help please... chiclid sick :o

Question
Hi.  Please give us knowledge on what to do with our sick chidlid (locally known as Flower Horns).

Our fish has not been eating for 2 weeks already, or maybe even more.  Since then, his head lump decreased in size and even his body size decreased.

We changed water every after 3 days, put salt after every change.  And for the past days, we've been dropping Methyl Blue and Melafix, since we've been suspecting that the fish is sick.  The gills have some black stuff, seems like burns or bruise, a part of the tail has it too.

We saw a white, sponge-y thing inside his tank.  And every time we remove it, some thing like it comes out again.  A relative told us that it's probably fungus.  It looks like cotton in the tank, but once removed, it feels like white-mucus.  We're not totally sure where it's coming from.

Just today, we bought and submerged a water heater, changed the water, dropped Methyl Blue and Melafix, and placed salt again.  We tried feeding him but he didn't even touch the food.  When we were removing the wastes, we noticed a scale off of his body.

He's usually playful and swims around the tank.  But now, most of the time, he's just at the bottom of the tank, in one area and stays there for a long time.  And seems like his mouth is almost always open (though I'm not too sure if the mouth is always open).

Please do help.  We're actually running out of ideas on what to do already.  And we're desperate for answers already.  And we really do feel bad for our pet.

We've fed him fish food (pellets) and bloodworms bought from our local fish store.  We've suspected that the bloodworms caused the disease, but we can't really point it out.

Just yesterday, we dropped Tetracyclin powder in his tank with hopes that he'll feel better.  He seems to be swimming fine, but he's still not eating.

Please do help immediately.  We're worried and don't want the fish to die.

Thanks and God bless! :)

Answer
Hi Dan,
 Can you describe the white spongy thing?  Is this coming out of the fish's anus, i.e., is the fish making stringy white feces that have lumps in them?

 You should be doing regular partial water changes of 25% of the water, once a week, EVERY week to keep your fish happy.

  Keep the temperature up around 80oF.

  There is no need to add any salt to that tank ever.  

  Do you have an airstone in the tank?  If not, you should.

-- Ron
  rcoleman@cichlidresearch.com
  Cichlid Research Home Page <http://cichlidresearch.com>