Please Diagnose My Fish (56k)

[Reepicheep]

I need help diagnosing my fish. Two of my fish, a rainbowfish and a platy, have large, broad white patches on their tail fins. Pictures are below, but some additional information that might help:

-two days ago, a seemingly healthy, new rainbowfish died suddenly. It had no white patches, although it was being bullied by the dominant male rainbow.

-this is a new tank about 2-3 weeks old. It's in a Silent Cycle so ammonia and nitrite are, and have been, zero. Other parameters look good.

-The first fish I put in the tank were five rainbowfish from a LFS that was not reputable (big mistake). Of the five, only one has survived. The ones that died also had sudden white patches on their fins. I suspected it was Velvet, but I'm not sure.

-The currently infected fish show no other symptoms- no dashing against rocks or labored breathing. The white patches appeared quite suddenly (nearly overnight).

-The other fish (5 cories, 6 ottos, and two new rainbows) are seemingly unaffected and show no patches of white.

Here are pictures ...

[Sponsors]

[rasetsu]

Based on the blurry pics, looks like fin rot with a secondary fungal infection.

[blazeyreef]

Originally Posted by rasetsu

Based on the blurry pics, looks like fin rot with a secondary fungal infection.

I second the fungal infection

[Natty]

Thats what I was thinking.

It's so blurry I thought the fish had some natural markings lol.

[Reepicheep]

Yes, I had a hard time taking a clear picture. I'm debating treating the whole tank with melafix and/or setting up a quarantine tank. I don't plan on having expensive fish, but I'm beginning to see the merits of quarantine.

[rasetsu]

If it's on multiple fish and the tank is not too big, treat the whole tank with mela/pimafix. Do frequent partial water changes, remove the carbon filtration, turn off the UV if you have one, and treat with aquarium salt too. Lauralee recommended this regiment when I had a very bad bacterial outbreak and it worked.

[Dkdoll]

I second what rasetsu said. I have not used pimafix, but I know that melafix will often improve the situation for fin rot. I actually find aquarium salt to be the most important agent when treating fin rot, although I would advise going lower than the recommended dose on many packages (they say 1 tablespoon per 5 gallons) as your fish might not be accustomed to that salinity.

Check for improvements (should see notable improvements every two days). If condition worsens, you could go to other "more drastic" treatments, but I have never had success with these.

[lauraleellbp]

Yep go easy on the salt, catfish are sensitive to salt. I use 1/2 tsp per gallon when treating sensitive fish. I treat for one week past the last visible symptom.

GL and keep us posted on how things go?

[Reepicheep]

Thanks everyone for the tips! Here's a quick update...

I decided to get a quarantine/hospital tank - especially since I'm in the very beginning stages of stocking a 55 gal. From my research, the pros of a quarantine far outweigh the cons, and I'm learning that the hard way.

So, all the rainbows were rounded up, along with the infected platy. They were placed into the hospital tank, where I'm dosing the full amount of Pimafix and Melafix. So far so good, the white has disappeared, but they don't have much of an appetite (might be the stress of changing tanks). My LFS doesn't have salt, so I need to keep an eye out for that or order it online.

The cories, ottos, and remaining platy in the main tank are looking great - no signs of sickness or ill health there.

My plan is to keep the hospital going for seven days of treatment, and if all looks good, releasing the fish back into planted bliss.

[rasetsu]

Petsmart and Petco have aquarium salt in stock. There is probably one or both close to you.

[Mori]

Kosher salt from the grocery store is just as good, cheaper, and also close to you.

[lauraleellbp]

You can also get it at the grocery store- you want pure NaCl (Sodium Chloride); try pickling salt or Sea Salt? Non-iodized.

[Bluebell]

Table salt works fine. The amount of iodine concentration is not a concern.