Oh dear please advise

[corykitty516]

My beautiful red boy's tail looks like it got caught in a shredder I dont *think* it was the filter but I cant be sure. I've been ignoring him this week a little because of school. Its probaly 1cm gone or more. No white stuff to indicate that its fungus. Hes having a salt bath right now.
We've been having some unseasonably cold weather and I also cant be sure that his temp has stayed constant through it all. every time it looked its been OK (78-80F). The water params were good also. I do a pwc 50% 2 times a week so this has happened in the last 3 days.
I've been meaning to switch to sand for a while now and his tank has some of that AWFUL stringy long growing algae so I've stripped it to its bare bottom and scrubbed it out with salt and tap water and put brand new filter media in. I'm borrowing a sock of non algaefied gravel from my one remaining gravel tank to recolonize with.

He's eating/swimming normally. Right now he sort of looks annoyed that he back in his old 1 gal.

Could he have chewed it?

I've got melafix .... shall I add some?

edit: i've just pantyhosed the filter intake to be sure

 

[SRC]

My friend Amelia's red butterfly, I bought her, looks like that now. I went on vacation for a week after Xmas and came back and was like what happened to Fai's tail

She didn't even know anything was wrong with it. And his looks pitiful, but her other 2 also have it as well.

He has fin rot, and it sounds like your does too. I did a amonia test of her tank and it was off the charts . She hadn't changed the water at all (not saying you haven't) .

I have noticed that fish with light colored fins (butterfly's mainly) seem to be more prone to attracting this problem though.

I would add melafix and salt..or Aquarisol (requires a higher temp though..up to 85*).

I've had great success with Melafix myself, although I know others who totally abhore it.

 

[corykitty516]

I have aquarisol but I'm not sure I can get the temp to stay up that high. Its a 2.5 gal with a 7.5 watt heater. I wish I could crank the heat in the whole house up

It was cycled so I only water change twice a week and the water params were good. That is all moot now because I've torn the thing apart due to the algea and the gravel/sand changeover.
Oh and he's a solid red veil tail. He came from a high quality LFS and had the most beautiful tail I've ever seen on a VT. I brag and show him off all the time. I hope it will grow back. He's looking worse than my petstore rescue case

 

[SRC]

You can use a heating pad. That's what I am using on her tanks (they are 1 gal) and just sitting half the tank on half the heating pad raised her's up. You have to watch the tank over a 6 hour period to see where it should stay..for a stable temp setting.

I always start by using only half the heating pad and move the tank itself around on the 1/2 of the pad...going from 1/4 of the tank and then putting more and more on the pad (this sometimes takes up more then 1/2 the pad..but 1/2 is a god place to start). I check it every thirty minutes to see what temp it is..when I find the temp I want..I check it every 45 -60 mintes..to make sure it's not getting any warmer. After about 3 hours in the correct temp...you should be good, but always keep checkign it..just to be on the safe side.

good luck

 

[corykitty516]

thanks .... *goes to rummage in closet*

heres what my poor boy looks like right now ... the streaks that appear whitish are actually a reflection of his turquoise flecks