Hi i'm new to this site and have a question on the treatment of finrot. I have two goldfish in a 29 gallon aquarium (us) I just noticed an area on one of the gf's fins when I was doing a routine water change. I then finished the water change and did some research. I continued to do water changes, one on Friday and will do one today when i am done here. When i checked my levels my nitrates were high and i think that that was the problem. I just got back from a friends house and today noticed a split in the dorsal fin on the fish that has the blood spot in it's tail fin. I also noticed a small hole in the dorsal fin of my other goldfish. These are just regular feeder goldfish that I have been keeping for about three years (got them from a school science class). I have never had any problems with any diseases before. What should I do to treat it? Should I wait to treat it?
Note: I am salted right now at .1%. Should I move up to .3%?, I also have a heater, should I increase the temp of the tank. I can go to the fishstore on almost anyday. Thank you all for your help.
-Gus

Hi and Welcome!

Can you please post the results of your water tests, if you do have them? That will help us determine if water quality is an issue. And, it will also help us determine if you should increase the salt content. Also, do you know the pH of the tank and your tap water?


Regarding your tank temp, what is it at currently?

test results for a couple of hours ago:
ph- 7.2-7.8
alkalinity- 100
hardness- 120
nitrIte-0
nitrAte-90-120 fo

test results for tap water:
ph- 7.6
alkalinity- 150
hardness- 120
nitrIte- 0
nitrAte-0

The temp is currently at: 64 degrees F
Just did water change, will check levels in about one hour

Hi Gus. Yep those nitrates are causing the problems with the fins. It probably isn't true rot, but a problem steming from very bad water. I would do water changes every couple hours until you get them down to 20.
Keeping the salt in there is good. You can raise it to 0.3%, but I would keep it at 0.1% while these changes are going on.
Retest every hour to see if they are going down and do changes after to keep them decreasing.
If you don't, at this rate the fish are in danger of nitrate poisioning if not already.

I would also raise the temp to around 70-72F, but slowly only 2 degrees an hour.

thanx chico and laurie i will start on that, and retest my water rite now.

now theyre down to 60 or less. well i will have lots of time to do many water changes tomorrow. thanks again for all of your help.

Excellent!

Keep us posted.


Also, I noticed you didn't list any ammonia readings. Do you have an ammonia test?

no i do not have an ammonia tester. I can bring a water sample to my fish store if needed.

Yes I would do so. Having one on hand is best. So you may want to get one while you are there. Especially since you are having issues.

ok i will do that

Good News! Nitrates are down to zero, Nitrites are 0-.15, and ammonia is 0-.25!
Should I try to get the ammonia lower? I still dont have test kits because the fish store didnt have the kind i wanted. i am ordering it from petsmart. fish look a little bett er, moving around much more. I'll keep you posted. thank you for all of your great help!

WEll that is almost ok. You should never wipe out the nitrates to 0 though. A healthy tank needs a reading from 5-20 in it.

Now you are going to have to test morning and night until you get a reading. Until then keep the others close to that. Once the nitrates start to come back then take the others to 0.

Sorry if you are now confused, let us know if you are and we can help you.

so you are saying that i need to wait until nitrates come back a little, and then i try to get ammonia and nitrites down to zero? Its ok if the nitrates go down to zero in that process? Test may vary because i used strips that said i still had a little nitrates and no nitrites but the master test at the pet store said i had 0 nitrates and some nitrites. which one should i go with? Thank you.

Drop tests are the best and most accurate. Strip tests only give you rough estimates and that can be deadly.

A cycled healthy tank will have this for readings..........

Ammonia-0
nitrites-0
nitrates: 5-20

Which means you have to let the nitrates build up again. Make sense?

thats better k i will work on that. I will also have to pick up one of those master test kits becuz im running out of strips anewayz

:DYay! Just ordered a master test kit from pet smart and it should come in 4-10 days!!!!!

Good keep us posted.

My test kit came i got the one here: http://www.petsmart.com/global/product_detail.jsp
i tested the water and everything wuz fine. Nitrates are still only a little bit above zero, i guess with those water changes i did a couple days ago really got them down. Nitrites are zero, Ammonia is pretty much zero, looked a little greener than the color, and ph is around 7.6-8.0! I'll wait until the nitrates get up again and then I'll start back on the routine water changes. Fish Update: The fish are doing fine. After I upped their temp in the tank to about 72-73, they perked up a LOT! They also started swimming around more, and playing which they hadn't done a couple days ago. They always have eated fine, and they are still doing well on that. The fish that wasn't really a problem has basically completely healed. The other fish's dorsal fin split has almost come together, with less than a centimeter or so still apart compared to almost the whole thing splitting off. The blood spot in the tail still hasn't gone away, it just doesn't look like blood anymore and is just kinda fading into the fin color. Should I be concerned about the spot? I think that all is going well. Once again thanks for all of your help!

Hey what is this rating thing I now have?