Newbie With Sick Fish - Please Help!

[greenpea]

Hi,

I am a newbie to tropical fish keeping so would appreciate any advice that you can give. Just came home to find one of my two platy's has white growth/spots/decay on the end of his right pectoral fin. There are no spots on the rest of him but it looks like the fin has eroded slightly. The other platy seems fine. Both are eating and seem to be acting normally.
I don't have a water testing kit and am planning on taking my water to a fish shop to have it tested tomorrow but as the shop is shut now I'm hoping you can advise me what to do in the meantime.

The tank is a 15 litre biorb with the accompanying filter, air stone, filter media, ceramic media, plants, grass ring and heater. Tank's current temperature is 27 degrees. I set it up 12 days ago and let it cycle for a week with Stress Coat and Stress Zyme added. Five days ago I bought two platys, they were fine until today. I was advised to give them a week in the water and then do a partial change, which would have happened Weds eve - should I change it now?

I'm sorry there is no photo attached, I've tried but both fish swim fast away as soon as I approach the tank and the biorb's shape makes it hard to get an accurate idea of size. It seems to stress them being chased by a camera so I've stopped trying.

Any advice gratefully received,

Thank you,

Esther

 

[AshP1986]

Your best bet would be to go ahead and do a 50% water change now as it could be ammonia.

Doing a water change will not harm the fish as long as you have the water to the same temp as the tank and it is de-chlorinated BEFORE adding it to the tank. If you can try to siphon off the old water from the bottom to pick up fish waste.

But definitely still get your water checked tomorrow and consider buying a liquid test kit that contains test for ph, ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate.

 

[Riddling.kill@gmail.com]

Hi sounds like your fish has some skin damage fungus (Cotten wool like growths) I would do a 50% water change to try and get rid of the infection make sure you siphon your gravel as this is where many infections hide and grow.then tomorrow I would go down to your lfs and get some anti fungus and finrot medicine and treat your fish with this.i would treat your whole tank with the medicine as I say the infection has spread right through the tank.

After you do this you want to get down to the source of the problem so you can prevent it from happening again I would say bad water conditions. Your tank is very small so you would need to me doing a 20% water change twice a week to prevent brakeouts like this one.also maybe take into consideration to get another filter the more the better
Hope this works for you and your fish get better!!

 

[gforce17]

Do you think your tank was cycled properly? A week isn't very long and, as others have said, you need the test kits to ensure ammonia, nitrite etc are at safe levels.

 

[Rummynose]

When you "cycled" your tank did you add any ammonia to your tank, to feed the bacteria?

I also highly doubt that your tank is cycled, and therefor the ammonia which your fish excreted once you added them to your tank was building up and causing your fish to get sick.

I would suggest doing a 50 % water change right away, and another this evening. Then daily water changes of 50 % until you have a liquid test kit that will show you how much ammonia is in your tank. This will then decide how much water you should change until your tank is properly cycled.

What you are doing now is called a fish-in cycle. You may want to research that. You will have to keep the Ammonia level as close to 0 as you can, and never let it go over .25!!!! Even at .25 prolongued exposure can lead to ammonia poisoning, where your fish's organs become damaged, sometimes so bad that they die!

You also want to check NitrIte and NitrAte. Once you have no more readings of Ammonia and Nitrite, and readings of Nitrate, then your tank is cycled.

You can add medications to your tank, but clean fresh water will take care of the fin rot just as well. Medications could effect your cycling process!

 

[stevehammer]

are the spots white?and almost transperant?