Sick Rainbowfish! Please Help

[laina45]

Hello all, 
 
I currently have a sick dwarf neon rainbowfish. I am not sure if he will make it through another night so I REALLY need any input I can get here.
 
Tank size: He was in a 55 gallon. Since then I have put him in a quarantined tank of 5 gallons so my other fish hopefully do not get what he has.
pH:
ammonia:
nitrite:
nitrate:
kH:
gH:
tank temp: 78

Fish Symptoms (include full description including lesion, color, location, fish behavior):
This is a long list, and why I am SO confused as to how to treat this. 
I noticed a few days ago that a dark spot had formed by his dorsal fin (while he was still in the community tank). He was acting normal so I wasnt sure what to make of it. I had melafix at the time and added that to the tank. (a month ago he had cloud eye) 
A day later I noticed he was not swimming around the tank or really trying to eat. When I fed the others he went to the surface but only took a few bites and spit most if not all of them back out. The next hour or so he floated in the middle of the tank by a plant. He was opening and closing his mouth a lot and breathing heavily. I then decided to quarintine him. 
I went to the store after looking up possible causes. Everything I found talked about white spots rather than dark ones. This is a fairly large dark spot. Everyone I talked to at the store suggested it may be a parasite, so I started treating for that.
Meanwhile I did a 30% water change on my 55 and vaccumed it well. I also added stressx to both thanks. 
The next day (today) he was breathing a bit slower but not trying to eat at all. He also had a few scales seeming to peel off on a different location from the dark spot on his side. I went back to the store and they suggested that it may be a fungus? So I gave his medicine for that. Now I just got home from work and he is gasping towards the top of the water. Still not trying to eat anything. and he has white on the ends of his fins and tail, however it does not appear to be fin rot, since the whole fin is still there. 
I look at a bunch of forums and disease websites to see what all the symptoms are and nothing seems to be right on, or is missing a lot of symptoms from what he has. For now I will continue treating for fungus I suppose, since the white stuff on his fins seem to be new? But I am beyond confused. 

Volume and Frequency of water changes:

Chemical Additives or Media in your tank:

Tank inhabitants: 3 bosemani rainbows, 1 australain rainbow, and a cobalt gobi

Recent additions to your tank (living or decoration): not in over a month

Exposure to chemicals:

Digital photo (include if possible):

 

[Timberbatch]

Hello! Sorry to hear about your fish D: 
 
Is there any way you could test the water? I know you said the other fish aren't showing symptoms but its a good place to start when there is a problem like this. Also is it possible to provide a picture?
 
When you mean his scales are peeling, do you mean they are upraised? Is the white on the fins stringy or is actually the color of the fin? I'm very sorry the symptoms aren't matching up, that is the absolute worst
 
I would do at least 25%water changes on the quarantine tank daily and keep an eye on the original tank to see if the others start to show similar signs.
 
Best of luck!

 

[laina45]

Thanks for the response. Unfortunately I am new to the hobby and the people helping me set up the tank at the store didn't even tell me I needed to test for such things. I only found out that those levels were a concern after I started researching tropical fish diseases. 
 
The scales could be just raised, I am not sure. He is a small fish, only about 1 1/2 inches. He has not fully developed his color yet so it's really hard to tell. I will upload the pictures momentarily. 
 
The fins aren't stringy. Its really hard to explain, the picture might be able to help more. Its just the end of the fins, and they arent jagged or anything. The ends are just white. His lip also has developed a black dot on the end of it. 

 

[laina45]

here is the best picture I could get that shows what I meant by the fins


And here is a pic of the dot on his lip. 

 

[N0body Of The Goat]

This is a female Dwarf Neon Rainbowfish, male have red fins, females yellow.
 
From the photo, there are grey edges to most/all fins, to me this suggest fin rot. It can be treated with general anti-bacterial meds like Myxazin or Esha2000 and daily 10-20% water changes.
 
Unless I have misread, it seems this Dwarf Neon is a singleton, which is far from ideal with it being a social fish. It should have at least five others of its own kind, the same applies to your other Rainbowfish species. In addition, this female Dwarf will be much smaller and I suspect less boisterous than the other two species, which could be adding further to her stress (and thereby opening her up to infection).
 
I cannot see any water stats in your posts (pH; gH; kH; ammonia/nitrite/nitrate from a liquid test kit). Many rainbowfish require at least moderately hard water (~gH 13 ballpark) and they really need at least 50% weekly water changes to stay in tip-tip condition, a common sign the water quality is not upto spec shows up with "cotton mouth."
 
Gasping at the top of the water suggests two things: Toxic nitrite in the water (which affects their breathing) and/or low oxygen levels. I would personally start with a ~95% water change in both the main and quarantine tank ASAP and get some liquid test kit results afterwards.

 

[Lunar Jetman]

I can only agree with previous comments. I'd suggest daily water changes until you get to a position where you know the quality of your water is good. How long have you had the tank setup and did you cycle it?

 

[Squid]

How long has the tank been set up?

 

[Lunar Jetman]

How long has the tank been set up?

Good question. I wonder why noone else thought of it...........

 

[Squid]

How long has the tank been set up?

Good question. I wonder why noone else thought of it...........

No need for sarcasm, I didn't spot that in your comment when flicking through. Comments like that bring forums like this down, when I'm just trying to help like the majority.

Water looked slightly unclear and thought it might have been a bacterial bloom, but may have been the photo..