Fin rot

[Elisabeth83]

Awhile back I posted about one of my male guppies having fin rot and how I kept treating him with Myxazin, salt, salt baths yet his tail just remained shredded. On my last post it was thought that maybe it was permanant damage and the tail would never grow back. I moved him into my 26 gallon where I had 1 female guppy. Things seemed ok but then I noticed her tail was missing 2 little chunks so I thought ut-oh now she's got it so I took both of them out and put them together in a breeding net inside my betta tank as I was treating that tank with Waterlife Myxazin for a bacterial infection and Myxazin is also supposed to work for fin rot.

Anyways I woke up one morning to find the male guppy hiding under a leaf I stuck in there and he was terrified then as I looked closer his tail was ripped to shreds and so was the females tail. I guess they fought So now their tails are even worse. I just don't know what to do anymore....I'm so tired of thinking about them and dealing with them. I moved them out of my betta tank because I was done treating the bettas and I didn't want the bettas to get fin rot. They are in my fry tank right now..the fry are too big for them to eat and theres only about 10 in there right now. Still I don't want the fry to get fin rot either I just added some aquarium salt to the tank hoping that might help...even though it hasn't in the past

What to do

edit: I just wanted to add I am sure the female has fin rot because there is black edging on her tail. Also these are the only 2 fish that have this problem. It hasn't spread.

 

[sylvia]

Fin rot is not usualy difficult to cure with a mild anti-bacterial med. Clean water is the most important thing though - I have had fish recover fully without any treatment other than some extra water changes. If the problem is realy as persistant as you say, do try some anti-'fungus'/finrot meds.

 

[Bignose]

Fin rot should only be a persistant problem if the fish's immune system is compromised -- from poor water quality or sick from some other problem, such as overcrowding. Otherwise, it is persistant because the other fish are clearly nipping it too much. About the only 100% sure thing is to complelely isolate the nipped fish for some time. The problem is that the opaqued fin wriggling aorund in the water looks an awful lot like food. I have to isolate one of my tiger barbs every once in a while; b/c once one of the fish gets it, the other tigers will keep picking at it til I remove the affected fish. I used to move them to the 5 gal quaratine tank, but nowadays I just pop them into the menagerie community til their tail is 100% again.

Of course, I have been thinking that they are using the community tank as their personal vacation home ... ("you know what, this place is just too cramped, and all I have to do it get a little tail rot and then I'll be moved to the big tank")

In the community tank, I never have to add meds, just the relief from being picked on gives the fish time to heal.

Most of the anti-bacterial meds are just bacteriastats -- they just hamper the growth of the bacteria, not directly kill off bacteria -- their main purpose is to allow the fish's own immune responces a leg up on handling the problem. So, if it is really stubborn, look to water quality or outside issues. Persistant, stubborn fin rot is normally indicative of a much larger problem that needs to be addressed.

 

[Dubby]

Have you tried Melafix. That has helped my fish a lot to recover from damaged fins.