Please help me help my friend

[TitusvileSurfer]

I know this is strictly a salt water forum but my freshwater fish needs help! The freshwater forums are more like ghost towns and the few inhabitants all seem to have just bought their first tank from Walmart, unlike this plethora of useful knowledge! Being a fin disease, possibly a fungus of sorts, I hope you can help him.

Not to hijack my own post, but how to I get the picture to show up here instead of just a link? I'm using "

" to no effect. :/

 

[TitusvileSurfer]

practicing image posting

practicing image posting

I guess photobucket is my problem?

 

[TitusvileSurfer]

bump - can't anyone help me?? If I can heal this fish, I can re-release him into the lake behind my house and set up a reef tank! I don't mind letting him go but letting him die isn't an option.

 

[A sea K]

I cant help you with your fish as I'm not very well versed with fish disease. I can however urge you to NOT release your friend back into the wild. The diseases and pathogens you risk releasing with him could in all likelyhood have a very negative effect on the native fishes. PLEASE DO NOT DO THIS! Simply return him to your local fish store for credit on any future purchases.

 

[TitusvileSurfer]

I can't return it to a lfs as this is a wild local fish. I do understand releasing him into the wild could spread disease though, so I won't be doing that.

 

[A sea K]

Good, Im glad you understand. Sorry I cant help with the disease so here's a bump.
Dont really think you need it though, things seem to move slow on this forum.

 

[TitusvileSurfer]

This tank has completed its cycle, but I have high nitrites. I don't understand, what could cause this? I hope I didn't kill off my bacteria colony somehow. I'm wondering if this looks like nitrite burn?

 

[A sea K]

Well there are a couple of things to consider; first, did you add any type of treatment to your water that may have killed some of the beneficial bacteria? second, if the fish is large in relation to your tank it could have started a secondary cycle causing the nitrite spike. lastly, the wild caught fish does not have any resistance to some of the pathogens that could be in your captive environment.
Just some points for you to consider, Chris

 

[TitusvileSurfer]

I was wondering if this could be 'columnaris'?

 

[TitusvileSurfer]

When the problem first occurred, I posted in 3 freshwater forums for advice. 2 of them, along with my LFS owner suggested 'PIMAFIX' for fungus. I dosed for 7 days with no effect and then posted my problems here. The guy at the LFS who I have been using for years and years said it wouldn't damage anything in my main display, and wouldn't hurt my plants. I have a 20 gallon feeder fish tank I could have easily used as a hospital tank, but for fear of the entire main tank being infected and not only my fish, I dosed the display...to no effect. I wonder if it killed of my bacteria colony. I doubt the fish is creating a load spike, as I have had him since he was a minnow himself.