Fungus/fin rot

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Bluedot

Aquarium Advice Apprentice
Joined
Feb 27, 2019
Messages
11
Hello so recently I have put a new fish into my aquarium with my 8 month old fancy gold fish named leelee. Well it turned out that fish was sick and we took it back to the pet store and they tried to save her but didnt. So as you may have guessed leelee is now sick with fin rot and I have been treating it with API fungus cure and it seems to be working. I have put the two doses of medicine in and waited and today is the day I do a 25 percent water change. While she does look better she still had the white stuff that was rotting away her tail, but not as bad as before. I emailed the company of the medication and they said if I needed to do a second round of the medication I should put it in right after the water change. Its weird because she will sit at the bottom of the tank not moving until I pour water in the tank or, shake the plant she is on and she will randomlly get up and start moving like nothing is going on, but a few minutes later lay back down. This causes another problem with her eating because I feed her flake food, I tried to feed her sinking pellets but it ended up were I just simply did not know how much to feed her. But every time I ‘wake her up’, she will eat a little bit then spit out a little bit, not all of it though. But I think its because of my next point. On top of her being sick I got my water tested and figured out that I had crashed the tank by mixing conditioners and other things to help her tank. So the ammonia levels were very high at one point but they seem to be fine now. My concern is that her pH is still very very very low and I don’t know what will work with the medicine or if I should wait to do something about it. What I have read around is that baking soda helps the pH but is it true?? And if so how much do I put in?? It is a 29 gallon tank woth only the one fish in there and no other pets. There’s quite alot of info here and multiple questions but I really need some advice because I am a beginner fish keeper. Her pH is at 6 her KH is 0 her GH is 180, ammonia is 0, nitrates and nitrites are at 0. I have not changed the rocks at all since I got her 8 months ago, due to the assumption of the rocks give her bacteria that she needs.
Thank you so much!
 
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You could use baking soda to neutralize your acidic water but at this point you will be doing frequent water changes to keep the water pristine so he can heal. This also means you'd have to dose your tank every water change. You should do a 25-35% water change daily while he's trying to heal.

A safe dosage of baking soda to start out with is 1 teaspoon per 5 gallons of water. After 24 hours test your pH in the tank. Try to keep it above 7.0.

Another option is using crushed coral. If you can't find it locally you should be able to find it online. This will also raise pH and keep it fairly consistent which is important.

Add some aquarium salt to your tank. Dose at 1 teaspoon per 5 gallons of water. Continue adding with the water you change out.

IMO you should treat him with a bacterial medication and maybe even a parasite medication. Sometimes these two go hand in hand with fin rot.
 
Thank you so much! I will try that with the pH

I had no idea fin rot was caused by other problems! But the medication I was giving her before said it treated bacterial infection so I put her on a second dose of it.

She seems right now like a happy and almost healthy fish! Thank you so much for the advice :)
 
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