Tropical Fish Forum
Tropical Fish Keeping Help and Advice => Fish Health => Topic started by: terra firma on February 20, 2020, 03:13:38 PM
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Hello, I have 3 Tetra with lumps on there mouth and have finrot. One of the tetras is in a bad way from when the tank was cycling. The tank has been cycled for several months. I like to treat and save these fish. If you can recommend some medication. I live in the UK so antibiotics are not available to me. I can't catch the fish either.
Ammonia 0ppm
Nitrite 0ppm
Nitrate 5ppm
PH 7.2
I've posted photos and video to show you the sick tetra.
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Welcome to the forum :wave:
If there's finrot, then I would definitely recommend eSHa 2000 or Waterlife Myxazin. [Other medications for finrot do exist and may be fine instead, but I wouldn't recommend API Melafix in this situation as it's very weak and doesn't have the key ingredients you need (it's simply tea-tree oil).]
Whether you treat them in the main tank or in a hospital tank depends on whether you have one of these (plus filter and heater) and other tank occupants - best not to subject healthy tank occupants to unnecessary medication and therefore stress, and also best not to subject shrimp or snails to copper-based medication. Make sure that you remove any carbon from the filter - it will prevent the medication from working properly.
Thanks for the water quality results - that's good that you're keeping water at optimum levels, as that will be crucial to aiding recuperation, so keep up the good work.
Edited to add: Have now seen the video - yes, those fish definitely need medication. Some of them even look as though their spines are curved/bent/arched, so possibly not in good health either. How many fish do you have in the tank altogether?
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Many Thanks for good reply. I have the Myxazin on order now, and I've added some aquarium salt a week ago.
I notice a fungus growth on the main flank. Also the tetra has to constantly swim, to stay horizontal upright.
It's a community tank I have around 80 fish, rest I believe are very healthy. I think my Corydoras are hardy after long cycle so hope they stand medication.
I can't catch the sick tetras so I will have to treat the whole tank.
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Hi @terra firma and welcome to the forum :wave:
I have used eSHa 2000 previously, and always have some in the cupboard for emergencies.
With multiple occupants in a tank it can sometimes be close-to-impossible to catch poorly fish to isolate/treat them. Unfortunately, sometimes you do just have to treat the whole tank.
Please keep us updated on your situation.
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Thank you. I've also ordered the Esha 2000 and some Interpret swim bladder treatment.
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Start with esha 2000 and don’t mix the two medications, from the video I can see this is a severe case and that you may also have to prepare yourself for the worst (just want to be upfront with you on this). Recommend you do some research into humane methods to bring things to a swift conclusion if this becomes required.
Re catching the fish if you want to give this another go (though don’t stress the already poorly fish out too much, try to lift the net up from underneath the fish.
Esha 2000 is ok with your corys (some meds aren’t) which is good news.
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I have snails. I've read Esha 2000 is not good for snails due to the copper content and as the Myxazin has arrived i'm trying that first for 5 days.
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Out of interest, what are the ingredients in Waterlife Myxazin? Is there an accompanying leaflet listing these?
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Malachite green, acriflavine and formaldehyde
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I was away for the weekend. I've come back and the sickest fish has gone. It died :(. I combed the tank but can't find it. Looks like it was too sick for the medication.
I don't want other fish to eat it and get disease. Hopefully the snails will eat it. I will continue to medicate the rest of the tetras.
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Sorry to read about this. In my experience, dead fish tend to end up down the back of decor or equipment - in inconceivable spaces, only able to be found if prodding plant leaves one by one and completely removing stones and filter including from its bracket, etc.
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Sorry to hear that a fish has passed. I hope that the others respond well to the medication.
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Lost a Octocinclus as well.
Should of mentioned before that all the 9 tetras have taken up residence at the bottom of the aquarium behind a suspended log at the back for 2 months. They come out to the front at feeding time then return to hide. They used to swim in other parts. Hopefully they will move about if they get better.
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4th day medicating the Myxazin.
Amazing, the 9 neon tetras tentativily explored the other end of the tank for the first time in months. They seem more alert and are feeding better. The mouth growths on the three tetras looks to of gone down. It must be the medication. None of the tetras never had a bent spine. Wish I had treated the tetras sooner.
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Great to hear that your gang are starting to perk up and look better.
Keep up the good work. :)
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Fish dropping. I've had a black Molly die in the night. It had a swollen belly so it could of been Dropsy.
Acraflavine that's in Myxazin is harmful to plants. So anyone using this medication I suggest you remove your plants.
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@ terra firma
Just to give us a better background context to everything, in case we need it to help interpret or get to the root of any problems you're experiencing (if you'd like us to), can you tell us how long you've had the tank and each of its inhabitants, and what your water hardness levels are? (Water hardness results in CaCO3 and German degrees hardness are best - should be able to get this from your water supplier's website if you input your postcode.)
I notice you mention having corydoras, barbs, mollies, tetra, shrimp and danios - can you be more specific about the types of cories, barbs, danios, and are there other tetra types besides neons? How many of each fish do you have and how long have you had them for?
Are the mollies mixed sex or all one sex (and, if so, male or female)?
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The reason fcmf asked for your hardness is that you have (or had) both soft water and hard water fish, so one or other type will not do well.
The hard water fish are mollies; the soft water fish are everything else.
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I've been fishkeeping just a year. 55 gallon. My hardness is not very hard. GH is 10. I read Tetras can slowly get used to hard water and can thrive. I keep the GH around 10 and the PH around 7.4. I don't ever suffer from algae. I do lots of water tests. Water out of the tap is PH 7.
Now I used to do regular water changes and then just once a month needed to keep nitrate and phosphate down.
All my fish been healthy from the beginning apart from the tetras that went through the cycle.
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Fish don't get used to a hardness outside what they have evolved in. Soft water fish will appear to be OK in hard water but their internal organs will be slowly filling up with calcium deposits and they'll die earlier than they should.
Water changes should be at least 50% every week. It's not just nitrate and phosphate that build up, there is also a whole host of other chemicals and biochemicals we can't test for. These need to be removed, and water changes are the only way to do that.
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Following on from Sue's good advice, your GH or dH of 10 (assuming it's a reliable test you've used - test strips are notoriously inaccurate on this, for example) equates to 178 ppm. In that case, your water would actually be ok (ie not too hard) for neon tetras. However, your water is actually too soft for mollies which might account for its early demise, and you may well find the others follow suit as inappropriate water affects their immune system and in turn can result in premature disease/death and them not fulfilling their life expectancy - I certainly wouldn't get any more of them.
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On the matter of hardness I've gone on the advice of specific fish care guides which give a general hardness of 10-25dkh for Mollys. My API test kit instructions reads 6-11 range for mollys. Despite the not ideal hardness, the mollys have had babies.
Thanks for the good info and advice. If I get anymore fish I will check suitable hardness.
I completed the 5 day Myxazin and the tetras have improved. The white ends of all the fins are disappearing. The lumps on the tetras are noticeably smaller.
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I don't know where you have looked but the site with the most reliable information gives the hardness range for mollies as 15 to 30 dH. Mollies do suffer more than most hard water fish if the hardness is not high enough, often suffering from something called 'the shimmies'.