigate and to my horror it looked like the discus slime coats were coming off. Bits of it was hanging off them and looking grey.

I immediately thought the water in the tank could be the problem even tho testing showed perfect conditions. I did a good water change anyway, added Prime liquid (just in case) and started a course of Waterlifes Myaxazin bacterial treatment. I know this one is safe for plecos and corydoras which is why I chose it. Apart from the awful state of the discus body, no fins showed any white patches, nor did the corys or the plecos show any change so I just continued with the Myaxazin for a few days. There was plenty of aeration in the tank.

Well about then everything took a turn for the worst. Three of the L066 died (not a mark on them), the discus looked almost dead and the corys were showing white pectoral fin "tips". Being sterbai cories, their pec fins are sort of an orange color normally and with a spotty line up of markings on the body it is almost impossible to detect actual "whitespot" or ich as it is known. The remaining plecos didn't look so healthy either so I had to do something fast.

Seeing the white fin tips gave me the clue that what I had been treating was not bacterial but a fungal infection.
Reading on the fungal treatment the waterlifes protozin said I could not use it within 4 days of using the myaxazin but I needed help now, not in 4 days.

In desperation, I did a 50% water change and dissolved over a number of hours hand fulls of aquarium salt. I know fungus hates it, but I also knew corydoras in particular hate salt as well which is why I added it so slowly. I chose salt as I did not want to kill the bio balance in the tank and also because I am not a great lover of heavy duty meds on fish.

I kept a very close eye on the corydoras to see their reaction, and while they were not too happy with me, they were not losing any condition or health either.

While I was adding the salt over 24 hours to half the recommended cichlid dose of salt, (this varies but I stuck to just watching my cories to see what they could tolerate), I lost the two discus and one more pleco. The cory fins started improving and the three remaining plecos seems much more active so I left it at that.

To tell the truth I was just so miserable at losing the 5 plecos and 2 discus that I thought the corys and the other 3 were probably gonners as well. :cry:

Just to spite me, no one died, they all recovered and have been good ever since. :woohoo:

Two lessons learned. ALWAYS quaranteen no matter how healthy the fish look, and never underestimate the healing power of good old salt. :thumbup:
 
Last edited:

Lornek8

Member
Apr 21, 2009
2,001
0
36
Hawaii
Sorry to hear about your situation.
Fin rot isn't fungal, its bacterial. Still think the cause was bacterial. Its tough to say exactly what to treat with as Waterlife doesn't list its ingredients. Found this on a web search though:
"Waterlife got back to me about the active ingredients in Myxazin: "The main actives in Myxazin are: Acriflavine, Malachite & formalin." From:http://thegab.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=18525&start=0

From appearances, Myaxin, although marketed as a bacterial med, is more of what I'd use as a parasitic med. The only ingredient that is really something that might be used to target bacteria is acriflavine & even then its more of an antiseptic than an antibiotic. Much more effective at preventing disease than curing it. For deeply entrenched bacterial diseases you really cant beat an antibiotic but I realize that Australia has some limitation when it comes to antibiotic availability. Might go look for some other bacterial med if one is available.
 

Brengun

Global Moderators
Staff member
Apr 22, 2009
5,041
4
38
61
Burrum Heads, Queensland, Australia
Probably a bad choice of words "rot" as it was only white pec fin "tips". Being sterbai cories, their fins are sort of an orange color normally and with spotty line up of markings it is almost impossible to detect actual "whitespot" or ich as it is known.

I will edit to reflect this as I didn't really mean the fins were actually rotting off, merely that the tips were white.