re-occuring fungus in my aquarium

I have a 38 gallon aquarium with 2 5" bass and a 5" blue channel cat. When I introduced one of the bass into my aquarium i noticed he was covered in fungus. I treated the tank for fungus with a product called Binox. It cleared it up immediatley but the fungus returned within days of stopping treatment. I treated twice more, longer each time but had the same results (the fungus returned). I then noticed my fish were suffering from parasites (small holes around head) I thought the stress from the parasites may have been casuing the fungus to return. I have treated with two different parasite medications while treating for the fungus, and have added stresscoat. While treating, my fish appear healthy. The last round of treatment I continued for two weeks after all signs of fungus and stress had dissappeared but the fungus returned within days of stopping treatment. I check my water quality constatnly and do weekly (sometimes bi-weekly) water changes of 20%. I have switched stores were I buy my feeder fish twice becasue I thought the feeder fish were bringing in the fungus or parasites, but that has not helped. Does anybody have any suggestions to get my tank cleared up? I have been fighting this battle for months now and have killed all the good bacteria in my aquarium, causing me to have to do more frequent water changes to keep ammonia down.

Welcome to our forum. First of all, please be sure that it's legal to keep the native species you have in your aquarium, and don't release them back into the wild. Fish in an aquarium usually get sick, because the aquarium conditions are not ideal. You can use a search engine like Google to find out exactly what conditions they need. I suspect they will need much lower temperatures than most aquariums can provide. Of course, they can also grow to be very large and thus difficult to accommodate in the average aquarium. Some wild caught fish will not accept flake or frozen foods, and live feeder fish could bring in diseases or parasites, so keeping native species has some unique challenges. If you can provide them with the ideal environment, medications should not be necessary.

Several years ago, one of the homesteading magazines offered advice about fish farming for food, and some Government publications also provide instructions. They may at least have some information about the conditions the fish require. Please keep us updated on your native species adventure, and send pictures if you can.

Thanks for the reply John. You are right keeping native fish does offer some unique challneges. However, the native species
I have are actually very hardy fish. They can thrive in a variety of water conditions and temperatures. I am familiar with the environmetal conditions required for these fish as I am an avid Bass fisherman and have taken part in numerous conservation and habitat improvement projects in local lakes. I also did a lot of research before deciding to keep these fish. My fish will be released into a small pond when they are to big for my tank this allows them to continue to grow but minimizes the effects of releasing them into the wild. Suprisingly both smallmouth and largemouth bass prefer water temps around 80. I keep my tank about 75 as the channel cat doesn't like it that warm. I have been keeping native fish for around a year now with no problems. The problems started when I introduced a 5" largemouth to the aquarium. The fish was in a tank at a local sports shop and they no longer wanted to keep him. I brought him home and made the mistake of introducing him directly into my tank. This fish brought in the parasites and I beleive the stress from the parasites is causing the fungus. I would really like to get the parasites and ultimatley the fungus cleared up. My only other option is to release the fish causing the problems. Below is a picture of my tank, it looks a little bare as I have had to remove all of my plants due to the meds.

Sorry the image didn't post the first time

no picture.... i have also had a small breed native tank(darters) before but the same thing happened to me the all got parasites and died so i havent tryed since....

Some people use a hospital tank for new fish. That avoids spreading disease, but it puts the fish through the moving shock twice. A few months ago, Aquarium Fish International magazine had an article about keeping native fish. I'll try to find the issue date.

This is a little off topic, but several years ago I fished for and regularly caught bass on one of Arizona's desert lakes. During the Summer, a meat thermometer placed in the boat would register well over 120. It was a relatively new lake with very little traffic, so the fishing was great.

PS: In the left of the screen there is some information about uploading photos. You use the "Browse" button at the bottom of the screen. The number of pixels is limited, as is my computer knowledge. You can use the "Ask a question" button on the left part of the screen to contact the main administrator, who knows everything there is to know about computers. I'd love to see those pictures.

I didn't mention that I have a large chinese algae eater in my tank also. (He has to be large to not be eaten). Could he be feeding on the protective slime of my fish, and possibly causing the fungus?

Yes, he sure could. They do their slime sucking at night so you probably do not notice it. Adult Chinese Algae Eaters do not eat algae, and the species does not originate in China. Well, they had to name them something, and a name like Nocturnal Slime Sucker would not be very good for marketing.

I should add that the common pleco can also be a slime eater.

hey i cann't see the picture..

Yeah, sorry the image didn't post. The first time the image was too large. I resized it, not sure why it still wont work.

Thanks for posting the picture. That's an interesting chunk of driftwood, or is it two pieces? Have you thought about adding plants?

The driftwood is actually three peices. I had the tank planted and looking really nice but the fungus meds started killing my plants and I had to remove them. The water has a yellow tint in the picture from the meds also. I removed the chinese algae eater from the tank last night. Hopefully he was the main casue of the fungus and I can get my tank back to looking like it used to. I will be sure to post pics when I do.