Fin Rot questions

[MorganM]

My 1 inch black skirt tetra appears to have fin rot. His anal and dorsal fins have tears in them, and his caudal fin, which is normally crystal clear, is now more of a foggy clear. He is a little over 2 years old. I have a few questions.

First, what product is best to treat this? I am currently in the (6-day) process of using "imagitarium bacterial infection remedy" because that is the only product my pet store had with "fin rot" on the label and I wanted to treat this ASAP, but would buy a different product online to use after this treatment is done (and a 25% water change).

Second, I am not sure if I should quarantine him. He is a VERY fast swimmer, and when we moved houses about 18 months ago, he was the most difficult to transport. I am concerned that my attempt to scoop him will be too stressful. I have read online that fin rot is "highly contagious" but this source did not appear to be reliable. I am unsure if it was caused by nipping. If it is contagious, is it always contagious?

Third, I am curious if this could be caused by the food we are giving them. We always fed them this one particular flake food (forget the name but it had a blue cap if that helps), but recently changed to Omega One brand. I do not want to blame the food, but this is the only new thing our tank has encountered in the past 2 months. We will sometimes feed them blood worms or algae pellets.

For your information, we have a 36 gallon tank that has been set up for about one year. We normally do a 10% water change + vacuum gravel once a week, but did a 20% water change after noticing the illness and prior to adding the above product. The newest fish was added over 2 months ago and is a small pleco, under 2 inches, not sure of the exact species. The other fish include one small angelfish, 3 glass catfish, and who I think is the nipping perpetrator: an African leaf fish (yes I am sure it is an African Leaf fish and NOT a leopard bush fish). I used several sources to ensure these fish were compatible and received an overwhelming yes... at the time. We have not added any new decor in quite some time. For now we are keeping the tank light off.

I know tetras are $4 but this was my first fish and I am willing to spend a reasonable amount to get him better and to prevent his tankmates from becoming ill.

 

[King Fisher]

Is he the only black skirt in the tank?

what does your ammonia, nitrite and nitrates test out at?

have you seen the leaf fish nip the tetras fins?

 

[MorganM]

Is he the only black skirt in the tank?

what does your ammonia, nitrite and nitrates test out at?

have you seen the leaf fish nip the tetras fins?

Yes he is the only black skirt in the tank.

I am not sure what those test out at exactly as we have recently done a 20% water change. I do not have testing strips at the moment.

I have seen the leaf fish pick on the black skirt tetra, but I can't say for sure if it is at his fins.

 

[King Fisher]

Black skirts should be in a school of 6 minimum for good behavior. Yes, they are usually the fin nippers.

Try to get an API Freshwater Master test kit (liquid test kit) and test the water. Most cases of fin rot are from water quality issues.

20% water changes is a pretty small amount especially weekly. For example, Say you had 1 ppm ammonia and you changed 20% of the water......you'd then have .80 ppm ammonia. Both would still be bad.

If you could post a picture so we could see how bad it is that would help on treatment. And I do believe you should probably quarantine at this point. It saves you money on meds because of the smaller water volume, it doesn't expose your main tank to potential BB killing meds and takes out your cycle, and if it is from fish nipping you want him away from the culprit so he can heal.

 

[MorganM]

It was a crazy weekend but I wanted to thank you for your help.

I ended up quarantining him Friday night after reading your reply. His fins have been recovering, but are not completely back to normal yet. His nose is still the same and does not appear to be getting better.

We tested the water Saturday morning and everything was fine - no ammonia. So I am thinking it is the leaf fish.

I don't want to add more tetras because I'm worried the leaf fish will eat them. Our current tetra is too big for him to eat, but new fish are sold rather small. I think we may have to rehouse our leaf fish before adding the current tetra back to the tank and before adding more tetras.

 

[King Fisher]

Idk how bad the fin rot is or if it's mild. Generally if it's mild you can use aquarium salt and keep the water pristine. This is true for fin and skin damage. Meds are ok too but can be hard on the fish. But if you decide to use aquarium salt, dose 1 TEAspoon per 5 gallons of water then bump it up to 2 TEAspoons per 5 gallons after a few days. You can go as high as a teaspoon per gallon but work your way up to that.

Let us know how your Tetra comes along. Try to post a pic of him if you can.