# White on heads of angelfish, but definitely NOT ICH



## a77ila

A couple of days ago something white started appearing on my angelfishes, and as it manifested as white spots I thought it was ich at first (which I have encountered and treated several times). However, after unsuccessful treatment against ich I noticed these distinct differences between this case and ich I have seen before:

- appears ONLY around the eyes (does not appear on fins or the body even in the advanced stages of the disease), above the eye at first and below the eyes as well when in final stages
- it is SYMMETRICAL on both sides of the head (!!!) - this is the most peculiar thing
- the number of spots does NOT change
- it appears in the SAME shape and layout on ALL infected fish (~12 fish so far)
- the spots are not actually spots (at least while there is no secondary infection), but rather as something being secreted or grown from the inside (it can grow to 4-5mm in length)
- the fins are in EXCELLENT shape, no rot or excess mucus
- does not change position (e.g. it does not fall of and reappear someplace else)
- does not react to methyl-blue/ich cures

High(er) res photos can be found at
http://www.prometheus.org.yu/gallery2/main.php?g2_view=core.ShowItem&g2_itemId=2798

If anybody has any idea what this is I'd be grateful, it's very demoralizing to watch the fish die one by one because I don't know what to treat them for


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## Cichlid Man

:hi:
What's the tank size? What filtration are you using? What's the inhabitants of the tank? And what's the pH?
It's deffinately a fungus of some kind, maybe velvet. Adding tonic salt will deffinatly help.


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## a77ila

The tank is 180l, I have an external filter with several filtration layers+active coal, with additional aeration within the tank. There are 6 angelfish left, 1 trichogaster, 4 barbuses, 2 xiphophoruses and 2 plexostomuses (yes I know a flaky combo but this was not my choice and had no problems so far). The disease has only manifested itself on the angelfish (I have not separated them since I thought it was ich at first  ).

Don't let the look fool you, the root cause is not (ordinary aquatical) fungus, I have kept fish long enough to tell that the patchy/cloudy look is a secondary infection/fungus colony on the *ooze* and not on the fish, methyl blue wipes it clean but the oozing/white spot remains and so it comes back. I have already increased salt level in the water but neither this nor methyl blue makes the ooze production go away.

The *key* I think is that the spots are placed *symmetrically* on both sides of the head (see first image), on *all* of the infected fish. This rules out most parasites and the only thing I can think of is a sort of infection that attacks something very specific in the fish, unfortunately I do not know fish anatomy well enough to tell what


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## wildtiger

I see exactly what you are talking about with the symetry, almost makes me wonder if these fish aren't getting their head stuck in something causing a wound and then the wound collecting the fungus.


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