Fish diseases
Antibiotic News Update
We now carry a much stronger antiobiotic called "Kanamycin". It is much stronger than erythromycin and should be mixed with food only and not just put in your tank. A white slime coating on your fish is a gram negative infection that can be killed by kanamycin.
Bacterial
When secondary infections occur because of copper treatments, the most common are bacterial. Open sores, often bloody in appearance, are what you should look for. Sometimes the infection progresses so quickly, your fish is dead in a couple days. As long as your fish is eating you have a chance. Treat with erythromycin by adding 200 mg / 50 gallons to the tank and mixing powdered antibiotic with their food. Some algae eaters can be treated by soaking Nori or seaweed in a very concentrated solution, letting it dry and then feeding it to the fish.
"Internal treatments" are much more effective that putting antibiotics directly in the tank. Use the internal treatment for reef tanks. Small doses of erythromycin are harmless to corals. This is the same dosage we use to eliminate red "slime algae" in reef tanks.
Bubble Eye
Another form of a bacterial infection is called bubble eye where the eye (seldom both eyes at the same time) protrudes excessively. Left untreated, the fish will certainly lose the eye and may die. Treated quickly as described above, the infection clears with no known adverse effects.
Luckily, bacterial infections do not appear contagious.