upside down flowerhorn

Question
good day! my 6mo old flowerhorn showed signs of its skin,somewhat,peeling a couple of weeks ago. it got worse after a few days with what seemed to be excess skin (whit in color) hanging all over his body. i consulted a local fish store and was advised that it might have a fungi infection. and so, i bought an anti-fungal medicine recommended by the store and treated my fish with it. it ddnt work as my fish is the same as before i started treatment, and even became worse. when i woke up this morning, my flowerhorn was upside down and looked like it was on the brink of death.
it is in a 100g acquarium, with heater set at the 32 mark, all i gave him is an anti-fungal medicine i bought straight from the shelf of the pet shop. wat can i do to remedy the situation?
thank you and i hope to hear from you soon!

Answer
Hey Victor,

First off, let me start out by saying two things:

1) When you first see signs of a fish getting sick, act fast. If it's truly a fungal problem, by the time you see symptoms spreading, your fish is most likely not going to recover. A fungal infection is a long term, hard to fix problem that the fish has had inside of it for a very long time. The faster you treat a fish, the better. And with that, let me add most of the time a "fungus" is not a fungus at all, in fact, it's a bacterial infection. Most of the time...

2) When a fish starts swimming upside down, on it's sides, into objects and / or erratically in ways that are not normal, typically, it's too late to help.



Because things seem soo bleak, and soo much time has passed, I'd think it's a bit of a risk to try much of anything at this point. Invest money in a strong anti bacterial product like maradel's line of products. Typically, when used early on, these products work wonders in short amounts of time. Next, 32*C is a bit warm for ANY fish I've ever seen. 32*C translates to roughly 90*F, and even for a cichlid, the highest I'd recommend is around 84*F (29*C). The excessive heat can cause health problems too. Try dropping it down a bit over the next few days and see if that helps out any other fish in the tank (if there are any). 90*F is soo warm, that beneficial bacteria starts to suffer, which slows the processing of ammonia and nitrite. The increased amounts in the water, and slower removal of them can cause health concern too.

Bear in mind all the above said is just to improve comfort. Substitute one meal a day, 3 times a week with peas, broccoli, a slice of orange, or another high vitamin, good quality food. Preferably peas, or the dark green bristly tops of broccoli, and the reason for it being the vitamin packed veggies will help the fish's immune system fight off what ails him.

If things are not too far gone, a good anti bacterial, paired with better water and good food will surely help. But at this point, i cant make promises.

Best wishes, and hope all goes well for you.