Sick Blue Dwarf Gourami

[Klane]

I noticed he had some pieces missing on his tail. The next day I
noticed a white edging around the tail where the pieces were out. I
went to my LFS and they told me to use Maracyn-Two and said I didn't
have to quaranteen him.

When I put the medicine in the tank I noticed he had some red, spotty,
coloration but they do not look open at all.

Am I doing the right thing? Should I ignore the LFS and put him in the
old SpongeBob tank (2 gallons, no heater)? The medicine is in packet
form and the smallest is for a 10 gallon tank.

I have a 20 gallon tank with 3 dwarf gouramis and 6 zebra danios.
The water parameters are all good and I do a 20% tank change about
every 10 days.

Thanks,
Klane

[Elaine T]

Klane wrote:
> I noticed he had some pieces missing on his tail. The next day I
> noticed a white edging around the tail where the pieces were out. I
> went to my LFS and they told me to use Maracyn-Two and said I didn't
> have to quaranteen him.
>
> When I put the medicine in the tank I noticed he had some red, spotty,
> coloration but they do not look open at all.
>
> Am I doing the right thing? Should I ignore the LFS and put him in the
> old SpongeBob tank (2 gallons, no heater)? The medicine is in packet
> form and the smallest is for a 10 gallon tank.
>
> I have a 20 gallon tank with 3 dwarf gouramis and 6 zebra danios.
> The water parameters are all good and I do a 20% tank change about
> every 10 days.

Probably 99 times out of 100, finrot is a disease of poor water quality
in some way or another. It doesn't spread to other fish if the water
quality problem is corrected. Doublecheck your test results, looking
for trace ammonia in particular. It's quite toxic at high pH and can
cause bleeding as well as fin deterioration. Maybe you cleaned a
particularly dirty fiter and your gravel at the same time and got an
ammonia spike. Change more water for a while. I'll change as much as
30% every few days for finrot.

If you're sure it couldn't be a water quality problem, quaranting him is
prudent. Of course he needs heat, so if the unheated tank isn't at
least 72F at night you'll need to get a small heater. Little 25W
heaters work fine in 2 gallon tanks or I've seen a little one made for
fishbowls. To handle the medicine, dissolve it in a gallon and then use
about 4/5 of a quart for the quarantine tank.

--
Elaine T __
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