Fin Rot - White Skirted Tetras?

[progman2001]

Hello all!

Well, in a matter of 2 days, I managed to hvae 3 of my tetras die, and one not looking to good. The water tested fine with maybe the nitrate being a bit high at 40 ppm, but all other parameters were well within safe limits. I immediately performed a 70% water change, vacuumed the gravel, changed the filter to a new bag, (needed changing anyways as water flow was reduced). I added some salt to the aquarium but staying away from meds at this time as I have 2 african dwarf frogs as well, and the meds are harmful to the frogs. The tank has been well established and all the fish and critters within the tank have been with me for over a year. The only thing different about the tank is maybe foolishly, I added a algae eater, (black, spiny kind of fish - for the life of me can't remember the name of it) I have a feeling this is what did the tank in.

I am trying to keep my last tetra alive, (fins pretty bad but at least he has enough to let him get around the tank. It appears the salt may have cleaned up his white ' fluff ' that he was coated in.

Curious as to if fin rot normally takes out a tank in about 48 hours? Seems rather quickly as I always pay attention to my fish - they are great stress relievers to sit and watch them, plus I feed my frogs every second day which means my hand is in the tank anyways. I am rather upset at myself for not catching this right away.

What more can I do to hopefully keep my last tetra alive?

 

[WILDER]

I wouldn't add salt to the tank with the frog and algae eater, remove it it burn and irratates there skin.
Where was the fluff on the fish as it sounds like columnaris, and finrot is bacterial as well.

 

[progman2001]

I wouldn't add salt to the tank with the frog and algae eater, remove it it burn and irratates there skin.
Where was the fluff on the fish as it sounds like columnaris, and finrot is bacterial as well.

The fluff was all over their fins, at least what was left of it. As for the Algae eater, I should have mentioned earlier that he died within 3 days of placing him in the tank. The salt was added on the advice of a knowledgeable person at my store. I mentioned the frogs and he mentioned that the salt would not bother them. I think I will do another 25% water change just to remove whatever may be in the water.

Thanks.

 

[WILDER]

I would add a bacterial med to the tank, once fish lose alot of there tail they don't make it sorry, plus if the fish is struggling to swim that another sign they won't make it.

 

[progman2001]

I would add a bacterial med to the tank, once fish lose alot of there tail they don't make it sorry, plus if the fish is struggling to swim that another sign they won't make it.

Well, my last fish finally did die, but the frogs seem to be healthy. So, now I have a 10 gallon tank with 2 frogs in it..... I probably won't do anything with the tank as long as the frogs stay healty. When the frogs do die - hopefully of old age - I will clean the tank and start from scratch - now just to decide what types of fish to get.

Thanks for all your help.

 

[bobbicus]

R.I.P tetra!!

hope it is not a disease in the tank - maybe was due to bad water quality or a problem with those fish??

have you got recent water stats??

 

[progman2001]

R.I.P tetra!!

hope it is not a disease in the tank - maybe was due to bad water quality or a problem with those fish??

have you got recent water stats??

The only thing I can think of is that the algae eater had something and brought it with him to the tank. The tank is almost a year old and the fish were quite healthy. The water stats were Ammonia, 0 ppm, nitrite was 0 ppm, and nitrate was a bit high at between 20 - 40 ppm, but this was probably due to the fact that my charcoal filter was due for replacement. I did 20% water changes on a weekly basis and monitored the water quality usually every 2 weeks, and their was not noticeable change in the tank.

All this happened within less than one week of adding the algae eater, (who died within 3 days of being placed into the tank), so until I can verify what happened, I am leaning towards the algae eater contaminating my tank.