Help! Fungus, low budget

[BIO-Linist]

Sorry Very limited budget, my mom doesn't approve of the long time I spend on me fishies, demonstrated by the report written below for treating just one little fish...

Also Sorry it is very long, I must fully describe the problem.
Size of tank = 20 gallon tall, so
Volume of tank = probably a little less than 20 US gallons

Location: outside, on the lanai (patio), faces West, a green shade cloth lets through filtered sunlight

Population: 5 gold barbs, all about 2-1/2 inches long, 1 bleeding heart tetra, it is about twice the size of a gold barb. bazillions of snails, they look like the Malayan live bearing kind (there used to be many ramshorns too, but they all gradually disappeared, probably eaten)
No new additions in over a year, the last addition was the gold barbs.
No plants.

I feed them Tetra Min tropical flakes twice a day. I keep about a week's supply in the can and the rest double-bagged in the freezer. Occasionally (about once in 2 months) I give some brine shrimp from a bucket, but it doesn't produce enough to feed regularly.

Ammonia level = ? Sorry no test kits...
Nitrites level = ?
Nitrates level = ?
Water hardness = ?
Specify other chemical levels that might be relevent = ?

In July, I missed about a month of water changes. Sorry! One morning I noticed one gold barb was unusually pale. On closer inspection all of them had some fin rot, except for the tetra. The pale one had some redness on his dorsal fin. I immediately removed the bio-wheel that was floating around inside the tank, changed around 50-90% of the water (can't tell because I add the water at the same time as siphoning it out with the gravel vacuum) and increased shading by lowering the shade cloth.

Increased feeding, by giving 2-3 smaller helpings each feeding time and waiting for them to consume it all before adding more, and increased water changes to twice a week, 30-50%. Observed the tetra was chasing the gold barbs, inserted a tank divider. It cost almost $10. Couldn't buy medicine after that. One week later added about 1 teaspoon of instant ocean in the filter. Many snails came out of the gravel and crawled on the glass (they usu. only do that at night) Never added salt again.

The gold barbs got better. Then i missed two weeks water change, and the one that was pale got sick again. Got back on schedule and he started getting better. I put some Ammo-Carb in the carbon holder, left it there for about 3 weeks, then a few days ago took it out and replaced with activated carbon only. He was almost completely healed, then the fungus attacked. His dorsal fin became bloody again, and white furry stuff is sticking out of the bloody area.

Yesterday (Monday) morning when I was going to feed them they all stayed on the bottom. I knew something was seriously wrong, so I skipped breakfast and immediately went to change the water. I felt the water, and it was cold, colder than tap water. In the afternoon I got out a 200 watt Marineland Dual-Temp submersible heater I got 5 years ago and never used. I was nervous to use it because it is overkill at over 10 watts per gallon.

Filtration system = under gravel filter, about 1 cup of activated carbon, hang on side filter (Whisper 10)
Temperature = ? (No thermometer, heater is set to 76 F, but it gets a little warmer than that in the afternoon)

Age of tank setup = 3 years
If a new tank when was it cycled and how? = Not Applicable
Number and amount of water changes weekly = 1/wk, 30-50%

Age of fish <if known> = > 2 yrs
Any recent changes = Added a big heater

Ok, finally the part I need help on:
I can't medicate the whole tank. There are many snails and it would cause bad water if they died. Also I can't afford to lose the good bacteria - busy school no time for constantly changing the water.

Chemicals I have on hand:
- Activated carbon (Penn-Plaxx) -plenty

- Epsom salt -plenty

- Instant Ocean -plenty

- Penicillin VK (First Choice brand) (old) -eight 250 mg tablets

- QuIck Cure (Aquarium Products) (very old, probably 8 years old) -half full 3/4 FL. OZ. bottle, active ingredients=malachite green, formalin

- BIO-Safe (Marineland Labs) (pretty old, probably 4 years old) -Nearly full 4.25 FL. OZ bottle, "detoxifies ammonia and eliminates chlorine and chloramine", principle ingredients=sodium hydroxymethane sulfinic acid

- BIO-Coat (Marinelind Labs) (pretty old, probably 4 years old) -Nearly full 4.25 FL. OZ bottle, "promotes natural slime coat, adds electrolytes and detoxifies heavy metals", principle ingredients=polyvinylpyrrolidone, EDTA, TRIS, and BIO-Gard(tm)

- Ammo-Carb (Aquarium Pharmaceuticals) -half full 9 OZ. carton, it is a mixture of activated carbon and zeolite

I have not used any drugs yet, been battling the disease with water changes and environment improvements alone for nearly three months.

So I'm looking for a short treatment, like a dip or bath for the only fungus afflicted fish. He's got fungus on his body in front of his dorsal fin, and recently a small tuft of fungus has begun on one side his body a little before the tail. I have an empty glass fish bowl, it is about 1-1/2 US gallons. I was thinking about suspending the bowl inside the 20 gal tank and treating the sick fish in there. I read about fungus treatments using malachite green, but they say to dab it on with a q-tip, and my gold barb is too small. The Quick Cure says it contains malachite green but it also has formalin and methanol. Please somebody knowledgeable tell me what to do.

