Why does my fish look fluffy

Therefore, make sure to a provide a wide assortment of foods so that they get all their essential nutrients and b give them fresh, high-quality foods. Yes, the expiration date on the container may say the food is good for another three years, but every time you open the container, more air and moisture get inside, causing the food to become stale in a matter of months. Finally, avoid using wet fingers to get food out of the container because this causes the food to become moldy, which can result in fungus or other diseases.

Feed your fish a variety of high-quality foods to make sure they get all the vital nutrients to boost their immune systems. Many livebearers like fancy guppies and mollies often get fungal infections soon after bringing them home from the pet store. We have a whole article that dives into why livebearers in the aquarium industry are no longer as hardy, but essentially these fish are mass-bred in countries where fresh water is expensive to come by.

Bottom line: aim to eliminate as many stress sources as possible. Minimize bullying and food aggression among African cichlids. Vacuum the gravel more frequently for bottom dwellers, and keep the water quality high for sensitive species.

Avoid keeping shy fish around loud TVs, bright lights that create moving shadows, or high traffic areas in your home. Certain bacterial infections such as columnaris look like cottony growths or grayish-white patches around the mouth and thus should be treated with an antibiotic. Before treatment, clean the aquarium and remove any chemical filtration like activated carbon or Purigen resin.

Follow the instructions listed by the manufacturer by dosing 1 packet per 10 gallons of water and repeating every 24 hours for 5 days. Ich-X contains formaldehyde, methanol, and malachite green chloride, which are effective against fungal infections. Before treatment, clean the aquarium and remove any chemical filtration.

If the fungal infection is minor, dose 1 packet of Maracyn and 1 tsp of Ich-X per 10 gallons of water at the same time. Let it soak for one full week, and make sure the symptoms completely disappear. Your fish may require different antibiotics if no sample is sent for culture and sensitivity testing.

A detailed history of your fish including what treatments have already been attempted is critical to deciding which antibiotic is best for your situation. It is very hard for fish to recover from such a severe infection. If your fish's gills have become infected, it is critical to give them additional oxygen support from an airstone. Since it is a secondary invader, your fish system should be assessed for any potential stressors.

This includes testing your water chemistry , reviewing your fishes' diet , comparing fish compatibility and any recent additions of fish or decor. If you do not remove the primary cause, your fish will get sick again after finishing treatment. As with most diseases, cotton wool disease can be prevented with proper quarantine.

This means a completely separate system with separate filtration and other equipment for weeks. Watch your fish closely during this time period and watch for changes in their appearance and behavior. If you notice something wrong, it is critical to get it diagnosed fast and correctly to make sure it doesn't become a larger problem. By keeping your fish in isolation, you will protect your main system from infection.

It is also critical to keep your fish healthy in a low-stress environment. Make sure all fish have plenty of room, a high quality diet and good water chemistry. Actively scan device characteristics for identification. Use precise geolocation data. Select personalised content. Create a personalised content profile. Measure ad performance. Select basic ads.

Create a personalised ads profile. The Betta will need to be removed from the tank, he will keep nipping and stressing the other fish. Not a good thing when the fish are already stressed. Can you get him another tank or return him? Nitrite: 0ppm Nitrate 5. I have lowered temperature to 25 degrees. I clean the filter sponges in the same water as the tank when doing a water change. I could remove the betta but I am not convinced he has attacked anyone.

They said not to use a bacterial medication as it would kill the good bacteria that is needed to break down the waste. Thank you everyone for your help. If the fish are not treated you will most likely lose them all.

I would do some reseach on Betta's By the way, welcome to fishlore. Best of luck with your tank and I hope your fish make it through this. Do you know what kind of fungus this might be? It's sweeping through my fish tank right now, killing very quickly, and especially, fins and tails being eroded to nothing almost in front of my eyes. I've read a lot about fish diseases but haven't heard of anything like this! Unknown Unfortunately I don't know what kind it is.

My fish are all dying too. The fish shop just tells me to wait I've added good bacteria, melafix, extra conditioning salts to harden the water. I think the only thing t do is use antI bacteria medication, and quickly before they all die.

Our fish shop is closed today so I have to wait til tomorrow to get any medication. But waiting is not the answer, it just means more die. Aparently the water is fine, so it must be a disease in the water.

Looks like white dots floating around and white fluffly mould on the fish. It is so depressing, the fish have been perfect for 2 months, happy, and now they are mostly dead, except for a few sick looking ones and three mollies that look fine. Unfortunately I don't know what kind it is. Click to expand I am not impressed with the advice you are getting from your LFS!

Usually I wouldn't say that to a person here having problems, but just the fact that they sold you a betta for a community tank, tells me that you need to STOP listening to their advice Several things they have told you are adding to the problems in this tank. The first thing I see is that you do not have proper filtration. Your tank needs HOB filters that will process a minimum of gallons per hour!

Your tank is right at 80 gallons, and the proper filtration for a Hang on the back filter would be 10 X the of gallons of tank. I would suggest 2 Aquaclear 's. Reason being that your tank is overcrowded. All the fish may not have reached their full growth, but many of the fish in this tank have the potential to reach inches or even larger! You need to leave the sponge filter in until the HOB's are seeded with bacteria. The specks of fuzz floating around this tank are bits of left over food, and fish waste that are left in stagnant water long enough to grow fuzz I noticed that in your profile you are showing ammonia readings, and in the last posted readings you left this off.

I suspect the readings posted in this tank are not accurate. There is nothing you need to do with KH Until you get the nitrogen cycle completed messing with other aspects of water chemistry is just stressing your fish.

Water quality is the root of the problems this tank is having Mystery Solved HI guys, thanks for your help. Tank is not over crowded anymore The siamese fighting fish died today, so no longer a problem although he never attacked anyone. I also need to leave the light off for 7 days, and have the temp at 29 degrees celcius for 7 days to speed up the life cycle of the paracites I have thoroughly vacuumed the gravel, there is hardly any dirt at all.

I always vacuum the gravel in my "cesspool". I know we have the wrong filter The stupid person in the LFS sold it to me saying it would do enough.

There is not enough surface area on the sponges to grow a large enough good bacteria colony. I wouldn't have bought it knowing this, but being new at fish keeping they tend to lie and trick you into spending more money.

I will get the right filter as soon as I can afford it - my car was stolen last week to make matters worse. Miss Fish, I really am sorry you are having such problems with this tank. Also didn't mean to offend you, hopefully you can understand it is the mis information given by so many stores that frustrates me For example, ick is killed at temperatures above 82F, So 28 C is as high as you need to keep your tank not 29 which is hot enough to cause stress with some fish, but you have to hold it there for TWO weeks not 7 days, and not because it speeds the life cycle So you have to hold it at the higher temp long enough for all the different stages to reach the vulnerable stage Higher temperatures lower the availaable oxygen to you fish.

Then the last thing is not just to remove waste in the gravel, but you need to vacuum the gravel to remove the dead parasites as well. Lastly, good bacteria in the gravel will not be vacuumed away. I do really hope you can sort this all out, and I'm sorry your betta died Thanks again Thanks for your help, I am very frustrated having lost my favourite fish, Bernie, a pleco catfish.