back from vacation, fish disease

T

travis

AC Members
Jul 16, 2006
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hi, i just got back from a 6 day vacation where my fish were not cared for at all. as i was leaving, i noticed one black neon tetra had a small white patch on him.


im back now and i see that the tetra still has the patch (fungus?) and three other fish (two male yellow-tailed congo tetras and a male australian rainbow) have fin rot on their dorsal fins. this has never happened to me before.

i have raised the temperature, added salt, and added a half-dose of melafix.

is there anything else you reccomend? thanks.
 
Lower the temperature ASAP. Most likely you have some columnaris in the tank -- rainbowfish are notorious carriers -- and it will get worse in high temperatures. The bacteria will not thrive in lower temps: 75* is ideal.

What is your nitrate reading ATM and how often do you change the water normally? How much?

Assuming you've been doing a good weekly water change routine previously, start doing water changes of 50% every day. Don't dose melafix and no salt. The congos and rainbowfish won't care about salt, but the tetras (Amazon?) may. Melafix isn't necessary unless the water changes aren't helping.

Just keep changing the water out.

Roan
 
wow, thanks. i was wrong about a few things.

and yeah my nitrates are fine, less than 20ppm. but i guess they could be better. i will change the water a lot.
 
Roan Art said:
Start out with the changes. If there is no improvement in two days or it gets worse, post, kay?
Click to expand...
I concur. I've had Columnaris and fin rot clear themselves up just by doing very frequent water changes (50% every day or two) with NO NEED for any meds. Just by keeping water clean, your fish's immune systems have a much better chance of taking care of the infection.

In two or three weeks, you should see an improvement. If not, please feel free to start a new thread, or add onto this one, asking for help.
 
thanks. any ideas as to what could have started this outbreak?

i know the normal things that could compromise an immune system like temp. change and bad water, but i dont think either of those happened.

i just wanna know what could have caused it so it can be prevented in the future.
 
Columnaris and fin rot are almost always caused by poor water quality, e.g. not enough water changes. In the case of Columnaris, it is a bacteria and probably present in your tank under normal circumstances but the infection doesn't take hold until nitrates get too high. With fin rot, it's just the delicate fins getting eaten away or "burned" by toxic ammonia and nitrite.
 
fin rot is columnaris, right?

also, why would i stop treating with melafix? ive read that it can be very effective treating columnaris and that it has no negative effects (it doesnt kill beneficial bactera).
 
I've not heard that Columnaris can lead to fin rot, just the white patches around the mouth. Yes, if Melafix will make you feel better, go ahead. At least it's not a full-on antibiotic. I've never had Melafix really help anything, though, but it does make the water smell nice!

after doing some reading, it appears that Columnaris is one of the things that can cause fin rot, but there are many.
 
ok i tested for nitrates and found that they are at 10ppm, lower than what i estimated. i have also added an airstone to increase aeration and help with cooling the tank. lastly i upped the melafix to a full dose.

its a 55 gallon tank so i'd rather not do 50% water changes every day. also only a small amount of the fish are affected. i know that it is very contagious but i fear that 50% water changes would do more harm than good, especially because my nitrate levels are low and there is a difference in pH between the tank and the tap water.
 
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