Should I Euthanize?

[sbga]

I have a rosey barb that is over 5 years old and one day be started getting popeye and a white coloring on his head. Then he started getting red streaks on his fins and swollen red sores at the base of his fins. I treated with pimafix for a week and it looked like it went away. Then he lost his bright red color and is now dull like a female. The red streaks on his fins and white color on his head is back now, and now he has a white string like thing by his nose. I really don't want to stress him out with parasite mede and when I add pimafix it makes him flutter his fins and float weird. Do you think I should just freeze the poor thing? Also one fish in my grandmas tank has a white string coming from the body under pectoral fin,is this parasite?

 

[LauraFrog]

The barb is pretty darn old, and it sounds to me like he is just dying slowly and painfully of old age. It's up to you what to do, but if he's losing condition and the medications make him uncomfortable personally I would suggest he's reached the end of the road. Please don't freeze him, it's a horrible way to die. Use clove oil if you have it (10 drops in a cup of tank water, add fish) or decapitate him. If you have no clove oil and can't bear to decapitate him, put a container of tank water in the freezer until it skins with ice. Break the ice on the surface and drop the fish into that. It kills within about 10 seconds, instead of 20 painful minutes by putting the fish in the freezer. There is another method using alka seltzer tablets that may be more humane, but I don't know how to use it and it sounds pretty awful to me as well.

Under the pectoral fin? That sounds really, really odd. A pic would be helpful. Parasites usually exhibit themselves as slimy scales, scale loss, flicking, scratching or rubbing (skin flukes), rapid and distressed breathing (gill flukes) or else protruding from the anus, emaciation despite good appetite, slow loss of condition and colour (intestinal worms).