White fluff on panda cory?

[CanadianCowbell]

This morning when I said good morning to my panda corries I noticed that one of them has what looks like cotton on the tip of the dorsal fin (I believe that is what the top fin is called). A bit of history is that I am a fish newbie and the tank is a 10 gallon that has my Betta (beta) and my 2 panda corries (tweedledee and tweedledum). The ammonia is nil and the nitrite test is 0.1mg/L (if that). The cotton line stuff is like the size of a head of a pin and I can't see any other problems on the rest of the fin (or fish).

I tried to take a picture of it but that particular panda is scared of the camera and just takes off like a jet whenever he/she sees it so all my attempts have been nothing more than a orange/black blur.

I have been driving myself insane with google searches all day so any help is appreciated.

[simont]

it might be fungus.... fin rot of some sort?...

[CanadianCowbell]

How would you treat those?

[Fish Whisper]

Sounds like fungus,

I think an anti Fungus tablet should do the trick.
U can even find those in Walmart and for sure at any LFS.

Things to consider
1) do u want to treat your entire tank, as fungus could be waiting to grow on ur other fish's
2) or u quarintine your panda in a seperate tank and treat him alone first,
3) the meds potentally could kill all ur fish :P (read the instructions carefully)
I think i'd just treat the entire tank, so the fungus isn't left to reappear,
You should also take out all chemical filteration ie) carbon. for the duration of the medication.

You could also increase water temperature slightly to high end of there acceptable range,

Maybe have good aeration/oxygenation of the water, leave lid of cover open.


What kinda of setup do u have for filtration?

[spit.fire]

google ich or ick

does it look like that?

adding salt to the tank will help with some problems but it helps to identify the problem first before diagnosing it

[CanadianCowbell]

My understanding of ick is that ick tends to look like salt or sugar and this stuff looks like part of a q-tip came in contact with the tail. It would be easier if it was ick because I already have the medication for that (boyfriend is big on being prepared).

As far as filtration I have this. As far as treatment, I plan to treat the whole tank (our only not-in-use tank isn't setup yet so any move would cause more problems than solve). Now this filter has the ability to change the flow rate, I currently have it turned down (none of my fish like a current), should I change it?

Now that I have been looking at photos of different fungi, it looks like the fungus pictures I have seen.

Also (and I know this is a stupid question) but when you say salt, you mean aquarium salt right?

[Sandy Landau]

Sorry about your cory! But I think it can be easily treated as it sounds external and only on the fin.

Fungus and a bacterial infection called columnaris can look very similar. Also, it's hard to tell if it's a primary infection or a secondary infection due to an injury. There are many products out there. I recommend Jungle Fungus Eliminator, which is a dissolving powder that you put into the water. It should handle the problem with one treatment, whether it is a true fungus or a bacterial mimic.

If you can't find that, there are other products out there or you can try something like Tetra Lifeguard All-in-One treatment, which covers a range of fungal, bacterial, viral and parasitic problems.