captaincrunch

Hi yall,

My question is in regards to fin rot. One of my platies is experiencing a serious case of fin rot, which initially was slightly noticable after i had purchased him from petsmart. Now, the condition has worsened quite a bit and the platy is just resting on the bottom of the tank, behind same fake plants. while at rest, he is moving frantically around just to stay afloat, in the same place. When i feed the fish, he also joins to eat but the other platies are aggresive and eat all the food before fin rot platy has a chance. What should i do.

Also, i have 3 tiger zanio's, which were all fine, however, one of them now just sits on the bottom behind the fake plant with fin rot platy, and his skin tone went from being silverish to yellowish, and he seems to be very lethargic. i have recently taken both fishes out of my 40 gallon tank and put then in a smaller tank, treating them with gentian violet, as instructed in a fish book. Any other advise?

susitna-flower

First it sounds like your tank isn't cycled. You need to read about the nitrogen cycle:

http://www.fishlore.com/NitrogenCycle.htm

You need to be doing water changes every day, and get the API Master test kit for freshwater (liquid) to determine just how much. If ammonia or nitrite are up over 0 you have to do 25-50% every day.

The fish are stressed with an un cycled tank. This makes any problem in the tank worse. Since you bought a fish with fin rot, it has only gotten worse. Many large water changes, should help. If it doesn't you may need to medicate, but I never recommend this first.

Read the entire article on the nitrogen cycle and you will understand more what you are facing. Good Luck

betta-cat

I learned a valuable lesson a while ago with new fish. Always, always quarantine and watch them a week or so before adding them to your tank. Months ago, I brought in fin rot that afffected other fish. Multiple water changes and treatment helped heal the tank but I lost a couple of beauties. So a few weeks ago, I got a pair of new platies, I isolated them and yes, indeed, one was sick. They were much easier to treat in a small, separate tank. 2 weeks later, they were healthy and well enough to add to the rest of the group. I'm sorry for your troubles and I agree, clean water and cycled water is vital. Also try some 'bowl buddies' tablets to temporarily decrease ammonia levels to help ease the tank if your levels are too high.