New female looks like she has white fuzz

[phoenix91]

Hi, just picked up a new vt female, she's acclimating right now so still in her cup floating in the tank (3G) and when i took a closer look (with my glasses on) i noticed she has some white fuzz looking stuff on her head. Any ideas?

I tried so hard in the shop to check out all the fish and find a healthy one.

I haven't got pictures yet as my phone is mia and she's so tiny and has quite a light coloured body anyway.

So white fuzz? what could it be? how do i treat it?

I forgot to add she's active and curious and doesn't have clamped fins. She looks very healthy except for the one white fuzz patch.

[Pataflafla]

After she's done acclimating to a new water source, do a 100% change.

If ti doesn't improve within two days, then I say start aquarium salt at 1 tsp/gal while continuing the 100% daily changes.

Keep her separate from any other fish as it might be contagious. Try not to use the same bowls or buckets for water changes as you do for any other tanks (Should you have any).

[phoenix91]

Thanks.

I put a smaller (maybe 1 g) tub into her tank with a touch of aquarium salt in, i acclimated her to that. I'll keep up water changes and see how it is in a few days, hopefully she can go into her new tank soon. I've been using separate buckets for a while now, really don't want to spread the b/g cyano in my puffers tank to everyone elses.

[Mo]

To me it sounds like a fungus of some sort.
Here is a bit more info on fungal diseases

Symptoms
White, or fuzzy growths on the outside of fish
Fish has become less active
Won't eat
Diluted colors
Patches of white

Treatment
This disease is very common with stressed fish and is cured with Higher levels of added salt, easing the temperature within the tank to 80 will also help. Well, it might. Raining the temperature isn't guaranteed to work. If the disease progresses then invest in a high quality fungus treatment to help aid the treatment, if that doesn't work then I highly suggest that you either euthanize the fish or heavily Medicate, sterilize, and heat the temp even higher within the tank. Don't Isolate him when treating as the other fish probably have the disease too.

Cause
There are many factors to what causes this specific disease but it's similar to many others.
-poor water quality, like high ammonia, and nitrites along with unecxeptable Amounts of nitrates
-stressful tankmates and constant nipping
-being battered around by flow
-not acclimated properly
-stressful housing
Are all main factors to the disease as they all lead to a lowered immune system which leaves all fish helpless towards all diseases

[phoenix91]

^^ Thanks for the info. Yeah, i'd say it looks fungus-y to me, i started aq salt treatment right away and today she looks better, it's still there but doesn't seem as bad. She didn't eat yet but maybe it'll take her a couple of days to feel well enough to eat.

[Mo]

Good to know that she is doing better. Hopefully it will clear up very soon

[phoenix91]

UPDATE:

I managed to get some photos of the white fluff. It's definitely not as bad today as it was sunday so i guess the treatment and added heat (house temp has gone up so all the tanks got raised temps but maybe 2 degrees)

If you look at the above shot, the spot circled in white is where it is. It looks just the slightest bit raised, could she have a raised scale? (sorry it's tiny, but she's tiny)

On the others you can see the tiny white dot on one of them but on the other you can't. I'm thinking that when i get home from work tonight i might acclimate her to the tank and just make sure her water is nice and clean. I've been using the maracyn to treat the fungus and she will have had 3 days treatment. I also added some AQ salt to ther water to help with her recovery.

She still hasn't eaten anything and i thought that if she was in her new house she might be able to relax enough to want to eat. I also haven't seen her poop which is slightly odd, but since no fopd in i can't really expect poop out :)