Flame Hawk going white...

[ja-c]

Hi there,
WEll I am new to the this board but not to a salt water tank. I have my tank for over 4 years now... lost a few fish in the begining learning how to's and so forth.
Now I hav ea new problem and I haven't had any for over a year now.
My flame Hawk has some white stuff that is dangling from his dorsal fin. Looks like some algea stype stuff but it's white. It's right below the fin in the middle of his body, it started only on one side and now it's on both sides of his body. The dorsal fin just at that spot is down.. the rest is all up. As well he has lost his color and is turning more pinkish then red cause of the stress.
I have done a 10% water change to the tank and added MelaFix. I am on day 3 now and it' s not getting any better. He is eating but only the food that falls to the ground he isn't swimming up to the top like he would normaly do as well he hides for the most of the day.
No other fish have any symptoms. They are all eating fine and no one is picking on him either.
Please help.
Thanks

 

[beth]

Can you remove the fish to a separate tank [hosptial] so that you can treat it with antibiotics?
Is the fin injured in any way, ie: harassment?

 

[ja-c]

The fin isn't damaged at all. He was nor ever was harrased by anyone, he was mostly doing a little himself when chasing for food but that was it.
Now I dunno if it's parasetic or not, looks more like a fungus to me... It's not getting worst now, but it's not getting better either.
The hardest part of this will be to catch him and not stress him out more then he already is. For the formalin dip, I will doa search on here but if I can't find anything would someone mind posting a link if they find something on this subject.
Thanks
Jc

 

[beth]

Do you have a hospital tank? I would suggest placing the fish in a separate hospital tank. If you do the formalin, it will be much better to get the fish in an accessible hospital tank than chase it around your main tank. Formalin dips will require 3-5 baths over the next wk. Also, I would recommend a combo treatment here. The formalin bath along with antibiotics.
Have you added any new fish lately? How long have you had this fish? Give us all of your water readings.