Sick/dying fantai

[Fantailkelly]

Hello,

Can someone please help! I have three fantails, four albino lochers and 16 baby lochers ( in a hattery) ! And since baby's arrived ( four months ago) I have been doing a 25% water change once a week and all has been well until I woke up this morning and my silver fantail is really sick. It looks like her tail and fun have been put thro a shredder and she's gone a off white colour and feels ruff to the touch. She's lost all her strength and can barely swim and my lochers have been attaching themselves to her. Now few hours later she's not moving just going round with water flow, she's barley breathing and I have quartined her and put fin rot treatment in as thought it was that?

Please help or advice I don't want to loose her of my other fish!!!

 

[Jessy2363]

what's in the fin rot treatment? Melafix? It won't do much if there is a bacterial infection present that has gotten out of control. When a fish is that far gone it is either an intense parasitic infestation and or a full on bacterial infection. Rotting of the fins is only a mere side effect.

First do a salt dip with water from the beach to rid any parasites embedded within the gills. You need to do it till the fish rolls over then take it out. 30 seconds to 5 minutes approx. Some fish can tolerate long dips like molly's for example. Followed by api furan 2 and Seachm kanaplex combined. Broad spectrum antibiotics to target internal and external. Seachem sulfathiazole is also good. You need treat for parasites also which antibiotics does not do so well. Although the furan 2 does target certain parasites. Anyway once you've done your antibiotics treatment use seachem paraguard for a while (around 3 weeks) to cover any parasites that could have started all this. Their life cycles vary hence the 3 weeks to cover yourself as you don't want it happening again.

 

[Fantailkelly]

Hey,

It's a product call interpret anti fungus and finrot. Did full water test and everything came back normal. It happened over night. She was perfect Saturday night and then Sunday morning she was really ill... Sadly I lost her last night at 9pm so less than 24hrs she was gone. But my other fish seam fine?? Should I do the salt dip for my two that look fine? Thank you so much for your advice

 

[Jessy2363]

Hey sorry about the fish dying umm be careful of interpret as I often wonder if they use formalin in their products which doesn't always work for really sick fish as it's extremely toxic and stresses them out. Formaldehyde is formalin btw and generally only good for parasites and fungus but not bacteria. Next time use antibiotics for fish or proper meds that treat parasites like tetra parasite guard or API general cure although I prefer the tetra one as the ingredients are better. It's always difficult to know if a fish's illness is parasitic or bacterial. True Fungus (not columnaris) is not that dangerous and is easy to cure and is sometimes a secondary problem to something more sinister. Unless the fish has flowing fins that are susceptible to true fungus. Like angels for example.

Don't worry about dipping the other fish if they're fine. Even catching a fish in a net compromises its immune system as stress causes they osmosis function to not operate correctly which opens them up to disease again. It can take them 6 weeks to recover from being caught by a net lol. They are so so delicate. Even changing tanks can stress a fish and cause they to get sick. Which is why tank mates, adequate tank side and hiding places are so important to prevent disease as stress is the number one killer of fish due to its ability to cause their body to not function correctly with adrenalin freaking them out.

Long story short. Maybe consider getting a real good UV steriliser? One that puts out a decent amount of litres per hour, not a weak one but a decent one. It doesn't always stop illness but it can help prevent pathogens like Ich and velvet for example. Parasitic Algae. One less weight off your shoulders.