[gm72]

Unfortunately the result of missing water changes results in poor water conditions. This further results in stress and ultimately illness for the fish. Sorry to hear of the trouble.

You really need a test kit, preferably the liquid type. I understand you are on a limited budget, but a test kit when keeping fish isn't an option, it is a necessity. Ditto with the water changes--absolutely necessary.

That being said, you can treat the fungus with the addition of tonic levels of salt (roughly half strength to start with) but that will likely kill the snails. You could remove the fish to a separate tank/container with a filter and heater and treat them there.

Things like this do not typically have a "quick fix."

[Gayle]

I believe this may help you

http://www.aquaticcommunity.com/disease/fungus.php

[Northernguy]

Sorry about your fish!
What GM72 said i completely agree with.You have got to do your water changes and get a test kit.If you had a larger tank you could get away with skipping the odd w/c.Unfortunatly I underrstand about the finances but at least get a kit!

[BIO-Linist]

Unfortunately the result of missing water changes results in poor water conditions...You really need a test kit...water changes--absolutely necessary...you can treat the fungus with the addition of tonic levels of salt (roughly half strength to start with) but that will likely kill the snails. You could remove the fish to a separate tank/container with a filter and heater and treat them there...Things like this do not typically have a "quick fix."

I believe this may help you
http://www.aquaticcommunity.com/disease/fungus.php

...What GM72 said i completely agree with....If you had a larger tank you could get away with skipping the odd w/c...at least get a kit!

Understand. I will change the water some more and try to get a testing kit.

Now about treating separately, I want to put the fish bowl inside the 20 gallon tank and treat the gold barb in there. (to prevent temperature swings) There's no way to fit a filter in there, probably only an air tube. Now we all know most fish can't live in such a little bowl so that's why it needs to be quick. He can't stay in there for more than a couple hours a day, probably even less because of the chemicals used to kill the fungus.

[Mvjnz]

Fungus usually clears up by itself by doing daily water changes for a while. If it doesn't clear up in about 2 weeks I would medicate.

You really need to get some ammonia, nitrite and nitrate tests. I got away with not having them for the first 6 months, but having them makes things a lot easier. For example, without tests every time you see somethinh wrong with your fish you need to change water, because you don't know what your parameteres are. And if a fish suddenly dies, you have no idea if it was due to ammonia or nitrite.

Without a test kit you'll need to change water at least once a week ( after you've treated the fungus.)

[BIO-Linist]

OK, I changed the water yesterday (Thursday 10/16/08), bought a test kit and methylene blue today. Haven't opened the methylene blue yet.

Before you reply please read all the first post, I described the problem fully there.

Test results:
(Tetratest EasyStrips 5-in-1 Test Strips "for freshwater aquariums and ponds")
(it is series of pads on a strip)
(didn't notice it didn't come with ammonia test until too late)

nitrate: 5ppm (actual color somewhere between 0 and 10, it's not very precise)
nitrite: 0 ppm
GH: <50ppm
KH: 100ppm
pH: 7 (actual color somewhere between 6.8 and 7.2, it's not very precise)

Observation of fish: He is getting worse. The fungus patches have reddened even more and the one in front of his tail has grown at an alarming rate. It was half that size yesterday.

I try to attach some pictures.

Front
front.jpg

Right
right.jpg

Right with fungus circled
rightcir.jpg

Left
left.jpg

Whole tank
tank1.jpg
I do not normally have the light installed; it is there temporarily only for the photography.
Center is the tank divider; the bleeding heart tetra has the smaller left side, and the five gold barbs have the bigger right side.
Top right is the power filter, it is hanging on the end of the tank.
In front and below it is the heater, an extreme 200 watt submersible.
In the back are two lift tubes for the UGF, the one on the right has a large DIY carbon container, packed to capacity with fresh activated carbon.

[gm72]

As you have identified, the test strips are notoriously inaccurate, which is why we recommended liquid tests. Maybe they didn't have them available.

Methylene blue is not a treatment for fungus but rather is primarily used when breeding fish to stave off the often-times inevitable fungal growth on the eggs themselves. Different processes. Using a true anti-fungal medication such as Pimafix is a strong option.

The carbon will remove medications from the water, so whatever you end up using, be sure to remove the carbon first. Carbon in general is not necessary in a healthy tank. The vast majority of us here do not use carbon regularly.

Sorry to say that it is likely that your fish are not going to make it. I'll hope for better, of course.

[BIO-Linist]

I intend to follow one of the fungus treatments mentioned in The Krib's FAQ.
Neither one involves medicating the tank.

http://faq.thekrib.com/disease-fw.html#fin-rot

One is to "dab malachite green directly on the fungus"
but I don't know if a gold barb is big enough to handle, nor what concentration of malachite green to use

The other is a bath with huge dose of methylene blue.
They do not say what exact concentraion to use.

The extra carbon was added in anticipation of using one such treatment to absorb any medication inadvertently transferred to the tank, such as by a net or on the fish itself, to prevent harming the snails or ruining the biological filtration.

Comment?

[gm72]

I don't like the sound of either treatment. One is horribly stressful to the fish (dabbing meds directly on the fish) and the other I'm not 100% confident in. The other problem is that you are unsure of how exactly to carry out either treatment, but your choice certainly.