Clamped fins and boyancy issues

[Amie.Elizabeth]

Hello, recently one of my fish (a silver tetra with red tips) began showing clamped fins and it has progressed to boyancy issues. He lays on the tank floor and when he does swim it's sideways or almost upside down. I am concerned because now I have a fancy fan tail guppy and a long fin zebra daino exhibiting the clamped fins behavior and lethargic laying on the tank floor. I have tried fasting the fish, done 50% water changes and daily water testing. There are only about 15 small fish (biggest being the guppies) in a 55 gallon tank that has been set up for over a year. I last introduced new fish (the zebra danios) 2+ months ago after quarantine of 1 month in a separate tank. Is there something I'm doing wrong? Are these common symptoms of an illness that I'm not finding anywhere? Any advice is appreciated.
pH 6.8-7.0
Ammonia 0 ppm
Nitrite 0 ppm
Nitrate 10 ppm

 

[Colin_T]

Hi and welcome to the forum

Any chance of pictures and video of the fish?
You can upload videos to YouTube, then copy & paste the link here.

If you use a mobile phone to film the fish, hold the phone horizontally so the footage fills the entire screen.

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How often do you do water changes and how much do you change?
Do you gravel clean the substrate when you do a water change?
Do you dechlorinate the new water before adding it to the aquarium?

How long has the fish been acting this way?
Have you added anything to the tank in the 2 weeks before this started?

 

[Amie.Elizabeth]

Hi and welcome to the forum

Any chance of pictures and video of the fish?
You can upload videos to YouTube, then copy & paste the link here.

If you use a mobile phone to film the fish, hold the phone horizontally so the footage fills the entire screen.

-----------------
How often do you do water changes and how much do you change?
Do you gravel clean the substrate when you do a water change?
Do you dechlorinate the new water before adding it to the aquarium?

How long has the fish been acting this way?
Have you added anything to the tank in the 2 weeks before this started?

I do bi-weekly 15-20% water changes. I do vaccum the gravel every time with a siphon thing I got from petco when I first got fish. I always dechlorinate the water with Seachem Prime.
The first fish began acting this way about 48 hours ago now. At first I suspected water quality so I did a big 50% water change and added stress coat. This morning (10 hours ago) 2 more fish began exhibiting the same beginning behaviors. The guppy has rapidly declined and the Zebra danio is only clamping fins and behaving lethargic. The other fish in the tank are behaving normally. Now that I am home from a long shift at work I'm transferring the effected fish to a separate tank 10 gallon tank. Nothing has been added in the last 2 weeks and the only change I've made was adding the stress coat yesterday during the water change after symptoms had already began. I did forget to mention the albino corydora that can also be seen in the video. He has been in the tank for nearly 2 years though.

 

[Colin_T]

Add some salt to the tank.

You can add rock salt (often sold as aquarium salt) or swimming pool salt to the aquarium at the dose rate of 2 heaped tablespoons of salt per 20 litres.

Keep the salt level like this for at least 2 weeks but no longer than 4 weeks otherwise kidney damage can occur. Kidney damage is more likely to occur in fish from soft water (tetras, Corydoras, angelfish, Bettas & gouramis, loaches) that are exposed to high levels of salt for an extended period of time, and is not an issue with livebearers, rainbowfish or other salt tolerant species.

The salt will not affect the beneficial filter bacteria, fish, plants, shrimp or snails.

After you use salt and the fish have recovered, you do a 10% water change each day for a week using only fresh water that has been dechlorinated. Then do a 20% water change each day for a week. Then you can do bigger water changes after that. This dilutes the salt out of the tank slowly so it doesn't harm the fish.

If you do water changes while using salt, you need to treat the new water with salt before adding it to the tank. This will keep the salt level stable in the tank and minimise stress on the fish.

When you first add salt, add the salt to a small bucket of tank water and dissolve the salt. Then slowly pour the salt water into the tank near the filter outlet. Add the salt over a couple of minutes.