What the heck is this?

[Mahi27]

This white crud all over my Glossolepis rainbow fish has decimated my tanks. It has not responded to Ich-X or Kanaplex-laced food. It has not responded to high temperatures or low temperatures or Level 2 salt. It looked like epistylis (raised grayish white tufts, on the eyes and uniformly all over their bodies) on my puffers before they died and ich (distinct dots) on my fancy goldfish. I've been dosing the tanks for both since I don't know what's going on, but all I'm getting from this is a ton of dead loaches and catfish (I think they don't like the Ich-X). Waiting for the goldfish and rainbows to die too now since that seems to be all that's happening. 

This disaster is really horrible. I've never felt like quitting the hobby before but this is like the third time my tanks have gone bonkers with persistent diseases that wipe out tons of time, money, and livestock and stress me out for weeks or months. Please help if you've ever seen anything like this. 

 

Parameters:

Ph 7.6

Ammonia 0

Nitrite 0

Nitrate 0-20

Gh 300

Kh 80

Temp 75 F

 

[Tony s]

Haven’t seen anything like that. Holey crud. Hopefully @Colu has an idea. Just sorry you’re struggling like this.

[Colu]

Couple of things this could be the  viral infection lymphocystis you can get case were they get a large number of small spots that looks similar to what your rainbow fish has  usually they are bigger lumps with lymphocystis so that's  less likely could epistylis  what medication do you have to hand @Mahi27

[Tony s]

On 5/26/2024 at 9:43 PM, Mahi27 said:

Kanaplex-laced food

My understanding of kanaplex in food is that it doesn’t work. It’s not easily absorbed in the gut at all. Better would be maracyn2 in the food. For right now. I’d just treat the whole tank in the water column. If you can get colu your meds list, he can get you a treatment plan 

[Mahi27]

Thank you guys @Tony s @Colu. Im attaching pics of my Oranda and Ranchu. The Ranchu imo looks more like ich but the Oranda has similarly weird coverage like the rainbow. 

Meds at home:

Maracyn

Maracyn 2

Kanaplex

Metroplex

Jungle fizz anti-fungal

Ich-X

Paracleanse

Levamisole

Salt

 

I also work at an LFS. I've attached a pic of our med selection. So I do have options. 

Some points of forthrightness: before all this happened, my tanks were heavily planted but still very overstocked. I definitely let the sponge filters go way too long without cleaning. Also, I added an Amazon puffer without quarantining him; stupid, I know, but he'd been at work for weeks and looked great. He's dead now. 😞 And finally, this outbreak started after a large water changes with cold tap water. I think it started in one tank and I didn't notice it, so I spread it to the other tanks with a net and/or wet hands. 

[Colu]

What I would do is keep treating with ick X daily use maracyn2 and metroplex  in food feeding a small amount twice a day for 7 days  the combination of metronidazole and minocycline active ingredient in maracyn2 and metroplex provide a broad spectrum treatment just add one scoop of metroplex to the maracyn2 recipe @Mahi27 

 @Mahi27 

Edited May 27 by Colu

[Mahi27]

Just wanted to report back that things appear to be cleared up now. I did follow the Ich X + Maracyn-in-food method and that worked. Of the fish that were affected, I lost at least half. Idk in numbers, maybe about 50 or more fish since they were mostly in schools. The worst hit were the Amazon puffers, the rainbows, the dwarf chain loaches, and the goldfish. (Again, in different tanks.) I also lost my sweet wet pet, my black lancer catfish that I got from Dan's Fish. What's kind of crazy is some fish didn't get it at all -- all the other catfish including my cories and albino hoplos were fine, the tetras were symptomatic but I didn't lose any, the kuhli loaches seemed fine (though the heavy meds got them in the end too). 

What's interesting is we are still having this disease pop up in a few tanks, all adjacent to each other, at the fish store. They are tanks that I maintain, and they are also near where the Amazon puffer was kept, and my suspicion is that he is the one who brought the disease in. If it keeps coming, I'll try to save up to buy a microscope. I am REALLY curious what wiped out my tanks. 

At the end of the day, I didn't heed my own advice: I always tell people, balance your tanks and take care of overstocking or else nature will take care of it for you. 

Thank you again @Colu and @Tony s for your sympathy & advice. 

[Colu]

On 6/12/2024 at 5:14 AM, Mahi27 said:

Just wanted to report back that things appear to be cleared up now. I did follow the Ich X + Maracyn-in-food method and that worked. Of the fish that were affected, I lost at least half. Idk in numbers, maybe about 50 or more fish since they were mostly in schools. The worst hit were the Amazon puffers, the rainbows, the dwarf chain loaches, and the goldfish. (Again, in different tanks.) I also lost my sweet wet pet, my black lancer catfish that I got from Dan's Fish. What's kind of crazy is some fish didn't get it at all -- all the other catfish including my cories and albino hoplos were fine, the tetras were symptomatic but I didn't lose any, the kuhli loaches seemed fine (though the heavy meds got them in the end too). 

What's interesting is we are still having this disease pop up in a few tanks, all adjacent to each other, at the fish store. They are tanks that I maintain, and they are also near where the Amazon puffer was kept, and my suspicion is that he is the one who brought the disease in. If it keeps coming, I'll try to save up to buy a microscope. I am REALLY curious what wiped out my tanks. 

At the end of the day, I didn't heed my own advice: I always tell people, balance your tanks and take care of overstocking or else nature will take care of it for you. 

Thank you again @Colu and @Tony s for your sympathy & advice. 

Sorry to hear that you lossed so many fish with epistylis that caused by a high bacterial count in the water that epistylis feed's off you could run a UV sterilisers and increase water changes to the lower the bacterial count if your still getting fish with epistylis