Cotton ball like fungus on 260 pectoral.

[Speedy1985]

I noticed that one of the wild L-260 I recently acquired has what looks to be a tiny cotton ball like growth on the end of one of its pectoral fins. I'm assuming it's some type of fungus. What is the consensus on treatment for something like this? At the moment, all I have on hand are mela and Pimafix, and methylene blue.

[TwoTankAmin]

I have always used this with good results: https://fritzaquatics.com/product/maracyn-oxy/

There are plenty of antifungal meds available for treating fish. So, I am sure other folks will suggest what they prefer as well.

[YSR50]

https://www.planetcatfish.com/forum/vie ... 92#p304292

[DHarris]

It may be columnaris. I've lost several pleco to this a while back, L260s included.
For me the best results have come from either fungus guard or a combo of Furan2 with Kanaplex.
You may also want to try adding some salt.

[MarcW]

Not exactly the same issue but this thread about an issue with my L260's pectoral might help. In my case it appeared to be a breeding attempt which caused the injury rather than a fungus, but there was some fuzzy stuff on the fin after the injury.

Good luck.

viewtopic.php?f=5&t=45569

[Speedy1985]

Thanks for all of the suggestions. I'm keeping an eye on it for the moment and it hasn't gotten any worse.

Not exactly the same issue but this thread about an issue with my L260's pectoral might help. In my case it appeared to be a breeding attempt which caused the injury rather than a fungus, but there was some fuzzy stuff on the fin after the injury.

Good luck.

viewtopic.php?f=5&t=45569

When I first saw it, that was my thought too because last week I saw 2 in the same cave.

[TwoTankAmin]

Columnaris does not look like fungus. When I see a description like "cotton ball" or cottony, I think fungus.

Columnaris is sometimes called mouth fungus because when it affects the mouth of a fish it resembles fungus, but is not. Also this will not appear anywhere else on the fish besides the mouth. Columnaris usually leaves whoteish or grayish areas on a fish, often around the base of the dorsal leading to it often being called saddle back disease.

The other thing to consider is that fungus can be a secondary issue. An infected wound which requires antibiotic treatment may also be accompanied by a secondary fungal infection. One of the reasons I use the Mardel Maroxy (now called Maracin Oxy) was that it was safe to combine with the two most popular Maracin antibiotics. From what I can tell, Mardel now combines the Maracin and the Oxy.

[Speedy1985]

At the moment, I'm doing a 1/2 dose of both Pimafix and Melafix. Water change was done yesterday, and until I can get my hands on an actual med, I felt that this was better than nothing for now.

[DHarris]

Columnaris does not look like fungus. When I see a description like "cotton ball" or cottony, I think fungus.

Columnaris is sometimes called mouth fungus because when it affects the mouth of a fish it resembles fungus, but is not. Also this will not appear anywhere else on the fish besides the mouth. Columnaris usually leaves whoteish or grayish areas on a fish, often around the base of the dorsal leading to it often being called saddle back disease.

The other thing to consider is that fungus can be a secondary issue. An infected wound which requires antibiotic treatment may also be accompanied by a secondary fungal infection. One of the reasons I use the Mardel Maroxy (now called Maracin Oxy) was that it was safe to combine with the two most popular Maracin antibiotics. From what I can tell, Mardel now combines the Maracin and the Oxy.

Interesting. When I've had this issue in the past, it initially began on fins and would work it's way in.
I've also encountered it at the base of the dorsal or on any wounds. Any idea what type of infection that would have been?

Also, where in Mt. Kisco are you? I'm originally from Bedford - went to Fox Lane.
Love stopping in at House of Fins in Greenwich every time I'm back there.

[TwoTankAmin]

i am about 5 minutes from Fox lane towards Kisco. I am in Bedford, but a part of Bedford was unable to be serviced by Te local P.O. so Mt. Kisco agreed to handle the mail. You can also refer to where I love as Bedford Corners, it has the same zip code as Mt. Kisco. So you can mail to me at either Mt. Kisco or Bedford corners and it arrives.

have been to House of Fins. Great store but too pricey. I used to trade them LF bristlenose for store credit a number of years back when Sal S. worked there. Apparently a second upscale fish stores opened in in thet area, I have never been to it.

