I have a crowntail on my desk at work (Six)...
He's basically been in perfect health since I got him several months ago except a few ray issues, but nothing serious at all.

Anyway - about a week and a half ago, I noticed a few white cottony-type things in his tank and thought it was just something in the tank, so i gave him a water change and they went away. Then the cottony fungusy stuff came back early last week in the form of some massive cottony hunks actually hanging off his body, and then the tips of a few of his rays looked like they were dipped in powdered sugar. I gave him another water change and started him on Maracyn (this was Monday of last week) cuz I suspected columnaris (with the fin tips that way). Gave him his regularly scheduled water change on Thursday. On Friday, I came in to find him so covered with fungus you could hardly see him. Another water change and I dropped in some Jungle Fungus Clear.

Came in this morning (Monday) to find him still active and bubblenesting but still with nasty fungus - not better, but not necessarily any worse than before.

If you've had the same dealings with fungus, I wanna hear about it - and how you got rid of it. I haven't had to battle fungus yet. I just can't understand it either, because I RELIGIOUSLY change out his water 100% with scrubbing the decor every monday and thursday of every week without missing EVER. UUGH

I'm going to give him another water change this morning (they're always 100% with scrubbing everything in the tank) and run out at lunch for some meds, I think I'm going to get some maroxy and treat him with Maracyn and Maroxy at the same time.

Thx.

I haven't had much of that, but the one time I did I used an acriflavine bath. Just 2 hours in the bath - and I only did it twice - and the fish was fine. It's also effective against columnaris.

It worked really well and the fish never had trouble again.

If you can't find it at your local fish store, check out Drs. Foster and Smith - that's where I ordered mine from.

Justhal - Haven't heard of that before, is that the brand name of the medicine or is it the main ingredient?

I've only dealt with columnairis before and used Maracyn for it. It didn't help the first time, but worked great on Vince.

I know you're kind of afraid of salt dips, but maybe you should consider one for this...

Eudielynn - I don't know exactly what's in it, but that's the name of the medication. The interesting thing about it is even after you take the fish out of the bath, it continues to work.

It's very strong - and you're not supposed to get it on your skin. In the water it's almost like a flourescent green.

What I like about it is that you can do an antibiotic bath without putting it in the main tank. I use undergravel filters with my goldfish (they need the huge bio-load) and if I put ANY antibiotics in those tanks, it murders the bio-bugs. THEN I have a whole new set of problems...

My first male betta from Thailand came in with columnaris on his mouth, and the acriflavine took care of it in just two doses! I was pretty pleased with that...

Thanks for the info!
I made 4 stops today before I found the maroxy. I'm going to give it a try and if that doesn't work, i'm definitely going to look into getting some of that stuff you suggested (that I can't pronounce) JH.

Salt dip isn't totally out of the question either actually.

I have another suspicion - I ran out of stress coat about 2 weeks ago at work and went back to using plain old start right conditioner. I also picked up some NovAqua at the place I got the Maroxy at - cuz of course they did not have stress coat. So hopefully that will help his stress coat too.

Thanks for the ideas!!

Have you had a lot of luck with Maracyn, BettaMomma? I've used it a couple times but never really felt I got the results I wanted... and it took a LONG time to see any progress.

I have a friend who buys a 'combo' of both together - it's a liquid in a bottle. He's done well with that. Don't remember what it's called... have you ever used it???

did you say fungus amungus?!

jh- Actually I have done reaaly well with maracyn - for treating columnaris and I LOVE it for things like finrot, if all the natural remedies seem to fail.

I cured 3 girls who had columnaris to the point where their heads looked like their skin was molding right off. A combo of maracyn, stress coat and very low temps (like very low 70's) seemed to work great. They were all quarantined for 10 days and everyone made a full recovery and are back in the big tank again.

The stuff I'm using might be what you're thinking of - it's the liquid stuff. The maroxy. Does that sound right? That takes care of the fungus part of it. I wonder if that's what it was.

Anyhow - I just gave him a water change and put the meds in. We'll see what he looks like tomorrow morning.

Cross yer fingers :)

Yeah, that might be it. I hope it works for you!

