Finrot (i Think)

[Gypsy5]

Hi peeps, wonder if anyone has any advice for me?

I have a black mollie that has a chunk of it's tail missing. I had another one last week with the same thing and, after quarantining it, I could see that every time I checked on it it's tail had got shorter and shorter, right down to the stump. This one today has the chunk missing and it appears to have white edges on the hole. The fish is feeding normally and swimming normally.

After trawling through this site and the many posts on the topic, last week I treated the tank with Interpet's Anti-internal Bacteria med but maybe I was too late but it didn't work and the fishy died. I don't think this is the right med to use this time either really as I have gone through two cycles of the Interpet AIB meds in the last couple of weeks for another problem that I had with another fish in the tank that this poorly one is in. Despite already using it this fish has become poorly. I have been reading about Waterlife's Myxazin. Is it worth a try?

Incidentally, my readings are pH 7.0, Am 0, Ni 0, Na 5. I also want to say that I know it may look like I have alot of problems but I have about 600-700 fish (most of them babies!!!!), 6 fish tanks (1 x 6ft, 2 x 3ft and three smaller ones) and this 3ft tank is what I call my convalescing tank, the one where those that need a slightly salted environment or struggle in my 6ft tank (the pH is quite low in there) go. All my other tanks have no problems at all.

Thanks for reading, hope it all made sense.

 

[LauraFrog]

If the edges are white it sounds like classic bacterial finrot. This is often caused by flexibacter columnaris. Columnaris infection is usually caused by stress, but at the moment I'm fighting a strain that's killed 4 of my bettas so far and kills healthy fish in less than 18 hours.

Columnaris shows other symptoms as well. Are there any white or fuzzy patches on the fish's body? If so it's a definite columnaris, treat with tetracycline or whatever other strong antibiotics you can get your hands on. If not, I'd up it with antibiotics as well. You have to start treating early.

If you can't get them, or even if you can I tell you what I'd do, especially since it's a molly. The last time I had this problem, I saved a fish using salt dips. She was a platy and quite able to tolerate salt. Mix up a bucket full of seawater and run some airstones in it. Put her in it for half an hour out of every eight hours. I seriously cured a fish of bacterial finrot in a week using seawater dips and a small amount of salt in the water she was in the rest of the time. A molly is more than capable of tolerating this level of salt. Do not just switch her between salty and fresh water. Use a bag and spend about five minutes getting her used to the salt, and then used to the fresh water again, each time you switch her over. This is very stressful and she will lose a bit of condition, but I managed to fix a fish with nothing but salt.

 

[Gypsy5]

Thanks for the reply, Laura. Not sure what tetracycline is so don't know what equivalent thing we would have in the UK. I thought about the salt bath but feel that I would also probably need to treat the whole tank as there must be something going around in there.