My goldfish has fin rot. What can I do to save it?

Question

My goldfish has fin rot. I've started medicating it with melafix, but every other time I've tried this, the fish haven't gotten better. Is there anything else I can do to help my fish?

Answer 1

You may ned to use something stronger than melafix to treat your fish. Fin rot is a bacterial disease, and you need a potent antibiotic to kill it. Unfortunately, using an antibiotic in your tank will kill the beneficial bacteria that cycle the ammonia to nitrate as well. This would mean either (A) treating the fish in the tank and cycling over again with the fish once the treatment is completed, or (B) setting up a hospital tank to treat the affected fish.

Use Maracyn or Maracyn TC to treat, or use one of the antibiotics listed in the links below.

Since this has happpened before, perhaps you should look at some specific conditions that affect the tank, since this infection is associated with too much ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate in the water. Do you do a partial water change of 20-30% of the tank volume each week, and do you use a gravel vacuum to siphon everything up from the substrate? Is the fish in a tank with a filter rather than a bowl? Do you overfeed the fish (give more than they eat in 2-3 minutes), or let uneaten food stay in the tank? All of these contributes to the amount of ammonia in the tank, that then contributes to the nitrite and nitrate.

Answer 2

You don't mention the type/s of filtration you have. Hopefully you have more than what is rated for a 10 gallon aquarium. To treat your remaining fish, you need to use either Melafix and Pimafix together OR use Furazone Green. Remember that when medicating you need to remove all carbon from your filters. They are getting sick due to the poor water quality. That is from a combination of issues. Overcrowding, overfeeding, and under filteration would be my guess. I would upgrade my filters, though I am not sure what you have. I would one as you said try to get a bigger tank, but in the mean time an undergravel filter with power heads AND a hang on the back filter (I like Marineland's biowheel filters) that is rated for a 20 gal. If you are using a heater, quit....Goldfish are cold water fish and that could also be stressing them out. Salt will help with nitrite poisoning which with your ammonia level at 6.0 I am sure your nitrite level is quite high as well. I would start feeding them less too. Don't follow the directions on the back of the food. Remember it is better to have slightly hungry fish that will search for any uneaten food scrap, than fish that have food decaying and making the water quality poor. I feed just what they eat in a couple of minutes every other day...Trust me they won't starve That is the best I can do with the info presented. I hope it helps and good luck!

Answer 3

Hi Marie, carry on with the Melafix-follow the instruction exactly & complete the full course-your fish should make a full recovery. The fins will regrow completely unless the rot has gone right down to the base but even in this extreme case the infection will be stopped by the Melafix treatment.

Answer 4

the bacteria that causes fin rot is normally present in the water. it is when the fish is stressed that fin rot occurs.
look for anything that might be causing the stress. temperature(might be too hot goldfish is a coldwater fish), water ph etc.

you don't need to medicate right away. what i did when my goldfish had fin rot was give it a salt bath and remove the pleco cause i think it was the stressor.

I think you need like 1 tsp of aquarium salt for every gallon of water.you could use ordinary salt(uniodized) cause iodine kills the fish.but what I did was put in a different container and put a tsp of salt in about 3 gallons of water and leave the fish for about 10 minutes.then put it back in the aquarium.but before putting it back in the aquarium slowly add water in the container so it won't have a body shock when you put it back in the aquarium

you should read this website to better understand fin rot

http://freshaquarium.about.com/cs/disease/p/finrot.htm

Answer 5

Best thing to do is make sure the water stays super clean. Melafix is pretty cheap, I would look in the maracyn line for what it says will treat fin rot, that is far better. It is a bacterial condition.

Answer 6

You could buy Jungle Fungus Clear Tank Buddies or Pimafix which is like Melafix, but is for fungal infections like fin-tail rot. The Melafix should work, but not as good as Pimafix would.

Answer 7

melafix isn't really a medicine -- its kind of like antibacterial soap for the fish.

first do a 25% water change or a complete water change if its in a bowl.

i have good luck with aquarium salt -- use one tablespoon disolved for 5 gallons of water.

you can use antibiotics. i use maracyn and maracyn2 in combination if its bad -- like the fish loses 1/2 its tail overnight -- it stops it right away. you want to finish the treatment through the week though.

Answer 8

Not to be crude but give up and get another one, or tell your local pet store.

Answer 9

go to your local fish store or pet store and tellt hem they will give you medicine

Answer 10

Flush it.