Undiagnosed disease.      5/17/18
Hello crew, i hope you are doing well, as always.
<Hi Roberto,>
With the coming of winter, and slightly colder temperatures, i started using heaters in my tanks. (it was getting below 22 C).
<Wise.>
One day i woke up to a Columbian tetra caught between the heater and the glass. I dislodged him and he went onto normal, except that he had an horrible vertical searing wound. It looked pretty horrible. I observed the fish for the following days and he looked to be healing pretty well. When everything looked good, he developed white, round growths on his wounds. It started slow, and i tried to net him many times out, but netting him out of a 150 gallon heavily planted tank is... hard. I decided to just keep on water changes daily and keep clean filters, etc.
<Understood.>
The growths disappeared, and he seemed to heal completely. a week after the growths came back more aggressively, but still advancing slowly. Maybe a new growth every 2 days or so. I finally netted him out and put him on quarantine. I am concerned between three different ailments which are listed on your website: Lymphocystis, fungus or Columnaris.
<It doesn't look like Lymphocystis from the photographs of the Mollies and the Siamese Algae Eater. Conceivably Whitespot, but more likely Fungus, Columnaris, or perhaps Costia.>
i treated him with tetracycline and Methylene blue (correct me if im wrong, this has formalin right?).
<Formalin may be an ingredient in commercial medications, but these two chemicals are specific things, and in themselves, not formalin.>
Not sure if the treatment worked, as it jumped out overnight...
<Oh.>
Fast forwarding a couple days, both fish pictures, a black molly and a SAE, developed the same growths. They don't have any wounds, they just started developing the growths. It seemed as first that single scales were popping out, then in the place of the pooped out scale appeared the growths. Some growths have disappeared, but they have left red open wounds.
<Not good.>
I have the molly in a 5 gal and treated with tetracycline, Methylene blue.
<Methylene Blue is effective against fungal infections, but will have little/no impact on Costia or Columnaris (also known as Mouth Fungus). Fungal infections often set in alongside other types of disease, which can be why Methylene Blue seems to help a bit, even where the actual problem is a protozoan or bacterium species.>
It seems to be working, albeit slowly. I am keeping on water changes on both the main tank and the quarantine, but what do you think is a correct diagnose?
<See above. Costia is typically associated with off-white to grey smears (hence 'Slime Disease') and can develop extremely rapidly. It usually respond best to anti-Whitespot medications, albeit slowly enough 2-3 rounds of treatment may be required. Columnaris (or Mouth Fungus) is bacterial in nature, so antibiotics are ideal, but failing that, some type of antibacterial medication used for external infections such as Finrot. I'd perhaps be looking at something like eSHa 2000 in the first instance, as it's fairly broad acting, dealing with a range of external bacteria and fungal infections. It also works well (and safely) alongside eSHa EXIT, which is a very good against external Protozoans. Since both these medications are cheap and widely sold, they're my favoured combination for use against difficult to identify, though obviously external, diseases.>
I went out and bought an API medicine that is supposedly for fungus. It is Victoria green (malachite green?) and Acriflavine. I can get Acriflavine separately for cheaper. Should i add, this sickness doesn't seem to be stressing them, they are eating normally, even the Columbian was doing so, even when heavily infested, it is developing, albeit very slowly.
I will be waiting input, so far no other fish have developed the growths, but it has shown it doesn't need an open wound to do so.
As always, thanks, WWM.
<Hope this helps. Cheers, Neale.>

Sick Betta (RMF, any better guesses?)<<None>>    4/21/18
Thank you for the opportunity to ask you about my sick Betta. I have a female Betta that has developed a whitish film first on her sides and now on the top of her head and gill plates. She has a good appetite, puts
forward enthusiasm when she sees me, but otherwise is not herself, depressed and not swimming around as usual, she is not flashing or scratching, her fins are clamped most of the time. She is in an established, filtered, heated bare bottom tank (I think it's a 3 gal) with weekly water changes. There is an air bubbler and two live plants in the tank. The film on her seems flat not real poufy or cottony and as far as I can tell does not seem slimy, it's just a film that I know is not normal.
She holds her anal fins close to her body. Your thoughts are greatly appreciated! Sincerely, Tina
<Hello Tina. Assuming good water quality and adequate heat, and no evidence of classic Whitespot (such as salt grain speckles and persistent scratching), my mind is turning towards Costia, sometimes called Slime Disease or Ichthyobodo. It's relatively easy to treat if caught early, but can become more stubborn with time. It's a protozoan parasite a bit like Whitespot that causes the skin to become cloudy with mucous. Often the cloudiness surrounds the scales, almost like mortar around bricks.
http://www.wetwebmedia.com/fwsubwebindex/CostiaF.htm
Many anti-Whitespot medications will work against Costia (I like eSHa 2000) but more often than not a second course is needed because Costia does seem to be quite stubborn and difficult to shift. The classic remedy was
formalin, but that's somewhat less widely used nowadays because it can be toxic, to both fish and aquarist! Hope this helps, Neale.>

