Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

You have a fungal infection going on there, usually brought on by bad water quality/rotting food, I'm surprised that fish is still alive. The cotton wool substance is eating away at the fish. It'll kill all the fish if you don't deal with it.

You need to salt the water ASAP, salt to 5ppt, so 5 grams of salt per liter of water. Move out any strawberries/peas from the system if you want them to survive.

How bad are the other fish looking?

there's only been 3 fish that have died from the infection, the rest seem fine, although I cant be sure ALL of them are eating properly, there are 3-6 greedy one and the others don't seem to be eating, (if they are they do it when Im not there). the fish in the last photo I put up, it different to the others, they lost lots of scales and energy, but this one only has that one area and its gone right through the skin.
With the salt is it pool salt, sodium chloride or something else?

Plain old boring pool salt, without additives or anything else.

I had a similar thing in mine, and it ended up killing off many of my fish.

I have read that fish losing this slime coating is not always a bad thing, its a response to a sudden change in salt levels. its a way for the fish to get rid of unwanted bacteria, parasites by "de-slimming", fish do replace it very quickly or parasites like ich and alike will be able to infiltrate one of the fishes greatest defences. which It really looks like it has in those pic.s.
cotton mouth, fin rot, ich, cloudy eye, it will all be there.....
good luck but I think you might lose the lot...(ive been there, done that...) its not pretty.

I really do wish you good luck with it

Thank Mudeye, hopefully I dont lose the lot but I haven't had one die for about 2-3 weeks. I went to an aquarium shop and was told to add Lyso something or rather and Mitosin? for the infection. Unfortunately the addition of mitosin means the fish cant be eaten. Also any irregular signs have disappeared so hopefully I got in time, although Im now down to 9 fish in one side and 12 in the other so my experiment probably wont yield any reliable results.

Thats good news Boza,
I think iv'e turned into a pessimist on curing parasitic diseases on fish after recently losing 160 out of 172...
there is a remedy or cure readily available called "Rid Ich", and as the name suggests it may be a good thing to try if you are experimenting..!

He doesn't have ICH, just need salt for the fungal infection.

of course they have a fungal infection:


(a common fungus that can cause systemic infections is Ichthyphonus)
what you see in those pic's is secondary

colum, I think we are talking about 2 different "Ich"... I wasn't talking about white spot..



The name Ichthyophonus is sometimes shortened to “Ich”, leading to confusion with other common fish pathogens that share the same nickname, Ichthyophthirius and Ichthyobodo. Ichthyphrhirius is commonly call "freshwater ich" or white spot disease and is caused by a ciliate that lives on the gills, fins, and skin. Ichthyobodo (now named Costia) is also and external parasite..

cheers