Fin Rot In The Pet Store

[OpalHeart]

Hi all! First let me say that this site has saved me SOOOO much heartache. Thanks to the advice and posts I have 23 healthy adult fish and as of 5 days ago, nine baby guppies! (I should buy stock in Melafix) Many thanks to all that post!

I have fallen in love with ballon mollies. After searching every pet store in the area I finally found one close to home that has black ones. I have all the other colors. Unfortunately, when I got to the store and tried to pick out which female I wanted, those poor mollies had fin rot. I couldnt even determine the sex on most of them because the anal fins were gone.

As I was on my lunch break and couldn't find someone to help me, I called the store when I got back to work and informed them. The store owner said that she had recently got them in and they didn't look so healthy to begin with. She claimed she would get more in next week.

The next day I called again and she said she put medicine in the tank. She claimed the fish would be healthy by next week about the time the new ones came in.

My question is, is it safe to buy them? I really don't want to introduce fin rot to my tank. The last batch of guppies I bought brought cotton mouth with them but fortunately none of my original fish were lost, just 4 of the 5 guppies. (I should have known better than to get 5 for 5 bucks). I understand fin rot can come back again and again. This is a locally owned store rather than a chain. Would anyone reading this, who wanted fish, buy them knowing they had been recently treated for finrot?

 

[*Fishkies*]

You could purchase the fish and quarintine them and treat them for fin rot in the quarintine tank.

Fin Rot is a bacterial problem and can also be brought on by extreme stress and the fish becomes weak so the bacteria in the tank can attack.

(But who really wants to spend their good money wanting a good fish, only to bring it home and have to treat a sick fish with the chances of it getting worse or dying then having to go back and get another one.)

I would try to wait till the new batch gets in. Get one of the newer fish, still quarintine her for a little, just to be sure that there is nothing wrong.


Good Luck!

 

[shang hi]

its never worth the risk introducing a fish that you know has been ill once before. before i buy anyfish i make sure that all the fish in the tank are healthy, none are dead, no signs of illness, eating and pooing properly and that the are acting normaly. then the next day i come back and so the same, if they are still the same then i go ahead and get some.
if you ask, the shop can't legaly lie to you and say that no fish in that tank have fallen ill and died if some have. but its always worth quarinteening new fish as your dont want your current fish to fall ill because of one.

 

[OpalHeart]

Just to update, I went back to that locally owned pet store one week later and there were no black balloon mollies to be found. The tank that had them only had silver and sunburst balloon mollies and only 6 total.

I wish I had told her that if she decided against treating them, then let me have them and I'd put them in a hospital tank. I dont have another tank but I would have purchased one on the chance that they could have been saved. Oh well.

Maybe the medicine that I was told was put in, did not work well. Maybe someone came in and bought all the sick fish in that tank and only left 6 healthy ones. Maybe the 6 heathy ones were from her new shipment that day. Who knows? The shop owner was not there and the guy who was had no idea where they were.

I went to Petsmart today and they had ONE little female black balloon molly left. I bought her and then got the last two black spot cories there as well.

Thank you for the advice. I'm really glad I did not spend $3.99 each on sick fish.

50 Gallon retangle
4 Blood Tip Tetras
2 Black Mollies - males
5 Balloon Mollies female (Sunburst,Silver,Black,2 Dalmation)
4 Guppies (with 9 new frye!)
3 Platies- females
4 Glowfish - Zebra Fish
2 Bronze Cories & 2 Black-Spot Cories
2 Mystery Frye