Please help no one can tell me what this is!

[Jeneddi]

Hi everybody, I'm hoping one of you will be able to help me. I have a 26 gallon bowfront, heavily planted, with 8 female bettas. I've recently been having a problem with 4 different fish, and no one can seem to figure out what it is. It starts outs looking like just a pale spot, usually just on the body. Then some of the scales fall off. The area will become raised, and it looks almost, chewed, I guess? After that, a compact bunch of thin, white hairs grows out of it. If the hairs are pulled off or fall off, it leaves a deep sore. I have 2 fish that are having this problem now, and it's just at the raised stage now, and the other 2 that had it have died. About my tank, it's been set up for a little over a year, ammonia and nitrite both 0 and nitrate between 20 and 30. The PH is 7.5, and the temp stays about 76. I've been told it's a true fungus, columnaris, and parasites, and I've treated for all of these, and nothing has helped. I really hope someone here can! Thank you!



Housing
What size is your tank?26 gallons
What temperature is your tank? 76
Does your tank have a filter?yes
Does your tank have an air stone or other type of aeration? yes
Is your tank heated? yes
What tank mates does your betta fish live with? 7 other female bettas

Food
What type of food do you feed your betta fish? Hakiri betta bio gold pellets
How often do you feed your betta fish? once a day

Maintenance
How often do you perform a water change? once a week
What percentage of the water do you change when you perform a water change?30%
What type of additives do you add to the water when you perform a water change?fertilizers for the plants, water conditioner

Water Parameters:
Have you tested your water? If so, what are the following parameters?

Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate:25
pH: 7.6
Hardness:
Alkalinity:

Symptoms and Treatment
How has your betta fish's appearance changed? raised chewed looking spot
How has your betta fish's behavior changed? it hasn't yet
When did you start noticing the symptoms? on these 2 fish, about a week ago
Have you started treating your fish? If so, how?
Does your fish have any history of being ill? no
How old is your fish (approximately)? I've had them for about 6-7 months

[Sixwolf]

The hairs would make me think fungus, but you said you already tried treating for that. My next best guess would be maybe a bacterial infection. Your fish might need antibiotics.

[Jeneddi]

They're being treated right now with Maracyn plus, before I have tried Maracyn 1, E.M. Erythromycin, and Furan-2. Sorry, I should have mentioned that in the original post.

[MSG]

That white section is the fish's exposed muscle tissue.

• If fungus is growing on the flesh, that means the water isn't clean ENOUGH. You should have removed the fish in the photo from the main tank before treatment.

Depending on the type of medication you've used, there's a good chance you destroyed the bacteria in your filtration media.

• What brand/model filter are you using?

Post a few CLEAR photos of your ENTIRE tank the way it's CURRENTLY set up.

Noticed.... you just posted the medication. Which tank/what type of course of treatment did you take?

You can create more problems if you use the medication incorrectly.

[blu the betta]

it could be water mold. my fish had that too. he died after a few days.

[aemaki09]

Post deleted by user

[Jeneddi]

They are out of the main tank, right now they are in my 5 gallon bare bottom hospital tank. Full water changes every 5 days.The filter is a Tetra Whisper in tank filter, running filter floss and not carbon. The whole list of all the medications I've tried over the 4 months I've had this problem is: Maracyn 1, Furan-2, E.M. Erythromycin, Maracyn Plus, API Liquid Fungus Cure, and Maracyn Coppersafe. And this was all recommended to me by my local fish store owner, I guess I shouldn't have been so quick to believe he knew what he was talking about.

[Jeneddi]

And for the treatment schedule, I followed the directions, with a week or so in between different treatments

[MSG]

NOTE, sorry if I'm using caps, but it's faster than going back & trying to underline certain words.

I don't know about you, but if I have a fish with an OPEN wound I separate them from the other fish. Wounds will usually get targeted by other fish.

I have 1 fish Senetti that got stuck in a decoration & ended up with 2 open wounds on her body like that. However those wounds NEVER got infected.

I treated with K-salt, oak leaves & clean water.

Anyway, I have an major emergency I need to refocus my attention on so hopefully someone else can help you out.

[aemaki09]

Try kanaplex. It's highly recommended on here. One of the best medications out there, problem is its hard to find although amazon sells it.

You can also switch back to furan-2 and add Epsom salts in the mean time
That is what I used to treat the columnaris in my sorority and it worked well.