Fin Rot Advice plz

[Colin]

Here is the situation

I bought a betta last Friday, he looked very good but had been in the shop for only a week.

He went in my smaller tank with the tetras, I observed a but of agro but after an hour all was calm.

The tetra tank is maybe 3-4 months old, the water quality is good and to be honest the fish were is really good condition.

Sunday I noticed small white spots on the betta's fins and thought it may be air bubbles getting cought on him due to his frequent visits to the surface.

Monday night I noticed a slight greying at the edges of his fins.

Tuesday night the greying was worse. I had no medication but still placed him in my hospital tank.
I couldnt get to the fls and to be honest I had to watch him slowly die.

last night the I noticed some of the tetra's tail fins are looking washed out and maybe fraying at the edges. the fish are acting oddly, more swimming about than usual.

I have taken the day off work to get to the lfs for some treatment and aquarium salt. I understand this is the course of action I should take.

Question
how much salt should I use to treat the fish?

Does the treatments work, which ones have you had sucess with, we cant get metafix in the uk? has anyone here had sucess?

How do I steralise a tank which has had a deseased fish in it (my hospital tank)? how long should I treat a tank before introducing another patient? I was going to treat the whole of the remaining tank but i have patients needing the hospital tank which I was cycling before the betta got in the way.

Any advice would he helpfull but plz only advice from experience.

[Dave66]

Here is the situation

I bought a betta last Friday, he looked very good but had been in the shop for only a week.

He went in my smaller tank with the tetras, I observed a but of agro but after an hour all was calm.

The tetra tank is maybe 3-4 months old, the water quality is good and to be honest the fish were is really good condition.

Sunday I noticed small white spots on the betta's fins and thought it may be air bubbles getting cought on him due to his frequent visits to the surface.

Monday night I noticed a slight greying at the edges of his fins.

Tuesday night the greying was worse. I had no medication but still placed him in my hospital tank.
I couldnt get to the fls and to be honest I had to watch him slowly die.

last night the I noticed some of the tetra's tail fins are looking washed out and maybe fraying at the edges. the fish are acting oddly, more swimming about than usual.

I have taken the day off work to get to the lfs for some treatment and aquarium salt. I understand this is the course of action I should take.

Question
how much salt should I use to treat the fish?

Does the treatments work, which ones have you had sucess with, we cant get metafix in the uk? has anyone here had sucess?

How do I steralise a tank which has had a deseased fish in it (my hospital tank)? how long should I treat a tank before introducing another patient? I was going to treat the whole of the remaining tank but i have patients needing the hospital tank which I was cycling before the betta got in the way.

Any advice would he helpfull but plz only advice from experience.

First, you won't have to sterilize the tank, as without hosts, the parasites will die off. Just leave the tank without fish for a couple months.
Are the tetras eating? Are they flashing off the gravel or decorations? Does the greying look like a haze? If all that is true, what you have is Velvet (Oodinium sp.).
There are preparations to cure it. Make sure they contain chelated copper, and treat the fish in a hospital tank. Soon as the instructions say the treatment is complete, remove the copper promptly with new, fresh carbon and a 50 percent water change. You must treat in a hospital tank because using it in your main tank will play havoc with your biobed, stress the healthy fish, and you'd never be able to keep a snail or shrimp in the the tank every again.
You could use Acriflavine instead of the copper, but its not as effective and will, among other things, sterilize the fish reproduction organs.
Good luck.

Dave

[Colin]

Thanks for that Dave, it seems like my innitial diagnosis may be wrong.

I need to give you more detail, sorry no photos.

Yes they are eating.

No they are not flashing of the gravel or decorations.

The current problem is with Buenos Aires tetra, the bright red tail fins seem to be fading with a freying on the edges. They do not however have little white spots forming on the fins

The Betta had white spots and greying / freying on the tail fin innitially then the tail seemed to almost desolve and the scales on his back seemed to blister/turn to foam and this developed to his mouth and other parts.

All other fish in the tank look fine but the black widow tetra tail fins look washed out a little but they sometimes do in any case.

Is it fin rot or velvet?

[Dave66]

Thanks for that Dave, it seems like my innitial diagnosis may be wrong.

I need to give you more detail, sorry no photos.

Yes they are eating.

No they are not flashing of the gravel or decorations.

The current problem is with Buenos Aires tetra, the bright red tail fins seem to be fading with a freying on the edges. They do not however have little white spots forming on the fins

The Betta had white spots and greying / freying on the tail fin innitially then the tail seemed to almost desolve and the scales on his back seemed to blister/turn to foam and this developed to his mouth and other parts.

All other fish in the tank look fine but the black widow tetra tail fins look washed out a little but they sometimes do in any case.

Is it fin rot or velvet?

What your Betta succumbed to was indeed fin rot, though fungus the more appropriate term. However, its a bacteria that whose spores appear to look like fungus. The reason fish get fungus is their slime coat was compromised, either by abrasion from a fish net, by stress either by capture or water conditions, or a chill.
I would think your BA Tetra was either nipped by the Betta or one of the other BA Tetras, as they are semi-aggressive as they get older.
To cure your tetra, any aquarium broad based anti-biotic will do. Penicillin at 10,000 units/liter works perfectly, but is difficult for the layman to get a hold of. The cure with the anti-biotic should be effected within a week. I'm sure you know using an anti-biotic would destroy your bio-bed, so use it in a separate container.

Dave

[Colin]

Thanks for quick reply Dave.

I have decided on the course of action.

New small hospital tank, my 18 gal isnt appropriate, Frequent water changes (one per day) for a small duration should be ok. I will use water from my 55 gal for water changes hence reduce the risk of metals n stuff, no filter.

I will quarentine affected fish.

Slime coat addative
Fin rot medication/ half dose
Aquarium salt, but how much?


see how it goes.

I just hope the rest of my tanks stock arnt affected

[Dave66]

Thanks for quick reply Dave.

I have decided on the course of action.

New small hospital tank, my 18 gal isnt appropriate, Frequent water changes (one per day) for a small duration should be ok. I will use water from my 55 gal for water changes hence reduce the risk of metals n stuff, no filter.

I will quarentine affected fish.

Slime coat addative
Fin rot medication/ half dose
Aquarium salt, but how much?


see how it goes.

I just hope the rest of my tanks stock arnt affected

With you using the slime coat restorer, you won't need the salt. Those anti-biotics in those medications are very, very effective on their own.
I doubt your other fish will be affected, as the 'rot' isn't really communicable.
Again, good luck. As you caught it quickly, the prognosis is good.
I don't know if you have Melafix and Pimafix available in your part of the world, but the latter does wonders with fungus, and P-Fix isn't an anti-biotic.
Temp should be the same; you don't want to raise it because that'd just speed up the spread of the disease.

Dave