Platydoras armatulus disease

[BullFishkeeping]

Hello,

IMAGE

I left my home on Saturday at about 9:00pm, and came back today, Monday, at about 10:00am. When I left, all of my fish were accounted for with no visible symptoms. Arriving back today, my red wolf fish was dead (and seemingly had been for awhile, eyes were bloated and fungus was growing), and my

Platydoras armatulus

had the markings you'll see in the picture below on his head.

I haven't tested parameters yet, as I am doing a couple large water changes. I presume with the red wolf being dead in the water, the parameters are going to be pretty far out of whack.

Please help me diagnose what's wrong with my Platydoras, and how to treat it. He's still swimming fine, he just has these markings on his head. I thought HITH, but there's no burrowing into his head. It seems as if it's all at the top, and as if it could be rubbed off (I don't plan to).

No other fish has symptoms. It's a 65 gallon filtered by a Fluval 406 and a sponge rated for 110 gallons, stocked with the Striped Raphael Catfish, a Bristlenose Catfish, a Jack Dempsey juv., and a Jaguar Catfish. The Red wolf fish was obviously in the tank as well, but has since been removed.

Thank you

[Bas Pels]

Reading that the fish was only dead for a few hours, but it looked dead for days, did shock me.

Once I had a tank with a similar problem: a fish could swim around, looking nice, but a few hours later it could be dead, and smell worse than any dead fish ought to do after being dead for a week.

I must have had 2 or 3 infections workin in a tandem, killing all fishes in the tank.

Were it my tank, I would be carefull not to infect other tanks, not to infect myself or any other people in the tank - and hope for the best.

Changing water is a good idea - but I would only do so if this is possible within the limits set above: keep the desease from spreading, especially to people

[BullFishkeeping]

Quick update: This was posted on the aquariums subreddit as well, where some people suggested it could be columnaris. A reputable catfish keeper advised it looks more like an infected wound, and after spending about 5 hours in a 10 gallon with 1tbsp/5gal of salt, the white build up has nearly completely gone away. This revealed some reddened injuries. These have since faded to a solid white patch (akin to when I have seen other fish heal from wounds). I believe these are wounds, and my treatment is currently extremely clean water.

With the Red Wolf Fish deceased, all fish have become much more active around the tank. It seems that the Red Wolf Fish was indeed an aggressor, and even though there was only one seemingly small incident, the fish's death clearly altered the hierarchy of the aquarium.

I advise all keepers to really keep an eye on their stock. This is something I had noticed, but assumed the fish would adapt and coexist based on reports from other keepers. All fish are unique, and it's always best to act proactive than reactive. Had I rehoused the wolf fish into his own aquarium, this entire incident could have likely been avoided.