Help please. Fin problems

**JeremyFriebel** · 02-02-2013, 05:16 AM

4 of my bleeding heart tetras have some whitening on their fins and one has a white patch on his body. My best guess would be a fun fungus? I had had my tank for 2 months now. I do weekly 10 gallons water changes/vacuuming in my 55 gallon ta k. I also have some algae eaters, loach, 3 gouramis, 5 neons tetras and they have no issues. Please help me. Oh my water temp was 75 and I slowly bumped it up to 80 today. Thank you!! Sorry if the photos don't work or posted doubles I am on my phoneAttachment 27547

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UPDATE: I just noticed a tiny white bump on the bottom of two of their mouths.

**fishn00b** · 02-02-2013, 01:14 PM

I have had something similar hit my rummynoses before. I used some Maracyn and it worked very well, just remember to remove any carbon from your filter before you do it because I think the carbon will negate any effects. It was too late for a couple of them but the infection stopped spreading immediately. Good Luck.

**Honey Badger 1** · 02-02-2013, 01:39 PM

Your attachments don't work. Whitening around the edges of the fins is fin rot, not a fungus, and it's often caused by poor water quality. You need to change more than 10 gallons each week. Do you test the water parameters, what are the ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate levels? The best thing to cure fin rot is clean water. I would start with a 50% water change and continue that every few days and see if the fish start getting better.

**fishmommie** · 02-02-2013, 02:26 PM

Originally Posted by mommy1

Your attachments don't work. Whitening around the edges of the fins is fin rot, not a fungus, and it's often caused by poor water quality. You need to change more than 10 gallons each week. Do you test the water parameters, what are the ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate levels? The best thing to cure fin rot is clean water. I would start with a 50% water change and continue that every few days and see if the fish start getting better.

++ to Mommy1. 10 gallons from a 55 gallon tank is not nearly enough. as she said 50% weekly minimum but for now up that to 3 times a week until the fungus is cleared up.
also - your ammonia should read 0, nitrites 0 and nitrates less than 20. If you don't have an API liquid test kit, you need to get one and check your water perimeters weekly until they are stable. any time ammonia and or nitrites approach .50 and nitrates exceed 20ppm you need a large water change.
good luck

**Cermet** · 02-02-2013, 02:29 PM

Mommy1 +1! (can't give a rep point! Again, my system is not working right! This is getting to be a drag.)

If your water is getting bad with only weekly changes of 10 gal and larger water changes are not fesaible (more like 50% as Mommy1 say's), consider an algae filter. This will help (but never replace ... well, not totally true - there have been closed systems based on these but that is a whole other tpoic) keep the tank cleaner. Even if you can do larger changes, still consider these units - they work really well when combined with regular filters and water changes.