FIn rot- Return or Treat?

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return? or Treat?


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Sgooosh

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Hello, i got some new fish, and after quarantine, saw that fin rot did not go away.
the two others are fine, but the big male guppy has fin rot on his fins, acts normally, and two white dots on his tail near his body my bad it was just weird scales reflecting at a weird angle
ill post a photo if i can get one. Those Pearl Gouramis are WAY too nosy

should i return him while i can? or try to treat?
also is it possible just to treat with Clean Water?
 
You bought fish that already had fin rot?
 
Ah, I see....fresh clean water, see if it improves, up your WC schedule and amount changed...I wouldn't use meds, just yet
k, i just did a semi-top up + water change

i saw another one has minor fin rot, hes been in the tank for a week, (this was my fault) i think i accidentally left rotten material in the tank for too long (plants, algae)
 
k, i just did a semi-top up + water change

i saw another one has minor fin rot, hes been in the tank for a week, (this was my fault) i think i accidentally left rotten material in the tank for too long (plants, algae)
Gah, gotta keep that stuff cleaned up...algae doesn't hurt, but dead plants can release ammonia, if there's enough of them
 
Gah, gotta keep that stuff cleaned up...algae doesn't hurt, but dead plants can release ammonia, if there's enough of them
yeah, one dead amazon sword leaf can cause a lot of trouble, or dead rot stuck on the filter

some plants are starting to meltbecause the vals have taken over the top too... i gave the vals a haircut
 
If one fish in quarantine is sick, nobody leaves that tank until everyone is perfectly healthy. If the guppies have a drug resistant bacteria eating their fins, the other "healthy looking fish" could transfer it into the main display tank.

Pictures and video?

Have you tried salt on the guppies?

If you treat them with salt for 2 weeks and there's no improvement, and the water is clean (0 ammonia, 0 nitrite, less than 20ppm nitrate), then return them and disinfect the tank.


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SALT
Using Salt to Treat Fish Health Issues.

For some fish diseases you can use salt (sodium chloride) to treat the ailment rather than using a chemical based medication. Salt is relatively safe and is regularly used in the aquaculture industry to treat food fish for diseases. Salt has been successfully used to treat minor fungal and bacterial infections, as well as a number of external protozoan infections. Salt alone will not treat whitespot (Ichthyophthirius) or Velvet (Oodinium) but will treat most other types of protozoan infections in freshwater fishes.

You can add rock salt (often sold as aquarium salt) or swimming pool salt to the aquarium at the dose rate of 1 heaped tablespoon per 20 litres of water. If there is no improvement after 48 hours you can double that dose rate so there is 2 heaped tablespoons of salt per 20 litres.

If you only have livebearers (guppies, platies, swordtails, mollies), goldfish or rainbowfish in the tank you can double that dose rate, so you would add 2 heaped tablespoons per 20 litres and if there is no improvement after 48 hours, then increase it so there is a total of 4 heaped tablespoons of salt per 20 litres.

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 but the higher dose rate (4 heaped tablespoons per 20 litres) will affect some plants and some snails. The lower dose rate (1-2 heaped tablespoons per 20 litres) will not affect 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.

If 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.

When you first add salt, add the salt to a small bucket of tank water and dissolve the salt. Then slowly pour the salt water into the tank near the filter outlet. Add the salt over a couple of minutes.
 
When you buy fish, they must be in perfect condition, not only that every other fish in the tank must be in perfect condition. When I walk into a LFS I can eliminate about 60% of the tanks in about 10 minutes, by the time I'm ready to purchase fish there will usually be only one or two tanks that I would consider buying fish from.
 
For the future - think about the amount of grief/stress and time this problem is causing you. Hold that up against the time it would have taken to examine each fish carefully. Even a hint of fin rot should have made you walk away from the sales tank. Fin rot on more than one species in the store means you need to leave the store empty handed.

You can always go back in a few days to see if they've cured the problem.

If you miss out on the fish as a result of careful examination of the tanks, well, you miss out on a lot of hassle and loss of money. Only the patient fisher catches nice fish. The impatient one catches fin rot.

If you bought them yesterday, you have a few weeks before you can say "after quarantine".
 
When you buy fish, they must be in perfect condition, not only that every other fish in the tank must be in perfect condition. When I walk into a LFS I can eliminate about 60% of the tanks in about 10 minutes, by the time I'm ready to purchase fish there will usually be only one or two tanks that I would consider buying fish from.
For the future - think about the amount of grief/stress and time this problem is causing you. Hold that up against the time it would have taken to examine each fish carefully. Even a hint of fin rot should have made you walk away from the sales tank. Fin rot on more than one species in the store means you need to leave the store empty handed.

You can always go back in a few days to see if they've cured the problem.

If you miss out on the fish as a result of careful examination of the tanks, well, you miss out on a lot of hassle and loss of money. Only the patient fisher catches nice fish. The impatient one catches fin rot.

If you bought them yesterday, you have a few weeks before you can say "after quarantine".
yeah that tank was SUper low light...
nope a week quarantined


after a day of clean water mini-changes, they are looking a LOT better...
 
Ragged fins and fin rot are different things. A bite here and there heals fast with clean water. I still wouldn't buy a fish with raggedy edges, and a shop with low light just screams for me to pull out my phone and shine a light on the situation.

The biggest change I've seen in the education side of the hobby is that everyone reads test kits and no one reads disease handbooks. Once upon a time, we studied diseases to avoid them (like the plague). Now we buy sight unseen (an act of incredible trust if we don't know the seller) and often can't spot basic diseases on fish. I find for diseases, books are easier to use than my phone, as image size matters. But you can find disease pictures online too. It can take less than an hour to educate yourself in the obvious problems. Internal problems, no. That's often luck. But making yourself familiar with the things you don't want to see will at the very least make you question when you see potential problems. If you think you may be seeing problem A, then pull out the phone and check it.
 
Ragged fins and fin rot are different things. A bite here and there heals fast with clean water. I still wouldn't buy a fish with raggedy edges, and a shop with low light just screams for me to pull out my phone and shine a light on the situation.

The biggest change I've seen in the education side of the hobby is that everyone reads test kits and no one reads disease handbooks. Once upon a time, we studied diseases to avoid them (like the plague). Now we buy sight unseen (an act of incredible trust if we don't know the seller) and often can't spot basic diseases on fish. I find for diseases, books are easier to use than my phone, as image size matters. But you can find disease pictures online too. It can take less than an hour to educate yourself in the obvious problems. Internal problems, no. That's often luck. But making yourself familiar with the things you don't want to see will at the very least make you question when you see potential problems. If you think you may be seeing problem A, then pull out the phone and check it.
yes i should have used my phone. ill remember to bring it next time.
ill keep up the daily mini changes, if it does not improve, i will use salt
 

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