ill parrot fish

Question
I have a freshwater parrot fish, he has been acting strange like he can't swim down and stay he really struggles at it, that was last week, now he can swim but it takes a lot of effort and he has these tube shaped white cottony things growing out of his head above his eye.  I treated for Ich but they won't go away.  I bought Erythromycin and Ampicilin but I have not given them to him yet, I am not sure they will work.  My tank is a 55 gallon and I have 2 parrot fish, 2 med silver dollars,2 Sunset Severums, 2 small bolivan rams, 1 big pleco and 1 small pearl gourami, in this tank, he is the only one that has this problem, the others seem fine.  I have tested water and it is fine.  What do I do next?

Answer
Hi Sheena,

Sounds like your boy has a fungus infection, this normally is a secondary issue of a more serious illness, it sounds like his swim bladder is already being effected.  Often in a case like this the other fish will not become infected unless they have direct contact with the infected fish.  Personally I have very little faith in commercial medications in treating a single fish.  What you can do is raise the aquarium temperature up to about 82F and add about one teaspoon of aquarium salt per gallon of water and keep it at that level for about 4 days, then do about a 20% water change and see how your Parrot is acting.  The reason for the salt is it helps the fish to produce a larger amount of slime coating and bolsters the immune system to produce more white blood cells helping the body to fight off any infection that is it housing.  It also creates a foreign environment for the illness and will cause it to die off.  I hope this help and keep me posted.

Best,
Craig.