Rotting Side Fin On My Sunset Platy :(

[itonlyrains]

Hi, for the last two days I noticed that one side fin is rotting on my Sunset Platy. First it was missing a little a bit and I thought it might have been fin nipping or other injury but it looks like its widening and edges look like fine white mesh. I can't make a good picture of it as the fin is constantly moving, but I tried to explain same thing with a sample picture in emergency forum here but no one replied

What can it be? I'm all set to go and buy all the medication I would need but don't have any idea of what that could be apart from fungus or something. Shall I get pimafix/melafix and try it?

 

[fishkeeper694]

Hi, for the last two days I noticed that one side fin is rotting on my Sunset Platy. First it was missing a little a bit and I thought it might have been fin nipping or other injury but it looks like its widening and edges look like fine white mesh. I can't make a good picture of it as the fin is constantly moving, but I tried to explain same thing with a sample picture in emergency forum here but no one replied

What can it be? I'm all set to go and buy all the medication I would need but don't have any idea of what that could be apart from fungus or something. Shall I get pimafix/melafix and try it?

It could be fin rot x there are plenty of medicines out there which can help to cure this disease

 

[Dieses Madchen]

Def. sounds like fin rot. Get some medication for finrot asap. As its just a fin at the moment, it should be pretty easy to treat. If it continues to spread, it could really hurt the fish.

 

[itonlyrains]

Melafix it is then. I wonder if I should dose Pimafix as well just in case? The only change recently was large piece of bogwood I've put in the tank, I wonder if some stuff came with it...

 

[itonlyrains]

So a bit of update then - 3 days of dosing both Melafix and Pimafix and although the fin does seem recovering a bit, white spots on the tail are not getting any better. One other Platy (of the same type) developed same white spots at the base of the tail after I started the treatment (and looks a bit stressed and slimmed even though still eating) and today I saw a bit of tail missing as well. I will continue of course until 7 days as recommended, but I'm starting to suspect it might not be a simple fin rot. What else could be (I still don't think its ich)? Please help

 

[Dieses Madchen]

Can you post a picture of their fins?

 

[itonlyrains]

I'll try to make some pictures in the evening, but as whitish stuff on the fins are almost gone ( they are transparent with just missing bits now) it might be difficult to see what's going on. I might have better luck with pictures of the white spots on the tail though.

Another problem I'm facing is that medication is taking it's toll on the filter. I have zero ammonia as my tank is planted, but I started detecting nitrites yesterday evening. Did 40% pwc before dosing meds, but this morning it's already 0.25, so I will have ti do a bigger pwc in the evening. One of the affected fish is probably also stressed because of that (just hanging out at the top or bottom of the tank statically). All other fish (the other affected platy, other platies of different type, guppies, gouramis and otos) are doing fine.

Oh, I have also raised the temperature yesterday after reading that some parasites should be affected by that.

 

[itonlyrains]

Not really good ending to this - one fish is lost (due to stress/nitrites, if not illness). Not the one that had original fin problem but the other one.

Here is few pictures when it was still alive (with dots on the tail where transparent colour changes into yellow):

And here its with another sunset platy and you can see some dots on the tail as well (they have more volume like bubbles growing inside, rather than on the surface). You can also see a narrow section of the tail missing on the top one (also some white spots on the black background are just bubbles in the water as I was doing a water change):

I stopped dosing Melafix/Pimafix today as I can see that fish getting more stressed with it (and my filter deteriorating). Dots on the tail doesn't seem to be affected by it and original fin is doing OK now (you can't see any white stuff on the side fin of the bottom platy above anymore). My nitrites started to increase in the last couple of days (~0.25) and I was doing water changes like crazy (almost got divorced because of that ) Today in the morning when I found the fish dead the Nitrites were 0.5 (but could be just because of the rotting fish). I have it now at around 0.1...

Worst thing is - I still don't know what the hell it is. Any ideas anyone?

 

[HayzH]

it does look like finrot to me...
I found Pimafix and Melafix pretty much naff tbh.
I use/d Myxazin by Waterlife for Jackson's (betta) finrot. It goes in a few days, but finish all 7 days x Good stuff.

 

[itonlyrains]

Thanks. I wish someone told me above before I started on pimafix/melafix. Currently I'm trying to get my bio filter working 100% and keeping temperature at 30c just in case (read some bacterias/parasites do not survive that ).

How does myxazin affect the filter?