Guppy With Split Tail.....

[Mr Bee]

I fed them at ~8.30 tonight and I'm sure they all looked fine, but as I was having a looking at them at about 9.30, I noticed one had a split in his tail.

Its not ragged or red, just has a clean split in it; other 2 are fine.

I have 3 male guppies, and 7 neon tetras. Done a search on here, and it seems its quite common, but some posts hint at neons nipping tails of guppies.
Now, when I looked at what fish I could put with the neons (had them first), the internet, the lfs, and this forum all said guppies were ok tank companions for neons, as neither were fin nippers!...


Anyway, I've not tested water tonight, but I have this morning, and ammonia was zero, but nitrate is around 40 - 80 (not much difference on colour chart to be more precise!). I have had high nitrate, so have been doing regular water changes, and have some nitra-zorb in to help with it.

Can this be causing it?
Shall I do daily 20% water changes (or 10%)?

I've read Melafix is a good treatment, is it worth getting some of this? - if so, should I remove nitra-zorb, and carbon?

But carbon is built into my physical filter media (Tetra filterpack cartridges), will melafix still work with carbon in?

Will this heal over time, as long as ammonia/nitrite/nitrate are all kept down?

 

[WILDER]

Split fins are normal with guppys they tend to mend on there own in good water quality.
Your nitrate reading not bad it's above 50 when you need to be lowing it with water changes.
Whats your tap nitrate reading.

 

[Mr Bee]

My tap nitrate, according to the colour chart in the kit, looks as though its a little over 20ppm.

The tank nitrate was way over 80 last week, which is why I've been doing more regular changes than normal, and I added the nitra-zorb to try to get the level down as quickly as I could.

I've just done another 25% change this morning, but I'm off to work soon, and I read its best to leave it a good hour before doing a test, so won't get chance to test it until I come home tonight.