Just a thought - there's a lot of debate about using too much medication with fish. I personally wouldn't hesitate to use whatever it takes, but there are side effects of using too many antibiotics and other, more severe treatments.

My issues with fin rot seemed to vanish when I started using Blackwater Extract - which I consider the basic equivalent of Indian almond leaves. As the water treatment brought the pH down to a more neutral level - our pH here is about 7.4, maybe a little less - it seemed the fish did better. The IAL seems to create the same 'blackwater' conditions the extract does - including lowering the pH.

And it makes a lot of sense. Ammonia is probably the biggest problem in an unfiltered, uncycled closed system. Ammonia is practically non-toxic in very neutral to acidic water.

I know you also agree that it's best to use a natural remedy - and in the case of fin rot, I think making sure the pH of the water is very neutral to slightly acidic is the best thing you can do for a betta.

Of course, when you see your bettas fins rotting off him, you better go for a more extreme measure. But the old adage about 'an ounce of prevention' is probably applicable...

I hate fungus too, it's claimed the lives of many a fish. ;_;

Yep! I agree all the way!

Our PH here is off the charts - it usually runs around 8.4.
That's why I have to do 100% changes on all my guys about every 4 days or so. I start to notice wear and tear on their tails if I don't.

Colloidal is the magic juice at my house for regrowing stuff - i've not tried BWE although I would like to. I've also used IAL - and the fish seem to really like bubblenesting under the leaves.

Wow! Bettamomma, you should get OUT of bettas and INTO goldfish! They would LOVE your water!

With a pH of 8.4 you can bet the ammonia in his tank is pretty rough on him. Gheesh... your water is LIQUID ROCKS!!! you really should consider goldfish! they would do great in your area! I only wish I wouldn't have to add buffers and the like to my goldfish tanks.

My bettas seem to do best at a pH of about 6.8 to 7.0 and they're practically never sick, no fin rot, nothing! With a pH as high as yours, you'd need to double or triple the amount of IAL you'd use...

We could call you GoldfishMomma - and believe me, you could find as many abused goldies at the local fish store as bettas!

Well, I did just get a 40 gallon tank that I'm not sure what to do with yet. :whistle:

Yeah, my poor bettas. I give them water changes more often that most people probably would just because I know it's that high and hard on them.

My fish aren't sick much once I nurse them back to health (sickos thanks to WalMart and such) - and I'm not quite sure why Six is sick right now. He got water changes religiously. The only thing I can think of is that I ran out of stress coat and used start right instead. But his water was always clean. So I dunno.

We shall see with the goldies... I might consider that.

Don't worry, I think I'm going to make your hood later this week. My dad has like EVERYTHING we need to make it!!!

BM - your water is PERFECT for goldfish! or if you don't like them - and I can't imagine ANYONE not liking fancy goldfish - you could look at some of the cichlids that like hard, alkaline water. Are you into flowerhorns??? or Africans?

They are neat and a lot of fun to watch, but the waste factor ruined them for me. I had a tank for my son when he was younger and it seemed like all I ever did was clean, clean, clean.

Yeah, the thing I don't like about them also is the waste factor, and that you can't have very many in a REALLY big tank.

jh - I have actually been tossing around the idea of cichlids. They've always been the fish that stuck out at me when I wandered past all the tanks at fish stores. I know nothing about them though, but have reading up on them a tad bit. I'm not sure i'm ready to branch to something other than bettas though. lol


Oh, and fyi - six is looking great this morning! No fungus, just a little bit of the powdered sugary stuff on his rays.

That's GREAT! good to hear he's getting better!

GOLDFISH - Yeah, they're quite a contradiction! They put out TONS of waste, but can't tolerate it in their water! Some people say 1 fish per 10 gallons of water - I say 1 per 20 unless you want to change 50% or more of their water every other day!

A very well-known goldfish breeder, Al Foster, once told me that goldfish aren't the best choice for keeping in an indoor aquarium. They're filthy! and do better in larger bodies of water like ponds. OR maybe a huge aquarium.

But for me there's nothing quite like them. It's not a lot of fun juggling my bettas' water changes with the days I have to do the goldfish tanks, but I manage.

Considering you have a lot of high maintenance fish with the rescue bettas, you might be better off looking at cichlids... :lol: