Have I caught fin rot kinda early?

[Ozydego]

I was checking out my diamond tetra today, and noticed torn fins on all three that are left, one was euthanized 4 days ago because his upper face was being eaten away. I took a few pics because they work better than me describing it, I have a 55 gal fully stocked now, 2 powder blue gouramis, 3 diamond tetra, 10 blue tetra, 3 albino corys, and 2 clown plecos. Last water check tested at 0,0,35 with a pH of 7.3, a hardness of 6 and the temp is 77. these parameters have been steady for 2 weeks.

This is the one that I am the most worried about, he has a black area at the base of his tail that has been there for weeks, I thought it could be just him but am not so sure now compared to the other two. The dorsal fin is ripped and the tip of the anal fin is white with a little bit missing...

The other one that shows some damage is this one, notice the tail base is not discolored, but the dorsal fin is split and slight damage to the anal fin.

Also, my plecos are showing ich I believe, 2 days ago nothing, now this. I am thinking I will raise the temp for this, thoughts?
2 days ago

tonight

This caught me off guard because last photo session everything was looking good, except the diamond with the black tail, but like I said, on the left side it almost looks like his coloring, but the right side has the white deformity to it. I need advice now, this got out of hand really quick...

 

[librarygirl]

Not sure about the Tetra but the Pleco looks like it has Ich. How often/frequent are you doing water changes? Clean water can really help and prevent a lot of issues. It's more than just letting the tank sit if it's cycled; reducing nitrates (which are climbing too high in your case IMO) and replenishing the minerals in the water that the fish use up are reasons to do regular water changes. For Ich, raising temp slowly can help, so can adding aquarium salt but I've heard the heat only method works too. Here's a link: Freshwater Ich? Yuck!

 

[Ozydego]

Yeah, I do have to work on my water changes, every 2 weeks right now about 40%. the nitrates never seem to move even after pwc's. Right now I am still getting down a good process, my tank is in my basement and lugging jugs down didn't work I have a pseudo python set up, but when I pinch the line my sink drips underneath... Once I get that worked out, it will get easier for me to do them w/o my wife's help who is very reluctant even at this point.. Definitely going to be doing some major gravel cleaning in the areas not completely full of roots because of the ich tho...

 

[absolutangel04]

Ouch. Sorry about the ich. Truthfully, it looks like the issues with the diamonds might be because of nipping. Thats how my angels looked when they were having territorial issues. The fin splits can be caused by one fin grabbing another's fin as the first fish tried to swim away. Fins are fairly thin, they so tear easily. The white deformity could be because of an old injury or a parasite. Not positive.
You definitely need to treat for ich though. Try just heat first since you have plants. You can add a bit of salt too until your plants start to show signs of stress (brown leaves, withering, ect.). I have treated it before with just heat, so it can work. It seems you found it in the early stages, so that will help in treating it. The more it gets established, the harder it can be to get rid of.
Remeber to continue to treat it a week after the syptoms disappear. It has multiple life stages, so just because you can't see the white spots doesn't mean it is gone.
Try to changes every week, but truthfully, I don't think doing a change that big every other week is deterimental. Especially since your params are steady. But, ich can exist for awhile before showing symptoms (sometimes you NEVER see the white spots and a fish dies from it) so I think it is most likely that it came in on one fo your new fish.

 

[siva]

Do you have any inverts in the tank? In this case you may want to actually do meds. I would prefer salt and heat if possible, but the fish you have may handle meds better. Most meds aren't invert safe so if you have desirable snails or shrimp that might not be an option for you.

Yes, that definitely looks like fin rot to me on the tetras. Not the splits in the fins so much as the white and black discolorations, and the curling in the one photo.

 

[Ozydego]

6 nerites in the tank that I would rather not harm, I have heard a lot of success stories with the heat, I think that will be my first course... I have a lot going on in this tank, with the plants, inverts, fairly newly cycled biofilter, I think heat will be the least detrimental to everything except the protozoan that have taken up residence, thanks for the advice guys, this has me bummed and I appreciate the help...

 

[Ozydego]

I could also see the nipping being the case for part of the fin issue, I only have 3 now and I can see some bullying going on... Once the diseases are sorted out, I was going to fill out that school like I did with the blue tetras, 4 to 10. Possibly 3 more diamonds to reduce bullying...

 

[absolutangel04]

Sounds good. It is definitely a good idea to get the disease issues sorted out first. Too many people just get more fish and then are surprised when the ich pops back up.

 

[Ozydego]

Well, the elite 300 watt heater wasn't doing the trick, so an aquaean 200 watt on sale at petsmart finally got my temp up to 86 degrees, the plecos look happy, none of the other fish show spots, and now I just wait... Even though I had to buy a second heater, I think this was by far the best bet with all the greenery I have and wanting to keep the chemicals out... I just hope the fix sticks... I will definitely be giving it a few extra days to make sure the ich is gone!

 

[absolutangel04]

Sounds good. Glad you finally were able to get the temp up where it should be.

 

[Gboy66]

Hiw are you going to fix the fins? Arent there meds you can buy to help regrow them, besides clean water?

 

[Ozydego]

The fins I am keeping an eye on right now while I treat the ich, the two that have issues are not getting worse at all, in fact, the one that doesn't have the black area at it's tail seems to have the fins smoothing out. I am definitely still worried, especially about the weird area at the base of the tail, but I may end up quarantining the three diamonds if need be... Not 100% sure what "it" is yet, and if I can keep from dosing the main tank I will, hence the quarantine tank..

 

[absolutangel04]

The fins I am keeping an eye on right now while I treat the ich, the two that have issues are not getting worse at all, in fact, the one that doesn't have the black area at it's tail seems to have the fins smoothing out. I am definitely still worried, especially about the weird area at the base of the tail, but I may end up quarantining the three diamonds if need be... Not 100% sure what "it" is yet, and if I can keep from dosing the main tank I will, hence the quarantine tank..

Yeah, fin rot shoudl clear up without meds. Besides, meds have side effects on fish just like they do with people. I think it is wise to use them only as last resort. Especially with "scaleless" fish like clown plecos.
I don't know for sure what the black tail weird thing is, but I will say that I had a rummy who got a tail injury (from a net) and the injury ended up looking just like that. It was sort of black colored on one side and it got whote on the other side of his tail base.
Quarantining never hurts.