Urgent - Fantail Fin Rot (but no clear reason why)

[jlk]

2 oldies who are about 3 inches inc tails, 1 baby whos about an 1inch inc tail and we added 3 more... who were all about 3 inches...

Its sounds SO stupid but they have LOADS of room... its a big deep tank... I feel so stupid. Considering how long weve had our tropical, we know not to overstock and we are competent enought as some of ours in there are 4 years old now... what occured us to get more?!

Thank you for being honest! Goldfish dont follow the any of the general stocking ideas that some people may apply tropicals- they are very messy, have a huge bioload & potentially can grow quite large (much larger than anyone realizes)! No reason to beat yourself up. It was mistake and now you can recitify the situation to prevent any future misshaps. Let us know how your water parameters look when you get your test kit & we can better advise! Please dont hesitate to ask questions- we are here to help!!!

 

[FishieMomma]

...there have been others here lately that have had issues like you are describing and when they tore apart the tank the gravel was NASTY!! Even tho they thought their gravel vaccing had been good.....

Absolutely my tank's problem. It was thickly piled gravel, too.

 

[smomus]

Absolutely my tank's problem. It was thickly piled gravel, too.

Glad you got it cleaned out! More just to see what your water parameters are when you get your test kit. Which btw I've never used so I can't say one way or another if its reliable or not

 

[JoSalt]

Hi everyone
Right, we've done the full water test - results are:

GH @ 8 We've got some rainwater to go in to bring this down a smidge - lucky the great british summer is providing ample
KH @ 18, which is a high - it says I need special stuff to bring this down - any other ways of lessening this? I'm conscious we've put alot of chemical medicine in to the warter this week and would prefer to do it naturally if possible?
PH @ 8
NO2 @ 0.3
CO2 @ 6
Temperature is still on 20

Bronze veil is still plodding on and hasnt got any worse, and is only slightly raggy on one side - but hasnt got any better. Other 2 oldies and baby are still seperate from her. She's been treated with her final dose of Esha 2000 now.

Gravel has been scooped - and theres no hidden sludge or slime.

Any ideas?? Perhaps it was just stress and over stocking to quickly....

 

[jlk]

Your kh is fine- do not worry about it & do not add any chemicals! Goldies actually do better in harder, more alkaline water. How do your ammonia levels look? A detectable nitrite level is a bit concerning- just stay on top of your water changes to keep this below .25ppm. Hopefully, your fish will recover on his own with healthy water but keep us posted if anything changes!

 

[Hobgob]

Did you remove the carbon from your filters when you put the meds in?

 

[JoSalt]

Your kh is fine- do not worry about it & do not add any chemicals! Goldies actually do better in harder, more alkaline water. How do your ammonia levels look? A detectable nitrite level is a bit concerning- just stay on top of your water changes to keep this below .25ppm. Hopefully, your fish will recover on his own with healthy water but keep us posted if anything changes!

Thanks The nitrite reading was the lowest it could be with the test we have, it was slightly paler than the colour sheet but i wanted to err on the side of caution. I'll keep my eye on it. Ammonia was 0.

Fingers crossed. Thanks so much for all your help. xx Jo

 

[JoSalt]

Did you remove the carbon from your filters when you put the meds in?

Yes - not the first day, but 2nd day we did. Its still out now. I know the carbon absorbs the medication but I was conscious that its a faff to get the filter out and disturbs the tank quite a bit - so when we thought it was just stress it seemed safer to leave it well alone to try and keep them calm. The whole rapidity of the situation, alarmed us so much we striped it out and medicated for longer.

I'm not overly sure the meds are actually doing anything. The waters good, the gravels good, shes eating and swimming but the furry white edge is still creeping...

Theres literally nothing more we can do now but monitor and wait.. it's so frustrating

 

[jlk]

I am guessing your not from the US which means access to antibiotics would be impossible without a vet. Methylene blue is very common everywhere & you can try daily bathes to help limit the infection.

 

[Hobgob]

Are you doing daily 50%water changes? Clean water really helps in these situations...

 

[JoSalt]

I am guessing your not from the US which means access to antibiotics would be impossible without a vet. Methylene blue is very common everywhere & you can try daily bathes to help limit the infection.

No - no access to anibiotics without a vet (am in the UK). She's still ok - no better, no worse. Am keeping my eye on her. We've stopped drastic water changes now as we noticed they were making her lay on the bottom of the tank for hours - she seems happier without them every day and is swimming around happy as larry - which sounds backwards but if its working and she's healthy(ish) i dont care... The biggest help has been putting as many air stones in as we could find - they've perked her up no end - remarkedly so.

In other news - our Angel Fish in our tropical tank are have started breeding naturally today - its their 3rd attempt and seem to be doing pretty well this time!!! Excited!

x
Jo

 

[jlk]

Congrats on the angels! Keep us posted your girl & dont hesitate to ask questions!