I tend to incestigate fish diseases etc. on Goggle Scholar rather then regular Google.

[b.reder]

TwoTankAmin-

You recommended Maracyn®Oxy. I now see there is a product Maracyn® Two as well as Maracyn® Plus. Have you had any experience using the latter two? Do you still use the Maracyn®Oxy as your first line of defense? Thanks!
-Barry

[TwoTankAmin]

Those are three different meds used for treating different things. I have not medicated a tank since last summer and that was for columnaris on a load of red line barbs from the importer.

Some of the Maracyn meds can be safely combined according to Mardel. You can read about their meds here and clicking on one will bring you to the info page for it. It should tell what can be combined or not to combine. https://fritzaquatics.com/product_categ ... -remedies/

[b.reder]

TwoTankAmin- Thank you. -Barry

[Speedy1985]

Update. I reached out to a friend who has extensive knowledge with many plecos with photos of the one with the cotton ball, and the others that seemed to have developed what looked like tiny "bumps" to me. The treatment suggestions seem to be working to this point, with a raise in temp and multiple weekly water changes. The cotton ball is gone and they are still all eating normally. I'm actually relieved that it isn't columnaris, as I'd believe they would have died by now.

[TwoTankAmin]

Glad to hear the fish is responding to treatment.

Do not assume that columnaris is a single strain of bacteria. Rather it can be extremely virulent killing fast often before external symptoms appear. However, milder strains can persist for months developing slowly and giving us time to identify the problem and attempt to deal with it. Here is a quote from a 2010 paper entitled:

Columnaris disease in fish: a review with emphasis on bacterium-host interactions

Annelies Maria DeclercqEmail author, Freddy Haesebrouck, Wim Van den Broeck, Peter Bossier and Annemie Decostere
Veterinary Research201344:27
https://doi.org/10.1186/1297-9716-44-27
Received: 1 February 2013 Accepted: 10 April 2013 Published: 24 April 2013

2. The disease
2.1 Clinical signs, histopathology, ultrastructural features and haematology

F. columnare causes acute to chronic infections and typically affects the gills, the skin and fins. The clinical manifestation of columnaris disease amongst others is dependent on the virulence of the eliciting strain. In a study of Rucker et al., the strains of low virulence induced slow progressive infections at water temperatures above 21°C and caused massive tissue damage before death occurred [31]. Strains of high virulence caused fulminating infections and killed young salmon (Salmo salar) in 12 to 24 h at 20°C. Ordinarily, these fish did not show gross tissue damage at the time of death [31]. The same was found in a study of Pacha and Ordal [32] and Foscarini [33]. The gross pathology observed in the fish experimentally infected with strains of F. columnare of high virulence was usually very limited. Apparently, death occurred before gross external manifestations of the disease appeared. However, some of the last fish to die did show macroscopically visible signs [34]. Besides the virulence of the strain being a determinant factor, in coldwater and temperate fish, age also seems to have an important impact on the severity of the clinical signs. In young fish, the disease develops acutely and mostly damages the gills (Figure 1). In adults, the disease may adopt an acute, subacute or chronic course. When the disease course is acute or subacute in adult fish, yellowish areas of necrotic tissue can appear in the gills ultimately resulting in complete gill destruction (Figure 2) [1, 32, 35].

from https://veterinaryresearch.biomedcentra ... 9716-44-27

Identifying diseases etc. in our fish is probably the most difficult challenge most of us face in this hobby. Most of us lack the education/experience and tools required to to this accurately. It is one thing to spot ich and another to diagnose a problem which may lack clear symptoms and is killing fish fast. And then even when we do know the cause, we must face the challenge of identifying the proper remedy and then finding it. Many countries will not permit the over the counter sale of fish meds.

[Speedy1985]

Thank you for the info. I'm confident at this point that this is not an acute illness, and hoping that it's not a slow manifestation of a different strain. I'll continue on with a higher water change frequency and continue to monitor them. Right now, they show no external signs of any maladies, and continue to eat.