Fin Rot And Med Questions

[rainydayz]

I am horrified to say that the fish in my 40 g tank have fin rot! First off here is some info. I tested my tank water and my pH is between 6.6 and 6.8. My nitrites are at 0. My nitrates are at 0. My ammonia is at 0. My tank contains 2 butterfly fish, 2 rope fish, 2 guppies, 2 sward tails, 1 royal pleco, 1 rainbow shark, 1 gourami, and 1 clown loach and 3 tetra. I had a farlowella cat fish which is a sucker fish and died yesterday, I had just gotten it a few days before along with the clown loach. I am not sure if I had the rot problem before I purchased the two fish or it came with them. The farlowella died and I flushed it before I noticed the rot, my clown does have a bit it looks like but my shark I have had for quite awhile seems to be the most effected. I don't know why my fish would have gotten it, my water tests are good. So the good news is I caught it early, it only is effecting mostly the tips of the fins. I am using a fungus/bacteria med and have done a water change. Took the carbon out of the filter of coarse. The med box says to do at least a 25% water change in 4 days however after some reading I believe daily water changes are needed. I was thinking 10-20%. I just don't know if that will affect the effectiveness of the meds. I hope this will remedy the problem. Any tips or suggestions as to what went wrong and what I should do would be appreciated!

 

[comocrayfish5]

yikes!!! get that pH up to 7.0-7.3!!! iwould do water changes every 2 weeks.
i use Pimafix or Melafix on my fish when their sick. get it ar petco

 

[Rynofasho]

First off, no idea why the person above said yikes about your pH. It is fine. How did u cycle your tank? And it's also surprising to hear you have no nitrates at all given your stocking which includes a few messy fish.

You have any pics? Let's get the fish healthy and then talk about your stocking

Oh and are you testing with test strips or liquid reagents like the API kit? Chances are the catalyst off all this were the adding of new fish if your water checks out.

 

[rainydayz]

I thought my pH was good also. I dont understand what you mean about cycling the tank, I have a filter. haha. I am not well informed on filters, I know that it is a good one, it is for 40-70 g and mine is a 40 g. It has a sponge, a carbon bag and a bag for ammonia, I don't know if that means anything. My testing kit is a API liquid kit. And yes, My fish are very messy, I was looking into a battery powered vac for in between water changes. I thought 0 was good for nitrates? I have two pics attaches, one is of my rainbow shark and the other is a pic of my tank, sorry they are blurry.

 

[loraxchick]

zero nitrates is good but unusual. normally you dont see that in tanks unless very heavily planted or waterchanging like crazy.
have you seen any bullying? rainbow sharks can become very territorial and harass their tankmates. If those readings are accurate you might have a bully in the tank as opposed to something bacterial. Id watch closely at the shark, especially after lights go out. could explain the deaths too.
just my thoughts
cheers

 

[rainydayz]

So about my stocking choice for fish.... Which fish are the messy ones

First off, no idea why the person above said yikes about your pH. It is fine. How did u cycle your tank? And it's also surprising to hear you have no nitrates at all given your stocking which includes a few messy fish.

You have any pics? Let's get the fish healthy and then talk about your stocking

Oh and are you testing with test strips or liquid reagents like the API kit? Chances are the catalyst off all this were the adding of new fish if your water checks out.

So, about my stocking of fish.... which fish are the messy culprits I am sure it is the butterfly fish and rope fish but I dont know about the others... Do I need another bottom feeder?

 

[Tizer]

You say that tank is 40 gallons? Are you sure?? it looks like 90 litres to me? Or am i going a bit bananas? What are the tank dimension in inches?

You do realise the rainbow shark, clown loach and royal pleco grow waaaaaay to big for that tank dont you? You really need to consider rehoming them very soon.

Also the shark will probably be responsible for the stress caused allowing fin rot to set in on the other fish and probably the fact that you havnt cycled the filter properly so they are all suffering from ammonia poisoning.

You say your water is good, but what are the actual result from the liquid test kits?