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Flesh eating bacteria???

23 16:06:24

Question
QUESTION: I have a 100 gallon tank with clown loaches a yo yo loach some goramies basically fish that have been together for a year or more. I have put a Chiclid into the tank from another tank but he is not showing the symptoms as my other fish it started with what looked like a scrap on one of my goramies I figured he got into aq fight, it healed over. But I rearanged some ornaments in my tank and noticed my 4 year old clown loach had a chunk of flesh missing from his side, you can actually see the meat and bines, now it is spreading to my other fish I have tried raising the temperature and aquarium salt. I asked at one of the two pet stores we ahve and was told to use the ick medication even though I have clown loaches and other scales fish I lost 2 fish so far and it just does not look like ick I have had ick before and cured it with sea salt. I was just looking into the tank and my pleco was on the side and he now has a oblong patch of white to big to be ick, it is not dots nor is it furry or fuzy any ideas?

ANSWER: It sounds like a disease called "true fungus" and it is treated with antibiotics.  I would recommend that you use Maroxy which is made by Mardel and is effective against true fungus and other antibiotic infections.  If the fish do not appear to be getting better in a few days please follow up with me... dave

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QUESTION: Thank you for getting back to me so soon. What will that do to my scales fish? I keep hearing most treatment will kill them

Answer
The way things stand in your tank now... they may die anyway.  The nice thing about medication is that you can apply it in half doses for fish that are sensitive to medication.  The other option you have it to separate the scaleless fish from the ones that are ill and then treat the entire tank.  dave