Fungus and a fish lice.

[AmazonTank]

Hello everyone!
I saw a tiny little fungus on the odontode fin of my L397 so yesterday I added a salt treatment of 1 tablespoon for every 3 gallons.
I also saw a fish lice on the glass of another tank I have with some ghost knifes but no lice on any of the fish.
Any advice on how to move forward on both issues would be greatly appreciated?

[bekateen]

Very clean warm water (86F) should take care of the L397; add an extra airstone. Might also add Pimafix or SeaChem Paraguard (it won't hurt).

Fish lice on glass? I've never heard of that. Do you have pics?

Good luck,
Eric

[AmazonTank]

Thanks Eric I'm raising the temperature now with my new fluval e series.

I don't see any on any fish just saw this on the glass. I read an article they don't reproduce in the aquarium. Something else I read said I need to treat since they would lay eggs.

[AmazonTank]

Btw how long should I keep the temperature at 86?
Usually I have it at 82.

[Viktor Jarikov]

Any parasitic crustaceans like the lice are dealt with the very safe Dimilin X. I used it many times before when my tanks got contaminated with fish lice from fish from the wild.

[AmazonTank]

Hi bro! I been reading up on the meds excellent.
Should I treat all my tanks at once to be safe or wait until I see another one?

[bekateen]

Should I treat all my tanks at once to be safe or wait until I see another one?

Use meds sparingly. So, I wouldn't treat all tanks at once. Treat one tank and see how they handle it, then move on to next.

That's my thought, anyway.

Best,
Eric

[AmazonTank]

Good call!

[Viktor Jarikov]

Not knowing your whole situation, I'd of course side with Eric and treat per need. If you strongly suspect cross contamination, it'd be a different matter. As I said, IDK your circumstance.

Dimilin X also works wonders on anchor worms. That's actually what I was using it for in my tanks. I had recalled incorrectly. But it does work on fish lice too. I killed the lice with potassium permanganate on our fish but it is extremely harsh on fish, Dimilin X is the way to go. PP is used for short term baths. Dimilin usually for long term, in situ.

[AmazonTank]

Thanks so much guys!
I haven't seen anymore so just playing it cool.

This fungus is still on a few of my L397.
Should I quarantine any pleco that shows any fungus infection so it won't spread or just treat whole tank. I raised the temperature to 86 and added salt 1 tablespoon for 3 gallons treatment.

[Viktor Jarikov]

As one option for the for fungus, I'd probably use MicrobeLift BSDT broad spectrum disease treatment (Malachite Green + formaldehyde), again in-situ. Beware Malachite Green can stain green silicone, what not in one's tank.

[AmazonTank]

Thanks the fungus seems to be on 2 plecos.
Not sure if there fighting at night.
I'm thinking to rehoming those 2 fish to another tank to make sure the other plecos are good.
Webs water garden has microbelift bacteria and also the lice microblift for great deals.

Do fish lice just go away or do they keep reproducing until they are treated? I'm paranoid they are in my systems thru cross contamination. I haven't seen any on my other fish though.

I'm thinking to do a treatment for fungus then after do another treatment for lice.

[Viktor Jarikov]

If by MicrobeLift bacteria you mean nitrifying bacteria, then of course you wouldn't need that. IDK what you mean or whether they sell some antibacterial treatment per se. They probably do. But then we are talking fungus here, a different beast.

If the fungus is of the kind that consumes dead, necrotic, damaged tissue, then I usually don't treat it as I believe this fungus is helpful. This fungus is not cotton white though, kind of off white, can be yellowish. In a weakened fish this fungus can continue consuming alive tissue after done with the dead tissue, if the immune system is compromised. That I'd watch for.

To kill the crustaceans I recommend Dimilin X. If MicrobeLift lice treatment uses the same active ingredient diflubenzuron, then the brand probably doesn't matter in the first approximation, so long the concentration and the price are comparable.

IDK much about fish lice biology. One thing that makes it easy is they are visible to a naked, observant eye and they move around on fish.

[Redrain]

I'm reviving this thread because I faced the same problem. In my 400L pleco tank, I've noticed some white bumps on some of my fish, mainly the L-200's and my L226 had what appeared to me "swollen" odontodes. I treated for fungus but there was barely any improvement. After that I did a meth-blue dip for 10 or so seconds per fish (at that point I still haven't seen the lice because of how closely the color matches). That also seemed to do nothing for the infection. Until somehow I spotted a louse crawling one one of the L200's.

So I pulled all the fish out and manually plucked all the lice that I could find, I pulled about 12 of them from 5 plecos. Then I swabbed the areas where the lice were stuck with meth-blue just for good measure.

I treated the whole tank with Parazin and Pimafix and everything was lovely once again.

But what boggles my mind is that I haven't introduced anything to that tank for a long while. And I don't have any other tank infected that I know of. Also for some reason the only fish that seem to have lice stuck on them were the green plecos: 3 L200 Hemi. 1 L200 Bary. and a L191. I checked all of them by hand with a flash light. The fish in the tank are: 4xL200's, 2xL137's, 2xL136, 2xL226, 1xL052, 1xL191, 2 small leopard silver dollars.

Moral of the story: Check for external parasites before you attempt to treat whatever infection you see. Have I noticed the lice at first the treatment would have been quicker and less wasteful (thankfully no fish was lost just a few bottles of meds)

[Viktor Jarikov]

Thank you for this. What are the active ingredients in Parazin?

As for Pimafix, I don't believe it does much of anything.

[Redrain]

Thank you for this. What are the active ingredients in Parazin?

As for Pimafix, I don't believe it does much of anything.

Diflubenzuron (4.5mg/g)
Pimafix seemed to help with the secondary infection. It's supposed to act as a mild antifungal

[Viktor Jarikov]

Thank you. So the active ingredient is one and the same as in Dimilin X.

Peers seem divided on Melafix and Pimafix. Some say it did something for them, others say it's useless.

[Redrain]

Thank you. So the active ingredient is one and the same as in Dimilin X.

Peers seem divided on Melafix and Pimafix. Some say it did something for them, others say it's useless.

Well. Throughout my career Melafix hasn't resolved any issue for me whatsoever. This is the first time I use Pimafix and it seemed to help with the secondary fungal infection. I also elevated the water temp by a few °C. My medication of choice for fungus has always been sera mycopur but none has it at the moment (crappy distributor situation), for that I resorted to Pimafix.