Everlasting finrot 2 years :(

Since 2 years my Siamese algae eater has been suffering from some sort of finrot. I've tried everything I could find on the internet, but haven't had any success.

- I've tried different types of water testers (paper strips, chemical ones) and the values were always perfect, in addition I've let someone check my water values and she said the values were excellent.
- During this time I've also tried several treatments from well known brand such as esha 2000 (+ compatible combo treatments), api melafix, with no succes.
- I've tried different diets as he seems very fat (he has been fat for almost his whole life), 2-3 days breaks between feeding, or more feeding, both seem to not have any affect on the finrot only on the waste in the aquarium.
- Different filters, external filters with different media's although the internal filter seem to do better (although it needs to be cleaned a lot more often). Just as an FYI I almost never use activated coal filters.

Even though he is very much alive, I'm afraid he will die from it, as the disease keeps progressing slowly.

The fish is about 4-5 years old

Current water values:
NO3: 25
NO2: 0
GH: 8°d
KH: 10°d
PH: 7,6
CI2: 0
temp: 25 degrees celsius
volume: 160L

 

Have you tried maintaining nitrates under 10ppm for a month? 10ppm being the max it can go to, and water changing and cleaning before it gets there.

To do this, it will require additional cleanings, and the additional cleaning will reduce the negative/bad bacteria counts and keep them minimal in the tank and those bacteria are likely causing this condition . by cutting the counts low, it allows it to heal up and recover and when it does the fishes immune system will improve and strengthen without this constant battle of the bacteria attacking it's fins.

the thing is, the fins are going to maintain a steady level of decline unless you can get the bacteria issue under control for a while so the fish can get strong and fight it off. it's when these bacterial counts get high and the fish gets run down or stressed, the door opens for the bacteria to take hold and the fins decay, and heal, but never gets rid of it, just a perpetual state of "raggedy", and it comes right back with meds because, meds aren't getting rid of it from the tank, or it immediately attacks the fins again as son as the meds are gone because it's still in the tank in high counts and the fish is still stressed. After fins are healed then it's routine maintenance and cleanings on a regular basis, and it should stay at bay with the fishes own immune system. and doing the water changes around 20ppm nitrates and doing a cleaning.

And no, in case you wondered, you can't clear out that bacteria from the tank without killing off the cycle also in the process, but you can keep it cleaner and fresher, and that will help the fish to help himself.

Like a person getting a cut, got to keep it clean so it can heal, and let the immune system take care of it and recover until it's completely healed up, sticking a wound in dirty puddle water is the last thing you'd really want to do to help it heal, maybe a bad analogy, but something along these lines.

 

Thanks so much for your reply and explanation. This totally makes sense, I just did a water test of my tap water and found out that it has clearly more nitrates than 10ppm, would something like NitrateMinus work in this case?

 

Thanks so much for your reply and explanation. This totally makes sense, I just did a water test of my tap water and found out that it has clearly more nitrates than 10ppm, would something like NitrateMinus work in this case?

Wow that's rough, nitrates in the tap water.....

Yes, that, or nitrazorb, theres a few products that might work. to remove nitrates to some extent, but honestly, you'd probably save money setting up a fence/trellis behind the tank for a pothos plant or two from home depot or walmart and wash off the roots of dirt and put them into the tank, the pothos is a vine, and should make light work of the nitrates in the tank, and grow like a weed. then just trim the vines and roots to keep it from getting too out of hand. the pothos plant might cost about the same as the nitrate absorbing stuff but it's natural, and can live a really long time. where those products would need replacing every so often. the roots will grow downward toward the substrate the leaves will grow upward, out of the tank and up that fence/trellis ect. and just trim things. This might be a long term solution to getting the nitrates out of there for a low carrying cost.

Kind of makes sense why you are reluctant to water change, since it don't get you down enough, and makes sense why the fish has the ongoing problem. It's just as likely the individual fish being born with a weak immune system and unable to completely shake the bacteria from it's extremities though and that perpetual nitrates of the tap water just keeps perpetual stress in small amounts on the fish.

 

Thanks so much for the tips! I went to the store and bought both because I want to reduce the nitrates as fast as possible. There isn't much light above the aquarium so I've just taken a part of the plant (Golden Pothos) to see if it survives.