Treating fin nipping

[connor31556]

Hi guys it's been a while since I posted a question because I usually look on the internet for the answer before I ask on here but for this one I couldn't find the answer so I have a 20 gallon tank been setup since last new years and I have 3 swordtails 2 females and a male 2 male guppies (looking into getting 4 females for this problem) and 1 corydora ( I know I'm soposte to have a group of them but I've had at least 15 others all at different times that just cant survive and this guys been here since last March and wont die lol) the tank is well filtered and even planted a little but the water is in good condition so that's not the problem. My problem is that one of my guppies with a beautiful tail has been getting nipped by the other guppy and the male sword tail after his fin got hurt when he got sucked up as I was vacuuming the gravel (still upset I did this) after this initial injury the fish was fine for about a week or 2 when I noticed he was getting nipped by the others so I put him in a breeder box I have with a little ornament in there to give him cover since being in the box I have been feeding him a little more often then the others to encourage healing more he has been eating aggressively! And he is also squirming around as much as he can in there when he sees me but the one problem is that after a couple days his fins haven't gotten much better like they haven't gotten any worse but they haven't gotten any better either so last night I gave him a epsom salt dip. Realizing that I should have used aquarium salt instead I ran out tonight and got that tonight. The way i do my dips are by taking about a .5 gallon tupaware and add .25 tsp of that salt I stirred it until it was completely dissolved then put him in it for 12 minutes (was this the right amount of time? He didnt look uncomfortable but I didnt wanna leave him in too long) after that I put him back into the breeder box and he is back to normal. With this I guess I'm just looking for reassurance that I'm doing it right I dont have a extra tank so I'm doing my best with that also how long do you guys think this will take before the guppy is all better? Thank you to everybody who responds and I hope I put everything I wanted to put into this

 

[King Fisher]

You can do 20 minutes on the salt dip. You can also use .5 tsp per .5 gallons of water.

I've tried dips before but I usually just dose an entire tank with all my other fish or I dose a quarantine tank.

I think you are doing ok so far.

 

[connor31556]

If I were to dose the entire tank, would the other fish be fine? And how would I go about getting the salt out?

 

[King Fisher]

Yes your fish will be fine with proper dosing. There was a time where I dosed aquarium salt for years straight because I was taught it was good for their health. I never had any adverse effects. In your case it will be short term anyways.

Begin dosing your tank during your regular partial water changes. You should be doing 50% water changes every week. Do your partial water change, Add 1 TEAspoon of aquarium salt per 5 gallons of water. Repeat this every week. If you don't really see a change in the fins after a few weeks then up the dosage to 2 TEAspoons of salt per 5 gallons of water.

I've ran as high as 1 TEAspoon of salt per gallon to fix moderate fin damage. You remove the salt after treatment by simply continuing your partial water changes without adding salt. Eventually you will change out enough water to eliminate the salt from the tank. The same idea as with removing medication from a tank. There's no rush to immediately remove all salt from the tank the day you quit treating with salt.

 

[connor31556]

Ok I'm going to continue the dips for a couple days and if it hasent gotten better at all I'll add it to the tank

 

[connor31556]

In the mean time my local fish store just got a couple honey gouramis and they are never here in my area in New york do you think that if I got that fish he would be good in my tank (with my fishs) and would the salt bother him if I did put it in the tank?

 

[King Fisher]

Honeys are pretty peaceful. I've used aquarium salt and Epsom salt with dwarf Gourami's with no issues.

Can you pick up a cheap 5g quarantine tank?

 

[connor31556]

Sorry I didnt reply I didnt see it haven't been on here in a while I've noticed that his fin is getting blackish towards the bottom where the worst nipping was and in the middle it's getting white towards the tips I still have him in the box because on 2 separate occasions I put him in the normal tank. The first time one of the female guppies took a huge chunk off the top and the second time he just went to the back corner and hide so hes back in the box I do weekly salt dips because I have plants in the tank and I am really thinking im going to have to get a second smaller tank next to it I already have everything for it besides the tank and a heater so that might be soon but is this normal to take this long? I really hacenf noticed any change ps sorry about the pic he wouldn't stay still