Comet with red, 'threaded' fins

Hi folks, I was wondering if anyone on the group could help me work out
whats happened to my comet.

Hes about 8 years old and is about 12 - 13cm long. He's currently in a 13
gallon tank (bit small I know, but finances don't permit an upgrade ATM).

I noticed this morning that he was lurking at the bottom of the tank behind
ornaments etc, and upon further examination I found that his fins and tail
were a very dark red, and had 'string' like things hanging off the end of
them. In fact, a significant length of the end of his tail was missing
completely.
I investigated further, and found that these 'strings' were in fact the
veins of the fin (don't know their scientific name sorry), it appears that
the 'webbing' of the fins have been eaten away by something, leaving just
these veins trailing.
The severe redness of the fins and tail leads me to believe it has been
burned in some way... possibly by the water PH or similar.

What I wanted to ask was, is my analysis of the problem accurate, or is
there a disease which can cause the above ?

There were 3 other fish in the tank, a black moor and 2 fantails, all
relatively tiny. These were removed 5 days ago because the black moor was
constantly bullying the comet and attacking his tail.
The thing is, he did not have this damage when the other fish were moved
away, so I don't think that was the cause.

He is currently in a bucket and I have drained the tank completely to wash
out the gravel and filter...(I found a piece of the missing tail end while
I was doing this :-\ )
I guess my question now is whats the probable cause of this, and what can I
do to try and ensure his survival / recovery ?
He is still swimming and feeding, which is a good sign at least.

Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated,

Thanks.

Ciarán.

It sounds like your comet has severe finrot which is generally caused by
poor water quality. You need to buy a water testing kit (most important are
ammonia, Nitrites and nitrates) and make sure your water quality is up to
scratch. After a tank has cycled you shouldn't have any ammonia, no
nitrites, and less than 20ppm of nitrates.
You need to buy some medication to help stop the rot and encourage new
growth. Melafix is excellent and so too is Interpet number 8 fungus and
finrot treatment. I'd get it a.s.a.p and follow the instructions carefully.
Make sure you follow the whole course. He should then make a full recovery.
Mel.
"Ciarán Reilly thereilly.dyndns.org" ciaran@REMOVE-ME wrote in message
...

Hi folks, I was wondering if anyone on the group could help me work out
whats happened to my comet.

Hes about 8 years old and is about 12 - 13cm long. He's currently in a 13
gallon tank (bit small I know, but finances don't permit an upgrade ATM).

I noticed this morning that he was lurking at the bottom of the tank
behind
ornaments etc, and upon further examination I found that his fins and tail
were a very dark red, and had 'string' like things hanging off the end of
them. In fact, a significant length of the end of his tail was missing
completely.
I investigated further, and found that these 'strings' were in fact the
veins of the fin (don't know their scientific name sorry), it appears that
the 'webbing' of the fins have been eaten away by something, leaving just
these veins trailing.
The severe redness of the fins and tail leads me to believe it has been
burned in some way... possibly by the water PH or similar.

What I wanted to ask was, is my analysis of the problem accurate, or is
there a disease which can cause the above ?

There were 3 other fish in the tank, a black moor and 2 fantails, all
relatively tiny. These were removed 5 days ago because the black moor was

constantly bullying the comet and attacking his tail.
The thing is, he did not have this damage when the other fish were moved
away, so I don't think that was the cause.

He is currently in a bucket and I have drained the tank completely to wash
out the gravel and filter...(I found a piece of the missing tail end while
I was doing this :-\ )
I guess my question now is whats the probable cause of this, and what can
I
do to try and ensure his survival / recovery ?
He is still swimming and feeding, which is a good sign at least.

Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated,

Thanks.

Ciarán.

if you recently put the other fish into the tank, they could have brought disease
into the tank with them if they werent quarantined for a month.
that is also small tank for 4 fish and they could have tipped the water into toxic
conditions.
do a peroxide dip on the fish.
http://users.megapathdsl.net/~solo/p...m#peroxide_dip
follow exactly. then keep changing some of the water every day. add 1 teaspoon salt
per 5 gallons. Ingrid



"Ciarán Reilly" wrote:
Hes about 8 years old and is about 12 - 13cm long. He's currently in a 13
gallon tank
I noticed this morning that he was lurking at the bottom of the tank behind
ornaments etc, and upon further examination I found that his fins and tail
were a very dark red, and had 'string' like things hanging off the end of
them. In fact, a significant length of the end of his tail was missing
completely.
I investigated further, and found that these 'strings' were in fact the
veins of the fin (don't know their scientific name sorry), it appears that
the 'webbing' of the fins have been eaten away by something, leaving just
these veins trailing.
The severe redness of the fins and tail leads me to believe it has been
burned in some way... possibly by the water PH or similar.

What I wanted to ask was, is my analysis of the problem accurate, or is
there a disease which can cause the above ?

There were 3 other fish in the tank, a black moor and 2 fantails, all
relatively tiny. These were removed 5 days ago because the black moor was
constantly bullying the comet and attacking his tail.
The thing is, he did not have this damage when the other fish were moved
away, so I don't think that was the cause.

