What's Wrong With My Endlers Tail?

Apologies about the blurry pictures but he swims very fast and difficult to catch him still.

 

Have you ever put him with a different fish?

 

Yes - he was in my main tank with my other 4 guppies and another endler. But he was not bullied, on the contrary, he was constantly bullying one of the guppies. I never saw anybody harassing or nipping him.

Think he might be getting worse. Any clue what's going on?

 

One of your fish is aggressive. I have a goldfish and 2 green spotted puffers. The gsp are supposed to be aggressive, and I found the goldfish nipping their tails. put the endler in a seprate tank for a couple weeks.

 

HI all, I'm panicking because I don't want to lose my poorly fish.

History:

8 days ago I noticed my endler guppy had a shredded tail, with white end (you can see him in the pic). Did some research and shown various pictures to LFS and the outcome was it could be fin rot. I isolated him in a QT (not cycled) and started treating him with king British disease clear. After 3 days of treatment I could not see any improvement. So I went to another fish store and they gave me esha2000 for fungus, fin rot and bacterial treatment. This med contains copper, but in the leaflet it says it should be safe. I'm at the third day of dosage and my endler seems less active (maybe due to copper?). Yesterday I further noticed a white stringy poop coming from him (same today, you can see on picture). I did some research and it says it could be internal parassite or constipation.

Current situation:

I'm going to feed him a pea today for constipation. I can not add any other medicine for parassite today with Esha2000 treatment going on AND my ammonia level is between 0.25 and 0.5 (obviously, because the tank was not cycled - stupid me). But if I do a water change I will take away the medicine.

Questions:

What do I do now? What are the next steps?

I am supposed to go on holiday this Friday and I don't have a second automatic feeder for my QT. I am worried about putting him back in my display tank, as he might be contagious, but I can't leave him in the QT, as he can not be fed there.

Please help, I really want to save this little one.

Can anybody help?

 

Hi, I'm so sorry you haven't gotten a response yet.
Try sticking to one med at a time. Certain medications can cause stringy poop, as can quite a few other things, so it may not be internal parasites.
How long are you going on vacation for?
How long have your had your endler?

 

Thanks so much for your answer.

I'm going on vacation for 15 days.
I first got the endler 4 weeks ago.

Today he is still much less active than usual. Yesterday he nibbled on the pea, but I haven't had a chance to see his poo yet. He seems still interested in food and his swimming, albeit slower, seems normal.

Also, I finished the course of medicine last night, so can't wait to do a water change today after work.

Everyone is suggesting to flush it down the toilet, as it already costed a fortune to set up a QT for him, and it appears that more money will be needed, but I am horrified for only thinking about it.

On the other hand, leaving him without food or making the whole tank sick might not be ideal either.

I'm at a loss here.

 

Well, flushing definitely wouldn't be the way to go.
Why won't he be able to be fed while in QT? Do you have an automatic feeder?
4 weeks is the tail end that most recommend to QT, so it's not as likely that he has some random disease.
If you suspect internal parasites, PraziPro is good for that. If you have time, you may want to go with something more general, like API General Cure.
Any chance a neighbor can come feed him? Fish can live fine for a week without food, but when I'm gone for two weeks I do have someone over to feed them three or four times, just to be safe.
If you want to discuss humane euthanization, I can instruct you how to.

 

I do have an automatic feeder, but I will use it for the main tank. I don't have enough experience to "suspect" illnesses unfortunately... So it just comes down to what I read on Google.

Also, I live in the UK and most of the recommended medicines are not available here.

I would be ok with euthanising a fish not interested in food or clearly suffering, but this does not seem to be the case. He still moves properly and eats.

Have another 3 days to decide.. I think that leaving him starving when I am away is even more cruel than killing him.

Do you think I can put him back in the main tank?

 

Honestly I'm not even that good at diagnosing either, I think Goldiemom and DoubleDutch could be of more help (thank guys)

 

The poop actually looks fine to me. People freak at stringy poop but a lot of fish tend to have it. Especially if they have overeaten. I’m more concerned about going away for 2 weeks with no clean water changes for the fin rot. I think he’s safe to put back in the main tank but you have to keep that water clean! Good luck.

 

Thanks. When you say clean, do you mean ammonia 0, nitrite 0 and nitrate sub 20? Because if so, my main tank has those parameters stable and can maintain them for two weeks at a stretch.

If you mean just new water, then that unfortunately will not be possible

 

Unfortunately, I mean water changes because you don’t want harmful bacteria building in the tank and eating at the fin rot. Can anyone come in and do a few water changes while you are away. Just 25% would help. If not, clean really well before you go and add extra filtration. Hopefully that would help. Good luck!

 

Thanks for your advice. When I got home he was still alive. I did a 70% water change and fed him.

He's not very lively, but still interested in food.

Would acquarium salt (or epsom salt) help?

 

Aquarium salt does aid in healing fin rot.