My guppies have tail-rot. What should I do?

Question

I have 2 male guppies in a ten gallon tank. I try to keep the tank as clean as I can, and I change the water weekly. For a while now, they have had tail-rot. I've tried everything I can find, but nothing seems to work. Some of the medicine says it works better with out carbon filters, but I'm worried that if I unplug the filter for a week at a time that my fish will run out of oxygen or have too much waste in the tank and it will harm them. Does anyone know any medicine for tail/fin-rot that can work with a carbon filter? Or am I just being too paranoid about unplugging the filter?

Answer 1

Ok, I think I know what you are saying here. Your 10 gallon tank has a filter. At this point there are commonly only 2 kinds: Hang-on-back, and undergravel.

With either, the activated carbon is more or less built into their cartridges. The undergravel has it on the top of the tube, while the hang-on-back has it in the cartridge. With either type you will be just fine if you shut off the filter during treatment. You will, however, need to step-up the water changing schedule. Follow the medication instructions and also change 50% or the water twice a week until you have given finished the medication.

You might want to read this page: http://guppyplace.tripod.com/Hospital.html

It has some great tips which will directly relate to your situation even though you do not have a hospital tank at the moment.
Good luck!

Answer 2

As Fishlover said, you only remove the carbon cartridge from the filter, not turn off the filter itself. But I would like to ask you a few questions.

Since I have found the best treatment for tail rot to still be environment, mainly clean water, I think the medication should only be used as a last resort. Besides, since you were likely sold an antibiotic, it will also kill the beneficial bacteria in your tank, which will destroy your cycle. It won't take it as long to recycle as the first time you went through it, but it will still take time until it's complete.

I want to ask questions to find out the cause of the tail rot. Without finding the cause, even if you succeed in curing it with meds, it will probably just come back again.

The first question is what is the current water quality? What are the ammonia and nitrite levels specifically? If these are high, then there's still problems with either the cycle or the maintenance and that could be what's causing the tail rot. When you do your weekly water changes, do you vacuum the gravel bed? Are there hiding places in your tank?

The main cause of tail rot is poor water quality. The next in line is stress. These are both things we can do something about.

Good luck with your fish.

Answer 3

First off, you do not need to unplug your filter just remove the filter bag, with the carbon inside it you can leave your filter machine running which will continue to aerate your tank. Do what the medicine says and the waste should be fine as long as you arent over feeding.

Answer 4

ERYTHROMYCIN is an antibiotic that can help you. You can find it it pet stores and it cures "ICK" or the virus that you are speaking about. The filter has nothing to do with it.

Answer 5

get gold fish

Answer 6

flush him