Ich or fungus?

[Elle]

I just noticed yesterday that my new JD has some white spots on his tail and on the outside of one set of gills. My first thought was ich, so I started treating with raised temps and salt, plus some melafix in case there were wounds. However, looking at the spots some of them appear larger and fuzzier than I would expect with ich. I'm a bit concerned now that it's a fungus rather than ich.

If it's columnaris or a body fungus, I've got Fungus Clear, Maracyn and I think Maracyn 2 but I know some meds can't be used with salt. Complicating this is the fact that I'm using the penguin biowheels for filtration and can't take carbon out. If it IS columnaris, I want to hit it as fast as possible before it spreads, and I know higher temps make it worse.

So far all fish still act normal and water params are fine. I'm doing another big water change today (>50%) to clear as much crap as possible out of the tank, and will keep doing daily smaller changes until this goes away.

Advice? Should I keep doing the salt and just drop the temps?

[Elle]

It's fungus. Pimafix, dropping the temps and a huge water change seems to be knocking it down though. If it gets worse, I'll use Maracyn, but my LFS recommended trying Pimafix first, as a large tank will cost $$$$$ to treat with Maracyn.

Sigh.

[2wheelsx2]

It's fungus. Sorry Ellen. Just doing water changes and a bit or salt if your other inhabitants will tolerate it will help. I think the chasing around to catch the JD caused a lot of the fishes in the tank to get injured. I have several fish with the problem, but most of them are on the mend. That guy has been around a long time (3 years if I remember correctly) so he's a tough bugger and it shouldn't be a problem.

[Elle]

Not your fault! He's probably been brawling with my oscars. Nobody in the tank seems to mind the salt, so I'll keep that in there and see how things go.

He's an absolutely gorgeous fish - seems to have settled in just fine.