very stubon fungus looking growths on neon tetras yet not on other fish

madyotto

hi

i will say sorry now for not reading other post as i have a disability that mega limits how fast i can read

i am no novice looked after my dads 800 liter and 2x 80 liter tanks since a very young age

now at 24 i have my own setup

4FT tropical tank (147 liters approx)

now i will mention first i have a small army of Apple Snail 8-9
and as a result of getting given them as baby's i have had the temp turned up to help grow them out a bit faster

FISH =
16 ish Sailfin Molly's
2 silver sharks
3 golden Weather Loach's
12-14 Neon Tetra's
8-9 apple snails

now everything but the molly's still has a way to grow

and i have a slightly over powered 600 liter an hour sponge pump (so not technically over crowded)
an 8 inch air stone/curtain
and aquatic peat under the gravel for my plants

i have all but ruled out it being Bactria as it is growing extreamlly slow even with my cranked heat setting
of 23.4 - 23.5 centigrade = 73.5 F avrg

now i literally just left the fish for some months hoping as i have seen in the past that they would rid of it there self's

now some suggest weekly changes for the water and many more agree daily is the way forward

but without sounding rude in any way

THIS WILL NEVER HAPPEN I REFUSE TO STRESS MY FISH WITH DAILY CHANGES AS THE STRESS.
more often than not will worsen any disease, parasite, or many growths

as i stated i looked after a 800 liter tank how often would you think i did a water cycle in that tank.
no wrong, answer is = when it cracked or got moved other wise known as never!!!.

i have had the fish coming up to a year
and had no problems other than a case of white spot brought in after buying new fish prob's in the water that came with the fish as i always check the fish.

MY question is how can i treat for this as most chemicals are not snail friendly and i am a month or 2 off getting my 2nd 3ft tank setup so removing them for a longish period is not an option

i really hope you can help

my ph is 6.2
i have not done a test in months
but because of the over sized filter i can all but 100% garentee that the ammonia and nitrate sit a 0
i will test shortly and post results

thanks in advance for any help/reply's

PS. i have never had to use any chemicals in the tank

GwenInNM

I have no doubt you have no ammonia or nitrites, but I bet your nitrates are outrageously high if you don't do water changes on any regular basis, no matter how powerful your filter is. This reminds me of a friend, who had a 10 gal and maybe did a water change 4 times a year. I felt so sorry for the one lone redtail shark and a few other tetras she had in there, but they just didn't think fish really "mattered" as they were "alive". Well, they have finally died, and thank God they are not getting more fish. Sure you could probably keep some hardier fish alive, but do they have a quality of life living in poor water conditions? Diseases are caused by poor water, and you likely have columnais, (not spelled correctly) and it's pretty contagious. I'm not sure you can cure it without meds. You could try water changes like 3 times a week, but I'd be curious what others say. You could move the snails out temporarily, and treat as needed. I've not heard of doing daily water changes, that would be overkill, but once a week or at least once every two weeks would not stress fish and they would be healthier, IMO. My fish show no stress from water changes, and I think they really like it when the fresh water is poured in

Gwen

madyotto

not to doubt you at all

but like i said i tested all 3 aspects of testing in the for-said 180 gallon (800 liter)tank for several years with out them moving from the 0 mark and no cycle ever over the space of at least 5 years

i will test right now and i bet pound to a penny that nitrates is 0

nitrates grow because of over feeding not sitting water in my experience only
also this is dependent on the amount of air in the water 8 plants and a 8" air bar should solve this

even putting your hand in the tank causes stress every-ones opinion on this is different

i could very well be wrong but i will test right now and post the results here

Thank you very much for your reply

madyotto

(AMMONIA = 0 ( NITRITE = 0 (NITRATE = 4.0 < probs because i am over feed on purpose at the minuet and i have an air stone down)

i should be a bit more precise as i forgot once a week or every two i wash my bio sponge in tank water so i remove about 10 liters which is less that 8% water change

this water has not been changed in over 6 months since i had to do a 100% change to replace the stand

i know exactly how to spot stress and have never saw any other than when i changed the stand doing a double migrate in the space of 48 hours in order to do so

also my quite high tank temp mega helps keep nitrate down i do not use a starve day either but will now add one or two a week to keep the nitrate down

i will post back to this post in two month and i bet with no cycle it is at 0 it is all about creating the right and stable environment

a starve day makes a HUGE difference on nitrate levels too :P


but back to the question in hand is there any chemicals that will rid of the fungus that wont kill snails

thanks for the reply's in advance

Andarial

Anything with Copper Sulfate in it is dangerous to snails and inverterbrates I think. So look for meds without this. Also Nitrates are actually important to the aquarium, and are not harmful as long as they aren't in abundance. Weekly water changes are how you control the nitrate problem. But you obviously have no problem considering they are supposed to be from 5ppm to 40 ppm.

Do you have a pic of this "fungus" it may not be a fungus as I'm pretty sure they are rare in the fish world.

If you post a picture I may be able to tell you what it is.

madyotto

im on a tank clean atm and am doing a 25% cycle but only because the ph went below 6
my desired is 6.3-6.4

this is just because the peat has been in there for 6 months and i used quite alot lol

will post pic when water cleaned up abit

but look what i just found for my efforts lol

http://www.tropicalfishkeeping.com/m...lose-23428.jpg

Andarial

YAY Apple Snail eggs ^^ they must be very happy 8D

madyotto

i know yes it is meant to be a huge compliment lol :) :D

will post pics very shortly tank looking awesome again now

madyotto

FPmsl

think you will find this one funny too
http://www.tropicalfishkeeping.com/a...f1da6_full.jpg

The pic of fungus is here :
http://a7.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphot...34001335_n.jpg

it is the one on the right and is about as clear as i can get they never sit still lol

Andarial

Sorry it doesn't really help too blurry >.< how about a description? Where is it? What does it look like? You know that sort of thing.