[Emily94]

My fish had a fungal infection, I treated it with pima fix and everything seemed fine, the fungus went away. Well now it is back!! I don't know what to do now?

[Lucky098]

Treat again.

You should treat for 7 days.. do a 50% water change.. check the symptoms.. if there are still symptoms, then treat again for another 7 days. Treat until the infection is gone.

It takes time... Just be sure to remove the carbon from your filter. The carbon will remove the medicine.

[Emily94]

The carbon is gone, I just have the black spongy thing (Bio filter? Or something like that). I have continued treating and done the water changes, but why did it come back worse? We never quit treating him or anything, just one day I noticed it on his side (where is was originally) and on his tail! He is living in a 5 gallon pail with a filter (My hospital tank broke) and I was planning on releasing him back into the pond this week :(. I read that you can wipe off the fungus using a paper towel soaked in the medicine, but will that actually help or just hurt him?

[Lucky098]

Touching fish with anything removes the body slime they need to be healthy. He is under attack right now by the fungus... Stressing him out by bringing him out of the water, choking him out and rubbing him with something may actually make the fungus worse.

What you should do... is get him in a tank and crank the heater up to about 80-85 degrees. Add salt to the water. Bacteria cannot survive heat. The salt helps heal the wound. Add a little bit more medicine then what is recommended. If that doesn't work after 7 days, then you're going to have to get tetracyclene which is a multi-antibiotic. Its expensive, but gets the job done.

[Emily94]

The only other tank I have is my 30 gallon with my guppy's and platy's and well... he is big enough to swallow all of them in one bite. Can I just put a heater in his pail, I have one laying around. Also, what brand of salt do you recommend that is cheap? I don't have a lot of money :p

[Lucky098]

Freshwater salt. Its by API. Its pretty cheap.

The heater in standing water will get TOO hot.. So it has to be filtered. A 10 gal. is a cheap tank. You shoul really go get one.

[Emily94]

The pail is filtered.. I have a filter on the side from my old ten gallon..

[Lucky098]

Lol all right. That should work then. Stick the heater in there.. Do you have any type of thermometer that you can stick in there to make sure he doesn't over heat?