aprilrain85

Geppetto has his first case of fin rot. It really came on all of the sudden - last night when I fed him, he looked 100% normal... now his tail is in shreds and he is very very actively seeking my attention.
I am on my way to look for some meds - I am thinking either Maracyn or Tri Sulfa... depending on what my store has. As soon as I am back I will do a big water change and add the meds.
Darn it!!!

Send your good thoughts our way...

Butterfly

Good thoughts coming your way Maracyn & Maracyn II are excellent fin rot meds. Extremely clean water will also go a long way toward healing his tail.
Carol

aprilrain85

My LFS (Petland) only had triple sulfa and maracyn plus. I have heard good things about both on here, and due to the price, I decided to get the triple sulfa. I am testing his water parameters right now, and am going to do a larger water change (50-60%, when I normally do 25-35%), and then I will start treatment.

aprilrain85

Okay, so his tank levels were normal - 7.2 pH, 0 ammonia, 0 nitrite, 3-5 nitrate.
The temp accidentally went a little high during this water change... I feel really bad, but I got the water a bit too warm - its about 83 degrees. The thermometer is set at 80 though, so it should cool off.

Geppetto was actually funny. When I sat down two hours ago, he was swimming and flaring like nuts getting me to look at him. After I got back from the store with his Triple Sulfa, he was still trying to get my attention. It was like he was thinking "HELLO! Notice me! Something is WRONG!" As soon as I got everything ready and started to test the water he calmed right down. His thoughts seemed to change to "Finally! Now you are doing something about this and I am happy!"

I just wish I new what went wrong and triggered this! My husband fed him this morning and said he did not notice the tail rot... which means there was a lot of damage in a short amount of time - 18 hours from when I fed last night or 5 hours from when he got fed this morning. Does anyone have any ideas of what may have happened so I can avoid it in the future?

One last question. On Friday, once all the treatment is done, how will I know if it worked, or if I need to treat a second time?
I know that unfortunately, there is a lot of experience with fin rot, so does anyone have any ideas, suggestions or advice??

Oh, one last thing - should I keep his normal feeding schedule? Or do I need to do anything differently?

Thanks again!

MissMTS

Sorry to hear about Geppetto! If you can add vitachem to the tank it will help his fins re-grow faster. Garlic guard will also help. I recently used triple sulfa to cure Dusty's finrot and it worked very well. I would keep his feeding schedule the same- just be sure not to overfeed. Sometimes they can damage their tails really badly by dragging them in the gravel. If you don't have marbles already, I would get some for the bottom of the tank since they are nice and smooth. Also, remove anything sharp from the tank that he could have potentially torn his fins on. Good luck and keep us posted.

aprilrain85

Thanks for the advice. I checked for both vita chem and fish protector at the lfs, and they did not have any of either.
I have gravel, but it is the tumbled kind that is all rounded and not sharp.

aprilrain85

Hey All,
I know I am adding a lot today - I just feel so panicky and helpless right now with this new development.
I got some pictures of Geppetto's tail. He did not like that camera today - and normally he loves photo shoots. He also refused to have his face captured... what a diva

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MissMTS

Awww. Poor guy. Please don't worry. He'll be fine. You can order Vita Chem off of drsfosterandsmith.com. That's what I did. I have never been able to find that stuff locally.

LetDiceFly

I bought some vita chem and have put some in the tank, but it says something about putting it in their food. How do you do that?

MissMTS

You can soak frozen food in vitachem

aprilrain85

Treatment seems to be going well so far - I can already notice a bit of regrowth. !!!!

pamd

I'm so glad Geppatto seems better already!

He does seem like quite the diva! From what I've read, they usually don't even know when they have fin rot, and he seems quite aware of and embarrassed about his situation. It's so sweet of him getting your attention like that, then hiding from the camera. Awwwww, poor, sweet and super-smart guy.

I'm sending happy healing thoughts to you and him for his continued improvement.

chickadee

I soak even the freeze-dried bloodworms in the Vitachem and they chow on them immediately and love them. They are good babies and eat their vitamins whether they are sick or not.

Rose

COBettaCouple

I'd say his case of tail rot is mild and I'm not even sure if he had rot to be honest, it may have been just fin damage. But Triple Sulfa and Rid-Fungus is our fin rot treatment, along with fish protector, vita-chem and garlic guard. We order fish protector and vita-chem from thatfishplace.com since DFS doesn't carry fish protector.