Re: sick Betta (RMF, any better guesses?) <<Nothing more>>   4/23/18
Thank you for your quick response. I have attached a few pictures, I hope they aren't too big. If Betta does have Costia will Seachem "Para Guard" be effective? Thank you again! Tina
<Paraguard should work, being marketed as useful against ectoparasites, but I've not tried this particular approach, and Seachem are a little vague on specifics! Since it doesn't contain either copper or formalin, the two best treatments for Costia, it wouldn't be my first choice. But definitely worth a shot, especially alongside elevated temperatures and/or salt water dips.
Costia struggles to survive at temperatures above 28 C/86 F, which Bettas can easily handle. Dipping fish for short periods in seawater (35 gram sea salt/litre aquarium water) can help to shift the mucous and kill some of the parasites. Bettas aren't particularly tolerant of salt, so I'd use this with the usual caution of removing the fish at the first sign of distress.
The longer the exposure to salt, the better -- so obviously this approach is especially well suited to those fish that handle seawater well, such as Guppies and Mollies. Nonetheless, anti-Whitespot medications of all sorts, used on their own, should shift Costia, but as I've said before, it may require several treatments because Costia is a stubborn little critter!
Cheers, Neale.>

Maybe Not Really Algae; Misgurnis dis.      9/3/17
Hello WWM Crew!
<Hello Renee,>
This is Renee, in Idaho with the human remains in the water!
<Eh?>
Haven’t written to you for a while, and I hope you are all well, but everything here is going great! The BGK is healthy, happy, and almost 6 inches long now! The Elephant Nose has filled out nicely, is eating well, and has turned out to be a gregarious little charmer!
<All sounds like good news.>
I even “inherited” a Baby Whale (completely separate tanks from both the Elephant Nose and the BGK {who are also in separate tanks from each other}) who is turning out to be a really fun little fish! We had a little “bump in the road” in the loach tank earlier this week (see attached picture), but I took this same picture down to my aquarium store, they sold me some Kanaplex which took care of the problem completely in 24 hours (I still have one more treatment to give, but the fish were clear 24 hours after the first dose). But something unforeseen happened after the first treatment and it is that event I wanted to ask you about.
This all took place in my 125 gallon which houses 7 Weather Loaches and 6 SAE’s (the SAE’s did not get whatever this white stuff was – just the loaches).
<It looks like Slime Disease, also known as Costia.>
Its been up and cycled for 2 years now. That is significant because this tank was in operation before I found out about the .5 – 1 ppm of ammonia and the human remains in my tap water. I changed the substrate when I switched to the RO water, but the tank, ornaments, filter, and powerheads, were all exposed to the creepy, nasty, water from my well. When I changed over to the RO/DI water, I did it incrementally so as not to destroy the biological filter in the tank. Regardless, for the last year, I have been battling a nasty algae that sprung up and covered the ornaments and the back wall (and only the back wall) of the tank. Originally, it was the long black hairy looking algae, hence the SAE’s who took care of that promptly. But a blackish green algae remained (you can kind of see it in the background of the picture of the sick fish), again, only on the ornaments and back wall. But the SAE’s wouldn’t touch it. I tried putting one of my Bristlenose in for a while, but I never saw it go near that back wall.
<Black slime on an aquarium is almost certainly algae. If it has a distinctive musty smell, chances are that it's Cyanobacteria. If you have a hand lens or microscope, you can look at it, and often see it has a fine, matted, thread-like texture even though it looks glossy and sheet-like. Red algae, which can be black, turns red when left in clear alcohol (hence the same, and yes, vodka should work) has a coarser tufty texture in most cases and other than a watery smell, doesn't normally smell of anything.>
So I’ve been scrubbing that stuff weekly ever since without much success. I mean, this stuff is tough – I scrub with a fairly aggressive plastic pad as well as an algae scraper from my aquarium store and I have to scrub very hard for what seems like forever to even put a dent in this stuff. Well, the Kanaplex that I used to treat the loaches is killing this stuff (I don’t call it algae, even though that’s what it looked like, because I no longer believe that’s what it was).
<Antibiotics can, do kill Cyanobacteria.>
After the first dose, ¾’s of it was gone. After the second treatment, all that’s left is a few patches here and there. And it’s NOT floating loose and creating a green cloud in the water like it does when I try to scrub it, it’s just gone (YEAY!)! I’ve been researching and the stuff that comes closest to what I had was the Cyanobacteria – but still not quite the same. The pictures I saw of the Cyano showed the stuff covering ONLY the floor and ornaments in the tank, not the glass walls at all.
<There are of course various kinds. In my experience Cyanobacteria tends to be promoted by a number of things: slow water movement, direct sunlight, high temperature spikes during the day, and infrequent water changes that allow nitrate to stay consistently high.>
The stuff I had covered the back wall harder than cement, but only the back wall and the ornaments. Maybe that means nothing, I don’t know.
<Oh, it often is significant. Sand and gravel may be at places where water flow is slower, and ornaments will certainly reduce water flow.>
So I guess what I’m asking is can you identify this stuff, could it be responsible for the sick fish, and will it come back?
<I think the loach has Costiasis, which is unrelated, and while somewhat difficult to treat, there are medications available that do deal with it effectively.>
I take care of both of my elderly parents and my father had a health crisis three days before I noticed the sick fish (he’s ok now), so they could have been suffering with this during that time.
<Possibly, but might simply be bad luck.>
The day I realized what was going on also happened to be the day of their scheduled water change and their monthly filter cleaning. Ammonia and nitrite were zero, but the nitrate test was a fairly dark orange, but no red, which I interpreted as 20 – 30 ppm (which is a little higher than normal). The tank has an E-heim 2217 canister filter and a powerhead (on the opposite side of the filter spray bar to keep the water moving on that end).
<Hope this helps. Cheers, Neale.>

Re: Maybe Not Really Algae  9/4/17
It helps tremendously, thank you!
<Most welcome! Neale.>