My fish is dying because of a sudden, overnight case of fin rot.

[Aneamals]

I got my first fish, a male Platy, and I kept him in a 3 gallon quarantine tank for 3 weeks so far. Today, he was discovered with fin rot all of a sudden. Last morning he was perfectly fine, clear beautiful fins, eating, active. I had to stay over somewhere else last night, so I couldn't give the tank a water change. (I do a water change every single night, knowing that my tank is way too small.) But looks like that wasn't a good idea, as he is currently in horrible, sad conditions. I had noticed the ammonia was rising slowly, from 0ppm to 0.25ppm to 0.50 ppm. But I didn't know how bad it would get for not changing the water just one day.

His condition is very bad right now, all his fins are experiencing fin rot, wasting way and ragged and white. By all his fins, I mean all of them, including the tail fin and even the top fin above him. There's even some peeling around his eyes. He is also slowly flipping over. His position right now is upright, face to the surface, and he is laying by some fake plants to keep himself still, instead of floating around with the current of the filter. I changed an entire gallon of the 3 gallons, and added a lot more of Prime.

I just set up a new 10 gallon quarantine tank, but it needs to cycle, so I'm afraid of putting him in there. The new tank is currently using a used, cycled filter, and I dropped a few cycled gravel stones in there, and a raw shrimp, to cycle.

Is there something else I can do to try to save him? I really don't want him to die.

 

[Aneamals]

An ammonia spike is killing my fish

Ok, I did a second water change now. I tested a few minutes after, and there is no more ammonia. My fish is still really bad, very weak. At one point he got stuck to the filter tube that sucks water, and didn't have the strength to swim away, so I gently nudged him free with the gravel vacuum tube, and turned the filter off. He is now grasped by some fake plants again, and I turned the filter back on. He is still breathing, but kind of heavily, yet weakly, if that makes sense. He only moves his fins once in a while to stay in place. He is still positioned with his face pointed toward the surface. He moves his lips a lot.

I don't think he's going to make it. Do you think he can heal? I did all I could. I know for sure it was the ammonia, not a disease or infection, so I shouldn't use any medication. All I can do is change the water whenever I can, and lower the flow of the filter. Maybe I should also lower the flow of the air pump too. But I had a low oxygen problem before, and I don't want that to happen again.

Any advice you can give me?

 

[Alex58]

Do you have a tank with a filter?

 

[Mebbid]

You can try an airstone to help but it's unlikely he is going to make it. Once the fish are unable to keep themselves upright the outlook is pretty grim.

Imho, it's honestly better to skip the quarantine in the future if they are going to go into an uncycled 3g tank. However, in the future add some cycled filter media to the QT tank from your old one to insta cycle it.

 

[Aneamals]

Do you have a tank with a filter?

Yes, the tank has a filter.

 

[Aneamals]

You can try an airstone to help but it's unlikely he is going to make it. Once the fish are unable to keep themselves upright the outlook is pretty grim.

Imho, it's honestly better to skip the quarantine in the future if they are going to go into an uncycled 3g tank. However, in the future add some cycled filter media to the QT tank from your old one to insta cycle it.

Oh, no, the quarantine was cycled. But I was told by other members here, that the smaller the tank, the quicker it is for ammonia/nitrite to rise, and the easier it is for things to go wrong. So it was most likely that, since the tank was only 3 gallons. I bought a 10 gallon now, so I'll be using that tank next time.

 

[Aneamals]

Ok, guys, forget it, my fish is way worse now. He's on the bottom of the tank, on his side, breathing weakly. I'm going to euthanize him. He's suffering too much. I'm going to drop him in almost frozen water. That, supposedly, instantly kills tropical fish. Thanks for whatever help you all could provide me.

 

[Matt68005]

Methylene blue and PWC in a Seperate tank that is at least 10 gallons, i saved a fancy goldfish that was totally destroyed and ragged fins from getting into a fight with a koi with just methylene and an airstone and some medicated food, he had to stay in this treatment for about 2 weeks almost, then he was fine, still got him today.
Maybe in the future you can use this chemical dye that is safe and very effective for a number of ailments. look into it.

 

[Aneamals]

Methylene blue and PWC in a Seperate tank that is at least 10 gallons, i saved a fancy goldfish that was totally destroyed and ragged fins from getting into a fight with a koi with just methylene and an airstone and some medicated food, he had to stay in this treatment for about 2 weeks almost, then he was fine, still got him today.
Maybe in the future you can use this chemical dye that is safe and very effective for a number of ailments. look into it.

WOW! Thank you! Methylene Blue sounds like a miracle now that I googled. I hope I can find it in my country. I can't seem to find medicated food either, and it doesn't ship here if I want to buy online. :C I need to visit that big lfs in my country, and see if they have anything useful. XD

 

[Matt68005]

Puerto rico is a US territory so you should be able to order from certain online sites and they will ship to the "continental US, alaska, hawaii and the territory of Puerto rico" they should at least.