No back fin

[lyquidphyre]

I came home and one of my tail head light fish is missing his ENTIRE back fin and the whole back area of his body is white. It does not look good at all. What do I do?

I made one of the pix more purple so you can see the missing fin better

 

[Allivymar]

Ack. Not good.

While theres a chance its the result of an attack by another fish (whats in with him btw? I don't remember), I doubt it.

I think it may actually be a case of columnaris, and a nasty one at that. Do read this article: http://www.aquamaniacs.net/flex.html . Were there any signs previously, or at least the last time you looked?

And what are the water parameters?

 

[lyquidphyre]

I have some rasboras, 5 white clouds, one guppy, 5 tail head lights and three goldfish.

I havn't noticed anything weird in the past few days. He developed this over night because he was fine when I left my apt late last night.

I honestly don't know my parameters. I planned on getting all the testing kits this weekend.

I read that article and the white stuff isn't fuzzy at all. It reminds me of a calus almost

 

[Allivymar]

Columnaris doesn't necessarily need to be fuzzy. It is, however, one disease which can be EXTREMELY virulent and can become serious/deadly extremely quickly. I lost a bunch of rams to the flexibacter bacteria recently; the first one showed signs in the early afternoon; 12 hours later it was dead. There was no fuzz; the first sign was yellow/white swollen lips, then heavy breathing, then swimming near the surface, then death.

Ok, def not the other fish attacking it, although they may be picking at the damage. I'd remove the sick fish ASAP; keep an eye on the others tho. It will need a strong broad spectrum antibiotic immediately; tetracycline or Kanacyn would be a good choice. If you can't find either of em, try Maracyn and Maracyn2. Because of the rapidity of the infection, I'm somewhat doubtful about the poor baby's survival, but fish have done stranger things. And do a water change on the main tank of at least 20% as well.

 

[lyquidphyre]

would they have that med. at Wal-mart? That is the only thing I can think of tht would be open on turkey day

 

[Allivymar]

Mebbe; worth a try to check em out if it's not hours away.

 

[lyquidphyre]

He didn't make it =o(

 

[Allivymar]

I'm sorry lyquidphyre

I can't say I'm too surprised; as I said before columnaris is nasty, especially a virulent form like that (I'm quite sure now the issue is the flexibacter bacteria). Do keep a close eye on the rest. If you see any signs on the other fish, you'll need to treat the entire tank.

 

[lyquidphyre]

they seem to be doing okay this morning.

But noticing the trend- I will prolly come home to a mass suicide in my tank or something.