Cichlid with fungus, guidance needed

[moldy banana]

Hi,

4 days ago, my keyhole cichlid began to develop a white patch on his head. He's also been resting in one place all day, not moving around. Assuming it was fungus, I added a dose of Tetra Fungus Guard to the tank (the other fish have been fine). 4 days later, his condition has not improved.
I picked up some API Pimafix after seeing good reviews online, hoping it would work better. However, I do not know how to move forward. The fungus guard box says to wait 4 days and do a water change before giving more medication. I don't have a tank or space for a hospital tank, and I'm worried I might harm the other fish if I add the Pimafix. Maybe I should get more Fungus Guard or a different medication? I seriously don't know what to do, any advice will be appreciated. I attached test results for my parameters in the images I added

 

[Colin_T]

It's not fungus.
The fish has a physical injury at the back of its head and it is covered in excess mucous (the white film over the body).

Fish naturally have a thin clear layer of mucous over their body. When they are sick or stressed, they produce more mucous and it appears as a cream or white film over the body and fins. If they have an injury, they create more mucous over the wound in an attempt to protect the damaged area.

--------------------
WHAT TO DO NOW
The best treatment for a physical injury is clean water and salt.

Wipe the inside of the glass down with a clean fish sponge.

Do a 75% water change and gravel clean the substrate every day for 1 week. The water changes and gravel cleaning will reduce the number of disease organisms in the water and provide a cleaner environment for the fish to recover in. It also removes a lot of the gunk and this means any medication can work on treating the fish instead of being wasted killing the pathogens in the gunk.
Make sure any new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it is added to the tank.

Clean the filter if it hasn't been done in the last 2 weeks. However, if the filter is less than 6 weeks old, do not clean it. Wash the filter materials/ media in a bucket of tank water and re-use them. Tip the bucket of dirty water on the garden/ lawn. Cleaning the filter means less gunk and cleaner water with fewer pathogens.

Increase surface turbulence/ aeration when using salt or medications because they reduce the dissolved oxygen in the water. The higher oxygen levels also help sick fish deal better with the disease and they recover faster.

Add some salt, (see directions below).

If there's no improvement after a week with daily water changes and salt, or it gets worse during that time, you will need a broad spectrum medication that treats protozoan, fungus and bacteria. But try salt and water changes first.

--------------------
SALT
You can add rock salt (often sold as aquarium salt), sea salt or swimming pool salt to the aquarium at the dose rate of 2 heaped tablespoon per 20 litres of water.

Keep the salt level like this for at least 2 weeks but no longer than 4 weeks otherwise kidney damage can occur. Kidney damage is more likely to occur in fish from soft water (tetras, Corydoras, angelfish, Bettas & gouramis, loaches) that are exposed to high levels of salt for an extended period of time, and is not an issue with livebearers, rainbowfish or other salt tolerant species.

The salt will not affect the beneficial filter bacteria, fish, plants, shrimp or snails.

After you use salt and the fish have recovered, you do a 10% water change each day for a week using only fresh water that has been dechlorinated. Then do a 20% water change each day for a week. Then you can do bigger water changes after that. This dilutes the salt out of the tank slowly so it doesn't harm the fish.

When you do water changes while using salt, you need to treat the new water with salt before adding it to the tank. This will keep the salt level stable in the tank and minimise stress on the fish.

 

[moldy banana]

Thank you very much for the detailed reply, I'll do that. Is there a particular aquarium salt product that's the best or will any work?

 

[Colin_T]

Sodium Chloride, (aka rock salt, swimming pool salt or aquarium salt). It's all the same thing but rock salt and pool salt is usually cheaper than aquarium salt.

Do not use table salt because it has iodine and anti-caking agents in that can cause problems to some fish.

 

[moldy banana]

Got it, thanks again