A fishy problem.

[kakariki]

This is one of our peaceful fighters. She has a problem with her fin. I think it is fin rot but I can't fix it. I have used "FUNGUS-AID" to no affect. She has had it for a while, about a month or so. I thought fin rot killed them much quicker than that? She is ok in herself, eating and swimming around but half her fin is gone. Any ideas please? Sorry for the rotten pics! The white area on top is where the problem is.

 

[itbites]

Hey kakariki try a bit of bi-carb to harden up the water...

 

[Jumala]

yep normally fin rot is pretty aggressive and will kill fish relatively quickly. the area doesn't look red so I wouldn't say its bacterial fin rot. what is your water pH? frayed fins and skin fading to whitish can be an indicator that the pH is too high.
HTH
Ange

 

[kakariki]

I have just moved her to this tank to isolate her. None of the others have it & I didn't even think of ph . I also cleaned her old tank so I can't check now. I use rain water cos the tap water here is an unknown quality atm. Will her fins grow back? Thanks for the info.

 

[sockbat]

You can get PH test kits from BigW for a couple bucks. Green is good PH Blue is alkinline and yellow is acidity. The kit come with all the stuff you need to sort out the problem. Hope this helps

 

[Brettix]

Somethings not right,can only be 1 problem.
Bad water quality,wich is caused by not enough water changes.
This will cause the ph to get very acidic wich causes fin rot.

Do water change at least every 2 weeks,and treat them with mela fix.

 

[missllama]

OMG SAM I HAD NO IDEA WHAT U WERE ON ABOUT LOL I HAVE A FISHY PROBLEM TOO ....
i already posted this on one board tonight but its so cute
and im sorry i cant help with ur fish i dont no much about fish

 

[missllama]

it looks like ur other fish have attacked its fins???

 

[missllama]

do u have other fish in with it? coz that can happen?

 

[kakariki]

Hahaha. Real helpful..ta Lana. lol. Don't have band-aid small enough. No she was by herself but she was others!? We have a 2ft tank. The front part has 3 parts and the back is 1. The water goes to all the parts. Confused? It was apparently a guppy breeding tank. We have/had 3 males in the front 3 bits and the girls in the back but she was the only girl cos I moved the other two out to a different tank before christmas...a failed breeding attempt! Silly male destroyed the nest. The males did not get the problem and the girls were not, as far as I could tell, fighting or chewing. This happened after I moved them. The other fish are ok [ Oscars, angels,neons, glass catfish, fighters, black widows & goldfish] so I don't think it is the rain water. And yes Brettix, they do get changed regularly, at least every 2-3 weeks. BUT I don't do a full change. I empty about 2/3 out and top it up. I was told this will retain the bacteria needed by fish!?

 

[missllama]

hahaha i had oscars.. they died im not good at looking after fish i wish i was because i like fishies!! but every time i get them... they cark it lol

i no what ur talking about the 2/3 out etc same with turtles ur suppose to keep some of the water i was told so its not too much of a water change at once, so i just take just under half out then i fill it back up again, haha u can see my phsyco turtle today he is a nut job, my dog will just run around jumping on everyone too he is like that with people a tad bonkers haha

 

[Brianna]

I think I read somewhere that you are not supposed to use rainwater for fish, I think the reason was that it is too soft?

 

[missllama]

maby it doesnt have the chemicals coz what brianna is saying sounds wierdly familiar

 

[kakariki]

Really? I used to empty all the water from the turtle, And scrub his tank. I'm not a big fan of turtles. I gave ours to a friends bro. He has put in a pond with a waterfall for turtles in his backyard! Now our Squirtle has a Mrs Squirtle. Maybe lots of little Squirtles next season! I use a water conditioner when I change the fishy water.

 

[Jumala]

high or low pH is not necessarily an indication of lack of water changes - water coming out of the tap has a different pH depending on where your water comes from ie tap, tank or bore and where you live. Hardness is the same. Here in the Cairns region the water on the north side tends to be around the 140ppm for hardness but south is lucky to be 10ppm. pH varies depending on the time of the year and amount of rainfall up here as well.
Sounds like you are doing a really good water change so I don't think its lack of new water. When I kept a lot of fighters they got about 3/4 of their water changed out every 2-3 weeks.
Her fins may grow back, it depends on how damaged the flesh is. Has she got a bit of red colour in her tail or is that damage?

 

[GSXR_Boy]

One of our Blackmoors had a similar thing and we removed him from the tank, put him into a small tank with 2 tablespoons of sea salt for 20 minutes and monitered him the whole time (use water from his own tank to keep teps steady).
If you try this make sure the fish doesn't gasp for air at the surface, if it does the salt is to much for it, so put it back in its own tank.
We did this every couple of days and he got over it pretty quickly.
It may not work but it was recommended to us by a very experienced aquarium keeper.
Good luck!

 

[puka777]

hi im a fishkeeper and your missing all the important parts not to be rude but do you have a test kit youll need this:shock::shock:!!i.
ammonia, nitrtie and nitrate are toxics which came out of rotting food fish waste and dieing plant matter in your tank, which well then kill your fish:shock::shock:.a test kit tests for these toxins in your water so its important you have one.

first of all i need you to answer these questions so i can figure the problem out ,do you have a filter in your tank ,did you do the nitrogen cycle, how big is yyour tank, what are the other tank inhabitants and if you get the water tests the results.

for more information on fish keeping visit this site www.fishkeeping.co.uk , they will help you with everthing even though their on the other side of the world.

i hope this helps

 

[fishbot]

It's a bacterial infection....which is a two part problem.

The source of the infection is either poor water quality which burns the fish, fighting with other fish or some kind of other injury.

The solution to the infection is to maintain good water quality AND treat with some kind of antibacterial remedy. I personally like Triple Sulpha or anything with Tetracycline in it....go to your local aquarium and see what they can offer you.

 

[Brettix]

As for rain water,its the best you can use as it dosen't need to be aged.
I use rain water for all my tanks and all my fish breed well with no probs.

 

[kakariki]

Thanks for the replys. So many questions but I will try to answer them. Yes she does have red in her tail, not much but it is normal. None of the other fighters were affected. There was a blue male and a red male in the same water but as I said it was sectioned off. The tank is 2ft long X1ft wide X 15 in high. She was by herself in the back section so I think we can rule out injury unless she touched the heater, which I doubt. So basically I had 3 fish in the tank. I did have a filter but it moved the water around too much and destroyed the nests so I took it out. I do have a kit but didn't test the water. To be honest I thought she had fin rot so I moved all the fish out & treated them all with fungus-aid. I them emptied the tank. The males have no sign at all. Just her & she is just the same now as when I moved her 2 weeks or so ago. She is eating and doing all the normal fishy things, just has this discoloured area & a raggedey fin. Cheers for the link puka77. I will certainly check it out.