# Fungus like



## jrman83 (Jul 9, 2010)

I normally don't post my issues too much but haven't been doing much reading as of late and haven't really searched too much with the problem I'm having in my Guppy tank and thought maybe someone out there has seen this and knows exactly how to tackle the issue.

I have close to 100 Guppies in a 75g tank (all Gup tank), heavily planted, 77F, ....all the readings are good. Nitrates get to just between 40-60 at the end of the week....just depends on nitrate dosing and feeding schedule. Will reset to below 20ppm following weekly 65% water changes. It has an Eheim 2229 wet/dry and Eheim 2075 filters and pressurized CO2. I use salt and add only half the recommended amount and only do that every other water change.

The problem: 
I have added a few Gups in the last few weeks to keep the bloodline stronger rather than letting them to continue on and on inter-breeding. I do this about every 6mos. About 2wks now after adding some 5-6 of them appear to have what appears to be a white looking fungus around their mouth and I even saw one last night that looked like it had a spread a little to its head area, or at least not just confined to the mouth. Now some of the ones affected are doing the dazed swim and sitting in one place looking like they are staring at a wall. I know this is usually the final stage before death.

I started treating with Quick Cure more for a lack of having done nothing to date and just wanted to get something in the water - not the best practice I know, but I have been looking at this too long already and acting quickly is usually half the battle and I already failed there. I know Quick Cure does work on fungus looking issues that form on the body. I'm hoping that works for the mouth also. The only other med I have is Tetracycline which I would like to avoid entirely, if possible. Don't like anti-biotics in my tanks, but not opposed to using them.

Anyone experienced this and been successful treating without losses?


----------



## dalfed (Apr 8, 2012)

Guppy3 - guppies - Guppy Diseases I have not had this issue myself but here is a couple of articles that talks about it.


----------



## coralbandit (Jul 29, 2012)

Found this link which states that dye based meds can be effective.Your quick cure may well due the trick as the combo of formulin and m.green can be effective.
Aquarium Fish Fungus


----------



## HiTekHoney (Jul 12, 2013)

I have two weapons of mass destruction in my arsenal. These are the only meds i use for almost anything and everything. Melafix and pimafix combined when im not sure what the issue is. Otherwise the bottle pretty much explains everything. Its safe for even plants and inverts. Please watch the dosing. Also safe for plants. I believe what you have is called cotton mouth. Very common in live bearers. 

Good luck.


----------



## Auban (Aug 8, 2010)

sounds like columnaris


tetracycline is actually pretty good against it. i used a combination of tetracycline and penicillin when i had a tank break out in north carolina, but from what i have read, it was really the tetracycline that did the most good.


----------



## dalfed (Apr 8, 2012)

Auban said:


> sounds like columnaris
> 
> 
> tetracycline is actually pretty good against it. i used a combination of tetracycline and penicillin when i had a tank break out in north carolina, but from what i have read, it was really the tetracycline that did the most good.


The link I found said quite often in livebearers it is not Columnaris but a true fungus treated with Salt, Malachite Green, Methylene Blue.


----------



## Auban (Aug 8, 2010)

dalfed said:


> The link I found said quite often in livebearers it is not Columnaris but a true fungus treated with Salt, Malachite Green, Methylene Blue.


i have found plenty of references that say the opposite...

but my experience is that fish that start dying quickly with cottony fungus on their mouths usually respond better to antibiotics.


----------



## dalfed (Apr 8, 2012)

Auban said:


> i have found plenty of references that say the opposite...
> 
> but my experience is that fish that start dying quickly with cottony fungus on their mouths usually respond better to antibiotics.


lol the ... is "so f*** you"
thought columnaris first thing too just thought it was interesting that both sites said something else


----------



## Auban (Aug 8, 2010)

i think whats more important for diagnosis is the actual behavior of the fish and the diseas. columnaris often has neurological symptoms, and usually leads to the fish gasping shortly before dying. thats because the bacteria starts dissolving the gills. 

for me, it progressed like this:

fish start getting a little jittery, then the cottony fungus looking stuf shows up and the fish alternate between long periods of doing nothing and darting randomly from time to time. after that, they start gasping and heading to the surface.

within several hours of catching them at the surface, i would see them start to lose control of their bodies and it looked like they were slipping into a coma. then they would die. 

usually, at some point before they died, the cottony fungus stuff would spread to the front of the dorsal fin.

antibiotics stopped the deaths.


----------



## Jaybird5 (Apr 27, 2013)

My recently passed dalmatian molly had the same thing. It started on behind his eye and then it hit his gills. Under his gills were completely white from the fungus. It took 6 days for it to kill him. It was a very slow process. He eventually lost control of his tail fin and could not even swim with it. That is when I decided it was over. He then was frozen. He was one of my first two fish.


----------

