Finrot how do I best get rid of it

[reallytired]

I posted a thread on "Am I being unreasonable"

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/1339728-to-murder-a-neon-tetra?msgid=28393062

My poor fish have finrot and I am trying to treat it. I lost a poor little neon tetra to the dreadful disease. It died before I could kill it humanely.

How do I best get rid of the finrot?

I have done a 30% water change and I have treated the tank with this
I dissolved the medicine in pint of warm water. I have also cleaned the filter.

www.petsathome.com/shop/interpet-fungus-finrot-100ml-25609

I have taken out the carbon and zeolite filters from the tank as per instructions. How long do I need to wait before putting them back? When should I do my next water change?

I am worried that I might up set the amonia/ nitrogen cycle by adding the medicine to the tank. Should I add filter start to help build up the good bacteria again.

The treatment shouldn't affect the filtration. What sort of filter is it and how did you clean it? Do you always use carbon and zeolite?

If you could give a bit more info about your tank- size, number of fish, cleaning regime etc then that would help. Are there any other symptoms- redness, wasting away, red streaks in fins, cloudy eyes, anything different at all?

Do you have a water testing kit? If so, what are the latest readings?

Our tank is 60 litres. I do a 10% water change once a week. The water is treated with tapsafe. I have 5 platies, 5 glow tetras and one neon. Two of my glow tetras have fin rot, but they are still able to swim. They are missing bits out of their top fin. The rest of the fish are fine.

www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/images/B001BXC3SW/ref=dp_image_z_0?ie=UTF8&n=340840031&s=pet-supplies

We have had the tank for four months and I cleaned the filter twice in that time by getting some water out of the tank, putting it in a bucket and then shaking the sponges off in the water.

It has two sponges inside one black and one white. I guess the black one is carbon, but I don't know what the white foam filter is made off.

I don't have a water testing kit and I have been getting the water tested once a week at pets at home. Last time the amonia was very high , so I did a 20% water change followed by another 20% water change.

Where would be the best place to buy a water testing kit?

10% once a week is not a massive amount. You're not massively stocked but I would be doing around 25-40% once a week and rinsing the filter every week too.

The white sponge is probably just a sponge but it'll be hoarding loads of good bacteria. I like to keep things simple in my tanks, I don't bother with carbon or zeolite or any of that stuff.

You can get a water testing kit off ebay, something like this is ideal.

Thanks for your advice. Its really helpful.

How long does the finrot medication need before I put back my carbon sponge? How long do you think it would take a glow tetra to grow back its fins.

How many fish can you put in a 60 litre tank? What type of fish do you think would go well with my current collection (once I have defeated the current finrot)?

I don't think I'd bother putting the carbon back in, if you follow the instructions on the meds it will probably tell you to do a water change at the end of the treatment. Carbon isn't necessary really, you can run a perfectly healthy tank without it. It's good to have some on hand in case you need to remove meds or pollutants from the water in a hurry but there's no need to use it all the time.

I wouldn't add any more fish, you're not overstocked really but I don't think you could fit in any more. There are general guidelines like 1 inch of fish per gallon but the best way to tell is by monitoring the water quality over a few months to see how the filter is coping and by watching the fish to see how they are getting along.

The last time we had finrot and I treated the whole tank, another fish nearly died as it reacted to the medicine and had to be quickly rescued and housed in a bucket of unmedicated water until I'd done a water change in the big tank.

The most recent time my Black Moor got a bit of fin rot (are they more succeptible as they often seem to succumb while everything else in the tank looks fine and dandy?) I whisked the poorly fish out and treated it in a bucket of water and left it in the medicated bucket for a day or two. At the same time I did a good % water change in the main tank to prevent anything else coming down with anything. I don't think the fin rot is catching, but the poor water quality needs addressing straight away. I have live plants that seem to fall to bits and the little bits rotting spike the nitrates quite quickly I've noticed. Medicating the fish separately means that you don't put chemicals in the water that the rest of the fish don't need. It seemed to work for me last time.