Hi All,

I have just spotted that my fighter has a white film on the side of his head. It is also covering his left eye.

For he last few days he has also been going nuts every so often and streaking across the tank and then fairly vigorously rubbing himself on the gravel, glass etc.

He is still eating fine and is generally acting normal (other than the above).

I have done a bit of googling but don't have a positive ID of what it is. I'm thinking possibly a parasite of some sort.

Any idea what it could be? And what treatment it would need?

Some info on the tank:

The tank is 35 litres

It has been set up for about 6 weeks and he has occupied it for about 4.

I cycled the filter on my existing 230 litre tank.

I haven't tested the water for a week or so (I'm about to do some tests now) but the water has been fine in the previous tests - Ammonia 0, Nitrites 0, and Nitrates about 10ppm. The PH was sitting at about 6.8. EDIT: Latests tests all come back OK - Am 0, Nitrite 0, Nirate between 5-10 and PH of 6.8.

The tank is lightly planted

I also do a 30% water change each week

Sorry for the average photos but hopefully it gives an idea on what it looks like

Looks like columnaris ( aka saddle back)

Very common, very contagious. I think Alan is probably right. I've lost a tank holding 50 fighters to this within 3 days.

Thanks for the replies. After doing some more research I'm reluctantly leaning towards columnaris too.

I have heard adding salt can help with it. Has anyone here had success treating it with salt? I'm assuming sourcing the anti biotics required can be a little difficult.

The greatest success I had with it was using furan which, due to it being an antibiotic, is no longer available without a vets script. Even then it was a hit and miss affair with it working on less than 25% of the fish.

You will lose nothing by using salt so if you have some on hand, use it - you might get lucky

It pays to note that quite a number of fighters come from the wholesalers with this and no one picks it up. Even a pinprick on their head which is normally where it starts can expand quite rapidly.

Unfortunately I would lean towards Columnaris also It spreads quick and can be hard to cure (even if you have Furan 2, it is often resistant due to our heavy use of it, but is well worth a shot) - if you do happen to have any ABs on hand, you'll be after a Gram-Negative Aerobic antibiotic. Unfortunately breeders etc who come across Columnaris often PTS fish due to how contagious it is.

I don't have any antibiotics or salt at hand unfortunately and I can't make it to the LFS to get the salt until Saturday. Hopefully I have one of the slower strains of Columnaris.

I have been doing a bit more reading on salt baths and it appears a quite few people have had success using it so fingers crossed.

Let us know how you get on.

He wasn't looking any worse when I checked him before work this morning so I may be lucky and have the slower strain. If it is hopefully it will give the salt a chance to work. Even if it halts the advance of it and let his immune system try and fight it.

Unfortunately after trying everything under the sun I decided to euthanize him today. What ever it was was very slow but everything I tried didn't stop it.

It had obviously affected his swim bladder as he was no longer able to swim properly (was corkscrewing around the tank if he wasn't just sitting on the bottom) so I thought it best to end it.

What would be the best way of disinfecting the tank etc? The stem plants I'll throw out but would a short bleach dip work for the java fern?

Bleach dip would work on java fern. Best to bleach everything including filters hoses sponges nets - absolutely everything. Once bleached rinse until you can no longer smell the bleach and leave out in the sun to dry.

Sounds like a plan. Thankfully its a small tank so it shouldn't be too difficult.

Its not difficult and works well. I used to clean all my fighter tanks and equipment - the jars - weekly using bleach. For the tank pour about 1/4 cup bleach in and fill with water, leave it 2 or so hours and then rinse out really well. If you can smell bleach rinse until you can not.