Stressed fish let to fin rot? Help!

[Aniistarr]

Hi, some of you already know i have only one female swordtail in my 2.5G and i know it is too small and will get a 5G soon, once i move some stuff to make more space for a 5G tank.

Right now my swordtail has fin rot, what will be the cause of that? i know is not the water being dirty since i already did PWC on Saturday and did a 50%, her tail has a little bit of fin rot, what is the reason of that? is it because she is stressed out? or what it is?

Also i just did another 30% water change.

PH-7.2
Ammonia-0
Nitrate-Don't know

 

[librarygirl]

Fin rot is usually a sign of bad water. Do you know nitrites? How long has the tank been set up?

You could try some Melafix and keep the water very clean.

It could be stressed too. 2.5 is way too small for a swordtail and unfortunately so is a 5 gal. You'd need at least 20 gals for a few of them.

 

[Aniistarr]

I don't know the nitrites, don't have the test kit for that the tank has been set up for months already and i did fish less cycling.

I was using Melafix for a day, but then my swordtail kind of didn't want to eat and always stayed at the bottom so i decided to stop using it and now she is back to normal. I am going to do a PWC now to see if she gets better, i don't know i'm kind of scare of using Melafix , but if she doesn't get better with only doing water change then i guess i have to use Melafix

....so even a 5G won't work, then i will wait until she heals and might give it away to a LFS

 

[SushiLuckyFin]

I'd suggest getting those test kits.

It would be difficult to monitor whether the tank has cycled in the first place without having those test kits.

From what I have read fin rot isn't particularly contagious amongst healthy fish in good water.

As with any infections good water and stress free fish are the best defences.

Good luck!

 

[Aniistarr]

I have attach a picture of how the fin of my swordtail looks, keeping the water clean seems to make no difference, her fins looks like is getting worse, i think i might have to use melafix to treat it