Tail or Fin Rot

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sdellin

Aquarium Advice Addict
Joined
Jun 8, 2005
Messages
1,368
Location
Vacaville, California
I just recently bought a six-line wrasse. It's eating normally, but I noticed today that it has what looks like fin rot on the two pectoral fins. I can't really tell, but I think there is a little bit of tail fin missing also.

Can anyone suggest a treatment? I have treated freshwater, but this will be my first saltwater treatment. I have other small fish in the same tank and some live rock, but no inverts.
 
Okay, Hopefully this will load... out of 700 pics, this is the best one.
This fish acts healthy, feeding greedily, but he does have a white speck on one eye as well as the fin problem.

I was going to set up a QT tank today and try to treat him.
 
What, your fish do not hold still for the camera??? Okay, it is really hard to tell from the pic but let's suppose it is fin rot. This is brought on by some type of stressor, either water parameters or another bully fish. The first step in Tx is eliminating the stress. Setting up a QT and removing the fish may cause a bit more stress short-term but I would suggest doing it. What else is in the tank? Any more aggressive fish? Meds like Melafix or Maracyn may work but see if simple QT for a couple of weeks does the trick. Keep a constant eye on AT water parameters. Any other fish have symptoms?
 
No other fish have symptoms. The royal gramma let this guy know which hiding space was his when I first put this guy in there, but I haven't seen him being harassed since then. He swims around the gramma all the time now, no problem, but I think that was the gramma extablishing his preference in the beginning.

I just got this fish three or four days ago, so the illness could have been from the capture and transport to the fish store and then to me??? I am a bad parent and did not have a QT tank set up, the 15g was supposed to be my qt, but I ended up making it a second tank. In the tank I also have two ocellaris clowns and a dragonet, that't it. There is live rock in there.

Today, I went out and bought a 10g starter tank with filter and heater. I was going to seed it with water from my 55g tank (my main tank). I will put him in there and watch him for a few days. I did by some melaflix(spl?) as recommended, so I'll use it if he doesn't get better.

I was thinking I should take a handful of gravel from the main tank to put into the qt tank so that there will be some bio-filtration, whaddaya think?
 
Lando, sorry for the delayed response, I thought I had posted the response earlier today, but when I came back to check, it was still sitting on my computer waiting to be submitted. Thanks for your patience, oh silly me.

QT tank all set up, haven't moved the fish there yet. Do you think the handful of gravel and a small piece of live rock will be good for bio-filtration?
 
Yes, I would move it to QT and keep an eye on water parameters for a couple of weeks. If you think the gramma is the aggressor, his time in QT ay be coming :wink:
 
okay, thanks. i may bug you in three weeks when I mone him back. if the gramma harrasses him, i'll need suggestions. I could always move the gramma to the 55g tank and let him see what it feels like to be the new kid on the block! :lol:
 
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