Finrot

[Spikey1007]

Hey all, my neon tetra has finrot. It has had it for a prolonged amount of time now so im getting very worried.

As soon as it got it i bought some Melafix (1% melaluca) and treated the fish for the 5 day requirement. There was no change, so i continued the treatment as it stated on the bottle. That did not work ethier. The lower section of the tailfin is almost gone...

Im positive its finrot, the tailfin has a white on the tips and is deteriorating slowly. No pictures, sorry. But its looks like any other finrot photo...

Is there some other Medicine you can recommend which is available in the UK?

Also i need to perform a water change very soon, but the last one ended up being with cold water, which i was very scared could shock and kill the fish.

Should i use heated kettle water? But what about the chlorine? Will that evaporate out?

All Comments will be greatly appreciated!

THANK YOU!

 

[WILDER]

Size of tank in gallons or litres.
How many fish and which type.
Water stats in ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, and ph.

Finrot is mainly caused by bad water quality.
Melafix is only good once fins are healing.
You need a bacterial med.
The neons is the red stripe vibrant red.
I just use hot and cold water when doing a water change.

 

[Athena]

Hi Spikey

If the finrot is quite severe then you could try Myxazin, which I have always found to be extremely effective. You should be able to buy that quite easily over here - most LFS's stock it or you can buy online if you google it, or try ebay.

Don't forget to take out any carbon sponge from your filter when doing any treatments.

Yes, you're right - doing a water change with water that is much colder than the tank temp can cause your fish to stress and results in various illnesses because their immune system is lowered.

What type of boiler do you have at home? If it's a combi boiler that takes water from the cold mains and heats it up then you can just mix hot and cold water together from the tap (I always allow the tap water to run for a couple of mins first so that I don't use water that's been sat in the copper pipes) until you reach as near to the tank temp as possible. If not, boil a kettle and add a little of that to the cold water, then add your dechlor water treatment. That's how I used to do it before I got my combi boiler.

Regards - Athena

 

[Spikey1007]

Its a 2 foot 60 litre tank.

Erm its a Community tank 2 Silver Sharks (used to be 3), 3 Harlequian rasbora, 3 Emerald eye rasbora, 5 neon tetra, 3 glowlight tetra, 3 Cherry barbs.

And soon to be a Pleco one this problem is sorted!

The water stats were all good from the Tetra Test kits i used. I can't remember off the top off my head but all were fine.

The only one which is elevated is the nitrate which is the least toxic but cannot be broken down furthur, why i need a water change!

Yes i used a bacterial mediaction but thanks for telling me about Melafix on after treatment.

I would say the red stripe is vibrant red, there is nothing amiss apart from the one affected neon tetra, i don't have a quarantine tank (i don't think my girlfriend would allow it, so i won't start a argument which i know i will lose!) so im quite sad the other fish are getting exposed..

Thankyou Wilder

I have ordered some Myxazin from ebay thanks for the Advise..its all well for people telling me what not to use, but never telling me to use! But now i have that sorted thanks .

Yes all the Activated Carbon was removed from the filter prior to last treatment. The copper part was one of my main concerns but if you say if i run some water through the tank i will do that. I can now perform a water change with confidence.

Thanks Athena.

 

[Athena]

You're welcome, Spikey!

I just noticed in your reply that you say it's a 60 litre tank you have - and with all those fish in it I think you might well be fully stocked already. Not sure if you're aware of it or not but those silver sharks are going to grow massive - around 15inches or so - no way will they be able to live in a 60litre tank - Do you have in mind to rehome them once they grow a bit larger (you won't want to wait until they are a foot long LOL - maybe when they reach about 6" start thinking of rehoming them because at that size your tank will be overstocked).

Either that or you persuade your girlfriend that you need a much MUCH larger tank LOL

Just thought I'd mention this because you might find that as the fish grow you will find more problems with illness in the tank due to overcrowding (causing stress) or ammonia/nitrite spikes etc.

Regards - Athena

 

[Spikey1007]

Well in regards to this i have had no luck.

I tried the Myxazin at the correct dosage for the 5 day stated period. Left it for a week then done a water change. The affected neon was not cured.

So i figured maybe my water quality is maybe a tad bad (though all the tests showed it was fine) so i done a 75% water change. And redone the treatment. Left it for a 2 days (no sign of improvement) then done a water change.

So it would seem that the Myxazin didn't work. And to add instult to injury a glowlight tetra now contracted the finrot. I've already spend £15 on medicine when i could of just dispatched the affected neon and got a new one for £1.

So clearly the meds aren't working. People were saying about adding salt. Or frequent water changes. This is not a bad idea. But i end up shelling out money just to do water changes loads because the decolriniser isn't cheap.

 

[WILDER]

Can you post your water stats as the tanks severely overstocked.

 

[vfg10]

have you tried with salt ??
that works for me
here is an articule hope it help!!!!!!!!
http/www.bestfish.com/fwsalt.html

 

[Spikey1007]

Oh, i didn't think anyone replied.

Well its been a few weeks.

The stats are fine

PH - 7.7

Ammonia NH3 - 0.25 mg per litre although now back down to 0 after water change.

Nitrite NO2 - < O.3 mg per litre lowest possible reading

Ntrate NO3 - 25 mg per litre, done a water change now its down to 0.

The other fish which caught it cleared up. So its just that one blasted neon.

 

[Spikey1007]

Just thought i'd mention i noticed that the underside of the affected neon is really red, this is near the gills. So it could just be the blood flow.

Im really tempted to just dispatch this fella, the complete lower side of the fin is gone now. Nothing to indicate why he is stressed. He hangs around with the other fish fine. No fighting, nipping. eating normally. So why would stress be the cause of it. The other fish are eating happily.

.

 

[skittz]

by the sounds of it he is too far gone for any med to work. for the melafix to work u need to get to it before it gets as bad as it is. its a antibacterial as well as a antibiotic and DOES work for finrot ya best bet is to put him out of his missery

 

[TigerIssey]

Melafix is an antibacterial or antiseptic medicine, it does not contain any chemotherapeutic drug that could be called an antibiotic, check wiki for antibiotic definition.

 

[Spikey1007]

by the sounds of it he is too far gone for any med to work. for the melafix to work u need to get to it before it gets as bad as it is. its a antibacterial as well as a antibiotic and DOES work for finrot ya best bet is to put him out of his missery

Melafix is an antibacterial or antiseptic medicine, it does not contain any chemotherapeutic drug that could be called an antibiotic, check wiki for antibiotic definition.

Yes, have been told melafix is only for after treatment. Know that won't work. Okay well i will give him 1 more week. Then if there is no more improvement thats the end.