I blame the manufacturer

[Yuji]

A week ago one of my fish was suffering from finrot so I got something to treat it. one of the guidelines wentioned on the bottle was to 'Remove carbon and zeolite filter media from the aquarium'. So I naturally obliged. yesterday I've noticed that my fish (including my catfish) having been spending all of their time going to to surface to (what looks like) breath. I've done a nitrite and ammonia test and the results couldn't be better. I've also done a water change. I forgot to mention the SMELL. I can't describe it otherthan its chemical. Since then I've put back my carbon and zeolite filters earlier than the bottle said. I think if I leave it like this for another day all the fish will die. Any ideas PLEASE.

 

[Cian McLiam]

What are you using to treat the finrot? Is it melafix or an antibiotic or some brand name stuff?
Melafix smells like eucalyptus (spelling?), most other treatments have very little detectable smell when dosed correctly in the aquarium (though they may stink in the bottle).
Fish gasp when there is little dissolved oxygen in the water or something has damaged the gills or toxins are preventing the fish from respiring properly. I would do 20% water changes for 4 days then 10% daily when the smell is gone, this will help the finrot a huge amount also.

Ken

 

[Yuji]

I'm using a brand called 'Interpet'. And it sure don't smell like eucalyptus. I just know I won't be using that brand again (I can smell it even without my tank cover shut!). Will take advice though. Thanks

 

[Cian McLiam]

I have used loads of interpet stuff in the past, do you have the name of the product? I have lost faith in most tank treatments and in my own ability to diagnose diseases to the extent that I can confidently pour in the chemicals.
Prevention is the only way to go.
Interpet do have some good treatments though and Ive never had problems. Finrot is caused primarily by water quality and free floating bacteria in the water, water changes are the best way to rectify the situation and a little melafix to speed things up is a good choice. I would only use half dose though.

Good Luck,

Ken

 

[Cheese Specialist]

I'm using a brand called 'Interpet'. And it sure don't smell like eucalyptus. I just know I won't be using that brand again (I can smell it even without my tank cover shut!). Will take advice though. Thanks

Hey,

That's weird, I've just used Interpet No8 Anti Fungus and Finrot. It smells minging in the bottle but I just went and sniffed my tank (!) and it just smells pondy as usual. Is it the same stuff? Could you have overdosed? I put 35ml in for my 35g tank only yesterday.

 

[millym]

hi there,
i had a nasty experience with that stuff - the ingredient of interpret fin & tail rot med No 8 i think it is, is also used or used to be used, in larger doses to anaesthetise fish (phenoxyethanol or something like it is its actual ingredient) & we ended up by mistake anaethetising & zonking out our tiger/green barbs for 4 days!!!! Yep they snooozed for 4 days - we thought they were dying till i looked up on the net the actual ingredient & all became clear. apparently theres a vv fine line with treatment & killing with that stuff so if i was you id do a water change & be v careful with it. when we realised what we'd done we did several small water changes over a couple of days & im sure thats what saved our fishies( they recovered & have been fine for 4 months now) the funny thing was that NONE of our other fish were affected at all,just the barbs. some sort of warning on the med packet would have been nice ie: that it can KILL your fish if youre not careful. now i know its was extremely extremely dumb of us to overdose the tank ( bad calcs) but if we'd known how toxic the stuff could be we would have taken more care (as we do now with ALL fishie meds- lesson well learnt )
if its not too late increase the aeration/o2 in your tank as much as poss (with the airstones or if you have an internal filter i think it helps if you can direct the current so the top of the water is stirred up- this will help you fishies ( please moderators correct me if ive got this bit wrong )

 

[RobertK]

I used No8 6 days go to treat fungus, woke up this morning and 3 female tiger barbs are dead and the rest of the fish are at the surface gasping. Could this be the same thing.


Robert

 

[petshop johnny]

You should always have a 5 gallon hospital tank .when using fish meds .no gravel just a hiding space and an airstone sponge filter and aheater also note that temperture greatly affects meds always raise the temperture to a about 80°F or above.fin rot is very difficult .i have a book that recommends removing the fish quickly as possible and swabbing iodine unto his rotting fins,never tried it.its usually a water quality problem.

 

[phishphood]

I had a problem with that stuff too , my water went cloudy, one of my silvertip tetras died and all my fish were gasping at the surface. I added another airline and some oxygenating tablets and its cleared up now. Also one of my plants started rotting on some of its leaves, they like turned to green mush and eroded away, not sure if that had something to do with it.

 

[RobertK]

You should always have a 5 gallon hospital tank .when using fish meds .no gravel just a hiding space and an airstone sponge filter and aheater also note that temperture greatly affects meds always raise the temperture to a about 80°F or above.fin rot is very difficult .i have a book that recommends removing the fish quickly as possible and swabbing iodine unto his rotting fins,never tried it.its usually a water quality problem.

I agree a hospital tank is the ideal thing to have.
But what do you do when you have a heavily planted tank with many hiding places, catching one fish could result in you ripping all your plants out, and the risk they may never recover and die, also you have the added stress of removing a fish from its shoal mates and isolating it on its own.
Not every one has the space or the funds to keep a hospital tank set up on the chance that a fish may need treatment, OK I know strictly speaking you should have a hospital tank that can be used for quarentining all new purchases, but how many people can do that.
I believe problems like fungus are always present in your tank no matter how good your water quality, all it takes for an outbreak is for one fish to become weak through injury or what ever and you have an out break of a disease.
The point is these treatments you buy should be safe to use in any fish tank if you follow the instructions to the letter, and if they're not then they shouldn't be on sale.
In my case 3 Platys for no reason suddenly developed fungus patchs on there fins and backs, I did a 25% water change, removed the carbon from the filter and dosed the tank at the stated rate, I know to the litre what my tanks capacity is because I noted how much it took to fill it with all the rocks etc in, many people assume there tanks hold more and don't account for water displacement from rocks.
3 days later 3 tiger barbs and 1 rummy nose died over night and the rest of the fish were stressed and gasping at the surface, I changed 30% of the water and thankfully the fish recovered, I shall do 10% water changes daily over the next week and never use that mediacation again.

Robert

 

[millym]

i forgot to say in my last post the green tiger who had the raggedy sad fin( & i mean very raggedy & very very sad looking top fin) that we put the stuff in the tank to cure in the first place actually has done really well within a few days of their deep sleeeeeep his fin was like new - really healthy looking & looks like all our other greenies and now has an orange stripe on the top which he never had before.so i guess the stuff (No 8 interpet )did actually work.although he had a mega dose!!!!!!! i guess we were very lucky. i looking back the poor things were quite funny,( but my partner & i were like anxious parents at a hospital) for 2 days they didnt move at all just parked in leaves with their noses down, on the third day they moved very slowly for a nanosecond & then resumed the sleeeping position, on the fourth they were more like their normal selves but just a bit like me with a hangover - slow & careful on the 5th they were back to being naughty greedy ( very hungry) barbs. but we would have been devistated if we'd killed them by our carelessness.

 

[david27]

As ken said meds are difficult to choose and can frequently have serious drawbacks.
I always use melafix for fungus and injuries its natural and hard to overdose, plus it smells good.
I usally add a bit when i've done a water change just to stop any scrapes that fish get turning bad.

David