Knowing the early symptoms of nail fungus can save you a lot of frustration down the road.
It will take you less time to treat you condition and you will not be spending you summer wearing socks and sneakers instead of sandals.
Some of the early symptoms for nail fungus include:

• Change of color - your nail becomes yellow, green, or a dark shade.
  It is not clear anymore.
  Either your whole nail has changed color, or there is a colored patch somewhere on it.
  
• You may feel a discomfort.
  
• Horizontal lines may appear on your nail.
  

If you take good care of your feet and hands, noticing these symptoms will not be a problem for you.
If they are left untreated the nail fungus will spread and the later symptoms are:

• The consistency of your nail will be very hard.
  
• Your nail will look as if it has been through a cheese grinder.
  
• There will be a noticeable bad odor
• In some cases you can even lose your nail.
  

How does the fungus actually attack your nails? It gets between your toe and you toenail.
Then it starts working its way down to the base of your nail.
Because the fungus is actually between your nail and your toe, it disconnects them.
Most of the time, you will not feel pain during this process.
You will, however, feel discomfort when you are walking or participating in sports (with closed toe shoes).
So, if you watch out for the early symptoms of nail fungus and you act immediately when you notice that something is wrong, or you treat your nails regularly as a way of prevention, you should not have too much trouble getting rid of the fungi.