He is currently in a bucket and I have drained the tank completely to wash
out the gravel and filter...(I found a piece of the missing tail end while
I was doing this :-\ )
I guess my question now is whats the probable cause of this, and what can I
do to try and ensure his survival / recovery ?
He is still swimming and feeding, which is a good sign at least.

Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated,

Thanks.

Ciarán.



~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
List Manager: Puregold Goldfish List
http://puregold.aquaria.net/
www.drsolo.com
Solve the problem, dont waste energy finding who's to blame
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Unfortunately, I receive no money, gifts, discounts or other
compensation for all the damn work I do, nor for any of the
endorsements or recommendations I make.

So sorry to hear that Ciarán. Try not to feel bad, eh? You did what you
thought was best at the time which is all that matters!
Mel.


"Ciarán Reilly thereilly.dyndns.org" ciaran@REMOVE-ME wrote in message
...

Gunther, Mel, and Ingrid,

Thanks for your informative and helpful advice, it certainly gave me an
insight into the problem and what to do about it.

Unfortunatly, I tried a bit too late, when I finished cleaning out the
gravel on saturday, I went upstairs to check on the fish and he was dead
in the bucket :-( That I wasnt expecting, because despite the finrot he
seemed relatively ok in other areas, still swimming and feeding normally.
Maybe the water quality being poor had aggravated some other condition
like an internal bacterial infection, but he certainly didn't exhibit any
signs of illness aside from the fins.

I feel really bad that my ignorance of the situation probably caused the
fish to die... I worked it out, based on when he was got by the original
owner (my girlfriend), he was actually at least 12 years old, not 8 as
previously thought :-\.

I don't posess water testing kits etc, how the fish managed to live this
long with those parameters never being checked is a miricale. I just
tried to always provide clean water, with a partial change every week
etc.

I will be making a point of getting all the necessary kits for testing
water quality ASAP, I want to do what I can to ensure I know whats going
on in the future, and can avoid letting this happen again.

Again, Thank you very much for the advice and links, it was much
appreciated, and will be noted for future reference and prevention.

Cheers,

Ciarán.


On Sat 12 Jul 2003 06:52:08a, wrote in
rec.aquaria.freshwater.goldfish:

if you recently put the other fish into the tank, they could have
brought disease into the tank with them if they werent quarantined for
a month. that is also small tank for 4 fish and they could have
tipped the water into toxic conditions.
do a peroxide dip on the fish.
http://users.megapathdsl.net/~solo/p...ment/treatment
2.htm#peroxide_dip follow exactly. then keep changing some of the
water every day. add 1 teaspoon salt per 5 gallons. Ingrid



"Ciarán Reilly" wrote:
Hes about 8 years old and is about 12 - 13cm long. He's currently in a
13 gallon tank
I noticed this morning that he was lurking at the bottom of the tank
behind ornaments etc, and upon further examination I found that his
fins and tail were a very dark red, and had 'string' like things
hanging off the end of them. In fact, a significant length of the end
of his tail was missing completely.
I investigated further, and found that these 'strings' were in fact
the veins of the fin (don't know their scientific name sorry), it
appears that the 'webbing' of the fins have been eaten away by
something, leaving just these veins trailing.
The severe redness of the fins and tail leads me to believe it has
been burned in some way... possibly by the water PH or similar.

What I wanted to ask was, is my analysis of the problem accurate, or
is there a disease which can cause the above ?

There were 3 other fish in the tank, a black moor and 2 fantails, all
relatively tiny. These were removed 5 days ago because the black moor
was constantly bullying the comet and attacking his tail.
The thing is, he did not have this damage when the other fish were
moved away, so I don't think that was the cause.

He is currently in a bucket and I have drained the tank completely to
wash out the gravel and filter...(I found a piece of the missing tail
end while I was doing this :-\ )
I guess my question now is whats the probable cause of this, and what
can I do to try and ensure his survival / recovery ?
He is still swimming and feeding, which is a good sign at least.

Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated,

Thanks.

Ciarán.



~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
List Manager: Puregold Goldfish List
http://puregold.aquaria.net/
www.drsolo.com
Solve the problem, dont waste energy finding who's to blame
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Unfortunately, I receive no money, gifts, discounts or other
compensation for all the damn work I do, nor for any of the
endorsements or recommendations I make.

did you put an airstone in the bucket with him? where did the water in the bucket
come from?

"Ciarán Reilly" wrote:
Unfortunatly, I tried a bit too late, when I finished cleaning out the
gravel on saturday, I went upstairs to check on the fish and he was dead
in the bucket :-(



~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
List Manager: Puregold Goldfish List
http://puregold.aquaria.net/
www.drsolo.com
Solve the problem, dont waste energy finding who's to blame
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Unfortunately, I receive no money, gifts, discounts or other
compensation for all the damn work I do, nor for any of the
endorsements or recommendations I make.