Omigod No!

[LauraFrog]

I don't believe it. The finrot is back after all this time!!!

5 gal nano, 3 platies. Been running for over a year, cycled. I live in a small country town in Australia and my parents have banned internet banking (I'm not even 14 yet.) So no test kits... I can't give you the ammonia, nitrite or nitrate readings. Believe me it's enough to make my blood run cold not having them now.

A few months ago I got finrot through it, introduced accidentally on a new fish (I shuffle fish between my tanks all the time). There were two fish infected, one was a lot worse than the other. I treated both with seawater dips twice a day. One died, the other recovered fully. Both were platies.

Now, months later, my best platy has it and I'm terrified. I caught it very early. When I bought her, months ago, she had a tiny nick out of the bottom of her tail, probably a bite from another fish. It grew back but the bottom rays have always been thicker than the rest of her tail. Now they are white and fraying, the same disease that killed my fish before. My tank was due for its water change anyway but I took extra, 40% (I usually take 25-30% weekly). I treated with eco-start, which is a freezedried nitrifying bacteria preparation. It doesn't claim to be instant cycling, but it does seem to help, I've had good results with it. I use it every week - I double dosed.

I have a 5 gal hospital tank I can set up if she needs to be isolated. I can't get into town for a few days at least, but when I do I can get melafix, tetracycline and acriflavine, and generic rubbish antifungal meds (which I know from experience don't work). I can get a photo of what's wrong with the fish if it will help. It's only on her tail fin.

Please, please help me! I'll die if she does, seriously. That fish is an old friend. She swims into my hand when I put it in the tank. Should I start doing seawater dips? I'm always apprehensive about such a stressful treatment but I have had good results. If I get a pic can you tell me if it's fungal or bacterial?

 

[3ndl3r]

ye get the pic up it may help. unfortunately i have never had any experience with finrot. but i believe lots of water changes do the trick.

 

[WILDER]

Need water stats to be honest most finrot problems are due to bad water quality.
How often are you preforming water changes.
5 gallons is not a lot for three livebearers, they are active fish and need more space.

 

[Colin_T]

You can add some salt (seawater) to the tank with the fish in. It will do the same thing as salt baths except the salt remains in the tank for a couple of weeks and kills the problem in the tank. Then when the fish are better you start doing small (10%) partial water changes to dilute the salt out.

As mentioned by Wilder finrot is generally brought about by poor water quality. Make sure you do regular water changes and gravel cleans to limit the amount of gunk in the tank.

It isn't normally necessary to add bacterial supplement to an established tank. Once the filters have developed they should remain healthy and viable as long as they don't get killed by washing under tap water, or medicated, or left without food.
If you have a filter with sponge in it you simply squeeze the sponge out in a bucket of tank water. When it is clean you put the sponge back in the tank and tip the dirty water out. Wash the filter casing and motor out under tap water and then reassemble the unit. If you wash the filter materials out under tap water you will kill the beneficial bacteria and cause your tank to cycle again.
Antibiotics like Tetracycline will also kill the filter bacteria and cause ammonia and nitrite levels to rise (cycle).
If there are no fish in the tank for a week or so the bacteria die from starvation but the dormant spores will quickly hatch when there are fish placed back in the tank. This causes a mini cycle where you get low levels of ammonia and nitrite for a few days.

Bacterial infections are usually red inflammed areas.
Fungal infections have white fluffy growths coming off the fish.
Quite often you get a bacterial infection and then fungus gets into the open wound.

Fish have a mucous covering over their body and when stressed they produce more mucous giving them a milky white sheen to their bodies. It is most prominent on the fins but can also cause the eyes to go cloudy and the body to look opaque.

 

[Juice]

Dunno what meds you get over there but I just picked up some melafix to treat one of my oldest fish who seems to be having ripped fins (fish is 5 years old)

 

[hollyp0p]

Dunno what meds you get over there but I just picked up some melafix to treat one of my oldest fish who seems to be having ripped fins (fish is 5 years old)

melafix won't cure finrot....you need an anti bacterial med

 

[LauraFrog]

I can get melafix, but I was told the last time I had this happen that it wouldn't work.

I know 5 gals is pretty small. It was my starter tank and before i realised that I had way too many fish to keep in such a little tank I had seven platies and a bristlenose in there. It ran on that load for over two months with no deaths and no sick fish and most of the fish that were in there are still alive in one of my larger tanks. I kept the 5 gal so I could have fish in my room because it's the biggest tank I can fit on a chipboard desk. All of my other fish are in semi-opaque plastic containers outside.

I took another look at the fish and she is about the same, no better no worse. I was wrong about 'only on the tail'. It's on the two fins on the underside that are not the anal fin and look the same in males and females, I forgot the name for them sorry. It's not as bad there, just a rip on one which isn't infected and a tiny white spot on the edge of the other (not ich, I know how to recognise/treat that). There is no sign of illness with the other two, and Stryker is eating (whatever I put in the tank, with gusto, and she was trying to eat fish poo before - eeew!) and active and looking fine apart from the tiny bit of damage.

I'll get pics up this arvo.

 

[WILDER]

Can you describe the spot on the fins, does it have any red tinging.

 

[LauraFrog]

The finrot is confined to the lower edge of the caudal fin (not on the other fins, I checked and they're just rips, not rot.) It's only about three millimetre or so in from the edge of the tail and along the edge that's rotting it's white. There's no sign of any red. It's white and slightly fuzzy but it's not like cotton wool or anything. Little bits of it slough off. It's identical to something I cured with salt earlier in the year - I had two fish with it, one died and one recovered. Both were much further progressed when I caught them.

This has gotten worse during the day but not by much. Should I stick it out until tomorrow and see if the LFS has anything or start salt treatment? They won't try and fob me off with something that wouldn't work just to sell it, they really aren't like that. I sit around and hear the horror stories and I'm so thankful I landed the honest lot.