blue silver angel with cotton wool disease?

[Ghoti]

Last night I returned to my fish to find my male BS with a white fungal growth on his side, somewhat resembling cotton wool.

Without thinking I caught him and using tank water and a bit of filter wool wiped away the growth. It has consumed most of his fin, and left him with a nasty irritation on the side. I should have taken a photo first!

I popped him back in the tank, raised the temp to 27c (from 24), did a 30% water change and added Epsom salt at 1tsp/40lt. I see today the fungus is still growing.

Considering a weak potassium permanganate bath, or is there something else I should do?

cheers,
Scott

[Nathan5]

Potassium permanganate has always worked for me with fungal infections one thing that I know is yes it will get rid of the fungus after a strong bath but if you put the fish back in the maine tank with an open sore or unheald wound it is very likely that the fungus will appear again, that fungal bacteria is present in every aquarium it attacks eggs dead fish rotting food fish with a prolonged open wound.I have treated fungal infections with 30 minute PP bath strong dark purple then separate small tank 7 days of Melafix or till wounds heal.It might be worth considering treating youre hole tank with PP.Good luck hope this helps you

[Ghoti]

By way of update, I was a little concerned about intervening too much and 'killing with kindness', so I held off on the PP treatment.

I cleaned out a spare 100lt tank, 1/2 filled with aged water and then topped up with water from his tank. I added 2 more tsp of epsom salt (to make up for the 50% aged water), added a matured sponge filter from another tank, then popped him in there and observed.

The cotton wool has not come back. I recommenced feeding after 24 hours which he took to greedily. He has a small wound on his side which appears to be healing quickly, though I doubt his pectoral fin will recover with ~90% of it gone.

If all is well tonight I'll move his girlfriend in with him then sterilise their former tank.

Cheers,
Scott