Fuzz on side of Skirt Tetra

[Marty]

Hi,
Great site, learnt a lot.

We have a purple skirt tetra (didnt know these were dyed until researching a bit more into them) who became rather pregnant but wasnt releasing her eggs. Like a few of our other fish, we gently massaged her to release some eggs, sadly, within the next couple of days, she developed some abrassions on one side, which now has some fuzz growing on it.

We moved her to a cycled sick tank, although (after reading the guide on this forum, contradictory to another site i read) i think the sick tank may be continuing with her stress as it is bare.

We are treating with melafix, with a 25% daily water change, but she has now lost appetite (stress?), the abrassions seem healed but there is more fuzz on her.

We have meracyn but i dont know if i want to start treating with that.

I will try and get a photo but she likes to hide beside the filter, and doesnt show us her side.

I dont know if its related, but we lost another skirt tetra (blue) due to starvation. The guy went on hunger strike!! we tried to get to him eat, but he just refused. We have had no other problems with these fish.

Any thoughts would be much appreciated. :)

[Marty]

Day 5 of the Melafix,
The fuzz has almost disappeared, and the abbrassions look like they are starting to withdraw.

The fish is still very reserved, still not eating (after being moved to the sick tank) and is still sitting next to the filter, out of the way of the flow of water.

2 days left of treatment before i see if it is healed. And then hopefully, reintroduction to the main tank.

[PostalPenguin]

Keep treating with Melafix until the wounds are healed, not just for the recomended 7 days. In the future you can try using Pimafix along with Melafix. In combination it will treat both bacterial and fungal infections.

[Marty]

ok sounds good.
we did a water check today, 2 weeks after our last one (i have only been doing them every two weeks because we have been able to keep the tanks stable) and found an extremely high nitrate level.

We realised we changed filter cartridges and these ones dont actually have any of the charcoal, so we think this is why our fish suddenly became unwell.

I dont plan on putting this skirt tetra into the tank until we have cleaned up the nitrate level. We did an initial 30% water change and will test again in the morning.