A couple weeks back things got really busy at work, and I let the
water quality in the tank slip. The ammonia and nitrites stayed at
zero, but nitrates elevated to over 80ppm, and alkalinity and pH
dropped.

We noticed that the veiltails were having issues with their tails. The
little one had a section of his tail that appears folded over and sort
of 'pasted' shut. It has small blood vessel streaks in it. As well,
both fish have slightly white tips to their tails now. The tips look
kind of cottony, but it doesn't appear to be a growth; the white tips
look like the tail has been abraded, or perhaps scabbed or
something. From the images of finrot that we've seen, this doesn't
appear to be it.

The fish are in otherwise good health. They eat well, are active (when
people come to talk to them. These fish seem to crave attention. When
nobody is around, they'll just slowly drift around and nibble at
plants). They have no growths or damage anywhere on their many bodies,
and their anal ports aren't red or anything. Their poop appears to be
fine, too.

The damage to the tails doesn't seem to have gotten any worse. Once we
noticed that the fish might be in danger, we went to 20% - 30% water changes
once every 2 days. The water quality is spot on right now, but I'm
still doing 20% water changes every 2 - 3 days for another 5 or 6 days
just to be sure.

Oh, one other thing: the bigger one seems a little skittish. Come
feeding time, he'll rush back behind a rock, swim out, eat a few
sinking pellets or sinking flakes, then rush back behind the rock for
a bit. Once food has stopped being added to the tank, he'll come out
and graze from the gravel. I recalled that acidosis can cause fish to
become more jumpy, but he doesn't have any other symptoms, and at this
point the water is too clean for acidosis.

Any advice? I've looked through all the possible afflictions, and I
can't seem to find one that matches. Did I maybe catch a case of
finrot early and just beat it back by improving the water conditions?

JS

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Jan Sacharuk Member in Good Standing of The Discordian Solidarity
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"There is no spoon."