How to treat cottony growth on Goldfish?

Question

My goldfish has been in a hospital tank for about 2 weeks now b/c I am trying to treat her lethargy and cottony growth, eye cloud, etc.

she started out with lethargy and her scales being all peely, I treated with melafix and coppersafe and that problem healed. However, now she has this cottony growth that won't stay away.

I have been doing frequent water changes, aquarium salting, and using a mix of melafix and pimafix now for about a week. the pimafix really helped at first but now it seems to only lessen the cottony growth and eye cloud growth for days 1 and 2 but then starts to come back again on day 3.

any ideas on how i can make her better? she's fighting really hard and obviously does not want to give up, so i really want to help her out and get her back to normal in her tank w/ her other buddies.

thanks in advance!

Answer 1

I consider Pimafix and Melafix to be non-cures. They simply don't have the punch needed to clear up an infection or infestation once it has gotten a foothold on a fish. I would suggest you discontinue the use of those products for this problem.

It is one of two things, Columnaris or fungus.

The best way to tell them apart is that columnaris always grows in a very round circular spot while fungus rarely does. Columnaris is also pearly or opalescent white while fungus is a flatter, grayish white.

Columnaris: It can occur anywhere on the fishes body and there have been documented lab cases of it being a systemic, or body wide infection. It's not real easy to treat as it only responds well to a very limited number of antibiotics. The best treatment for columnaris is Furanace. It is the only known antibiotic that will treat both the surface and internal parts of the infection and the only one that will treat it if it becomes systemic. Tetracycline can be effective as well and is usually much easier to find under the name Maracyn TC. Treat for a minimum of 7 days for columnaris, 10 is really better.

Fungus: Hopefully this is what you have and odds are good it is. Fungus is easy to treat and responds well to common fungus treatments like Maroxy. Many fungus treatments contain Malachite green which will turn the water a greenish / yellow color.

Warning: Malachite Green is a known carcinigen so be very careful to keep it off your skin!

Hope this helps

MM

Answer 2

Pimafix can be effective for the treatment of Columnaris (as lab studies show), however Melafix is not. Pimafix however is not as strong against more serious infections of Columnaris as some antibiotics.
It should also be noted that Columnaris is gram negative and will not respond to primarily gram positive treatment such as Melafix or Tetracycline!!!

Also water parameters are VERY important in the treatment of Columnaris as this disease has been shown to be a VERY opportunistic infection that is much more prevalent in poor water conditions and weakened fish.
Make sure your water parameters are correct (A water change is a good start):
Ammonia/nitrites -0
pH- stable
KH at least 50 ppm
GH – over 100 ppm (electrolytes are important, including salt!)
Nitrates- under 40 ppm

The best treatment in the world will not work for Columnaris if water conditions are poor.
Once you know your water conditions are correct, Kanamycin has been proven to be the most effective treatment for Columnaris or even stronger is Kanamycin combined with Nitrofurazone.
For more about Columnaris, please read this article:
http://www.americanaquariumproducts.com/Columnaris.html

Malachite Green can help with true fungal infections and used properly is NOT a carcinogen as scientific studies have shown.
For more researched medication information including links to research papers, please read this article:
http://www.americanaquariumproducts.com/Aquarium_Medication.html

Answer 3

it's probably a fungus or columnaris from the low immunity. i'm assuming your tank has cycled, since you say you have other fish and a hospital tank. pimafix and melafix are all natural, which is great, but they tend to not be as effective as the real deal anti-fungals and antibiotics. i suggest using maracyn, mardel's products are a little more expensive but really great. you can look at the back of the mardel products and see which one best describes the symptoms of your fish. mardel has never let me down.

Answer 4

Pimafix and Melafix are a great remedy, and usually prevent bacterial/fungal infections from happening.

However, I'd suggest to use another fungus eliminator in conjunction with pim/melafix. Cloudy eye is also a bacterial infection, and you could probably use another anti-bacterial medication.

~ZTM

Answer 5

I'd suggest you try Maroxy by Mardel for 7 days. It will cloud up the hospital tank water but that is to be expected.

Answer 6

The sell a medicine at the pet store to treat the growth