My fry have shredded tails...Why?

[Elisabeth83]

I've been having problems with my fry lately....I've posted a few times about them and wondering why they are dieing. Well anyways now I noticed that most of them have shredded tails...what could that mean??

They are in a breeding net inside my main tank with my other fish ...which are all healthy no shredded tails at all.

The temp is always between 26-28 so they are warm enough. I feed them 3-4 times a day....crushed flakes and occasionally cut up bloodworms.

Could it be fin rot?? and if it is why don't my bigger fish have it as well?

I started off with 13 black swordtail fry and am down to 2...and right now 1 of them is dieing. I also had 23 orange swordtail fry in the same breeding net and am down to just 12.

Maybe they are just a really weak batch of fry?

 

[Chasing Puck]

How big is the net? Could be a matter of aggression from each other, being crowded together.

 

[Elisabeth83]

The net is about 8 inches long by 8 inches deep and probably...6 inchs wide. I would think that is enough space. I never see them chasing eachother or nipping at eachother.

I noticed even some of them their top fin is shredded....

Theres only a few without any shredded fins....

I really wonder whats going on...

 

[Elisabeth83]

I noticed that they are also rubbing on the small gravel I have in the breeding net. It seems they only rub when I feed them though....so are they maybe trying to stir up food?? I don't think they have ich....I see no spots on any of my fish.

Maybe the salt I added awhile ago is bothering them?

 

[Never2Bknown]

Fish often rub up against things for many different reasons... parasites are one reason, but another is that they have eaten too much, which is probably why they only rub after they have been fed; I wouldn't worry about it too much, but perhaps you could try feeding them a little less.

My male cobra guppy that I raised from fry is now getting a shredded tail fin as well; I'm going to try and research the disease, and let you know if I find anything. I'm not entirely sure what it might be, but it's definitely not the other fish.

 

[Never2Bknown]

OKAY...

We apparently have a nasty case of fin rot, which is serious because if the infection manages to penetrate the fish's body, it will be too late to save it. I read up on the symptoms, and it sounds like what we've got: "fins have missing parts and eventually become shredded."

From what I've read, the safest and surest treatment by far are the drugs aureomycin, terramycin, and chloromycetin. That should be what to look for on the "active ingredient" statements on any medicine you use, or you might find it just plain.

Good luck!

 

[Elisabeth83]

Hi Never2Bknown...Thanks for investigating what we've got!!

Thing is that I am wondering though is why do only some have fin rot and others are perfectly fine....also why if the fry have fin rot don't my other big fish?

Right now I only have 2 different kinds of meds....fungal stuff and parasite stuff....but I heard that using treatments like that on fry isn't good....that they can kill them?

Thanks!

 

[Elisabeth83]

Ok so there are 2 different types of fin rot...bacterial and fungol...I believe I have the fugol one. The baterial one says the fins rot with blood on the edges whereas the fungol one says the fins rot with like whitish on the edges.

I have some medication here for fungol called JBL Fungol.....does anyone know about this brand...and if it's good to treat fin rot?

Thanks!!

 

[Never2Bknown]

It should be good if it's fungal...

Your fry will probably be okay, just be sure you don't overdose it--you might even want to use smaller concentrations of the medicine. It would also be a good idea to look at warning labels on the bottles/boxes; they might say if it could be harmful to small fish.

As to why it isn't spreading, I'm not sure... mine didn't spread either, it was only on the one guppy.

In any case, I hope you have better luck than me. I didn't catch the fungus in time, and it went all the way down to his caudal peduncle (where the tail fin starts) so I wasn't able to save him. Like I said in the previous post, if it manages to get into the fish's body, it's too late. That's what happened to me. I didn't want him to suffer any more than he had to, so I ended up having to euthanize him even though I hated it .

I hope you're able to save your fish!!!

 

[Elisabeth83]

Hi again!!

So sorry to hear about your guppy

I'm going to try something different. I've heard that fin rot is usually due to poor water conditions so instead I am going to try and do more frequent water changes instead of adding any medications...I don't think I will be able to save the fry that have it anyways...as most of their fins are really short and even their top fins are real short. I also think because they are only 3 weeks old that the medication would probably do more harm than good? I have about 5 fry that don't have any signs of fin rot...so maybe they will survive ( fingers crossed )

I decided until I can get a tank to house the fry I'm just going to leave the females in my main tank and not put them in breeding nets anymore.

After reading up on fin rot ....I believe the reason why my bigger fish don't have it is because they have really strong immune systems. I read that the bacteria that causes fin rot actually lives in your tank...and it's only weak fish that it attacks.

So my only success is my little female swordtail. She's about 2 months old now and is soooo cute. Sadly her Mom died...she was named Tomato...so we deciced to call her baby Cherry Tomato Cute eh?

I believe the reason why little Cherry Tomato survived was because she was the only fry I found in my tank....as well as I was doing more water changes at that time.

Thanks so much for your replies!!