[Baos]

I had some banjo catfish die of some fast moving fin rot. it was like their skin was peeling off. I had a large nitrite spike(possibly without ammonia spike) from some unknown cause. I have done two water changes and nitrite is now 0 and will not be spiking again. Problem is I have a bunch of clown loaches in their tank. They are currently sitting in 1tbs/5g of salt. No clown loach is currently visibly affected by fin rot. recommended treatment?

 

[hondas3000]

have you try melafix? it is save with loaches.

 

[Baos]

I have never had any fish I treated with melafix survive.

 

[hondas3000]

I have never had any fish I treated with melafix survive.

you got to be kidding. I have loaches and stingray plus aro and never have problem with melafix. Use half a dose that recommend on the bottle and remove carbon from your filter, turn off UV light if you have one, then add some air stone for more oxygen. I think you have use carbon with your filter and forgot to remove it. Stay away from carbon if you can.

 

[Baos]

I last used it when I was very new. after 3 deaths I never used it again. My treatment was to put the fish in a breeder and give him the dosage for the whole tank which would then seep into the rest of the tank. Every fish treated this way died. Not sure if I had carbon or not. I don't use carbon in any of my tanks now. I think the fish I used it on might have been blue rams.

 

[hondas3000]

what do you mean breeder and whole tank? how big is your tank? why can't you just dosage in the whole tank instead of put the fish in the breeder. Many people don't do well with rams so can't really claim it on melafix.

 

[Baos]

The blue ram incident was about 6 years ago. i don't recall all the details. The tank at the time was 30g. By dossing it in the breeder it had a quick dip in a stronger solution before it moved on to the rest of the tank. I've also read reports of teatree oil being only toxic and not having any other benefit. The idea being the parasite dies before the fish.

 

[Baos]

Melafix
Active ingredients: 1% melaluca oil
Diseases: wounds and tattered fins, bruises
Contraindications:
There were some situations where Melafix itself proved fatal on some fish species such as bettas as it was alleged that the oil can clog gills and therefore obstruct breathing. Not to be used with labyrinth fish or oxygen-challenged specimens.

This is true of my tank. I have labyrinth fish.

 

[pacific]

I would say if the clown loaches look healthy, don't medicate. They are notoriously sensitive to medications, so as long as they stay healthy, let them be, and just keep watching them closely.

I haven't seen a clown loach with fin rot, so they may not be as susceptible to it - the usual problem with clown loaches is ich.

 

[Baos]

Thanks pacific. Last night I choose to dose with prazipro due to it being highly recommended on clown loach related forums(I did my homework). Mainly just in case there was some kind of parasite causing the fin rot. I don't plan any other treatments at this time.

 

[Rastapus]

Fin rot is normally a bacterial infection and the Prazipro wont have an effect on it. Chances are the water quality caused the stress to the fish which in turn caused the infection.

 

[Baos]

Thanks for the input Rastapus. I agree with you. I just felt the overwhealming need to medicate something lol. I know terrible for a seasoned fish keeper. At least going forward I can be sure many parasites didn't play a role.

 

[Baos]

Must be some weird new tank breakin syndrom. Still no ammonia but the nitrite is on it's way back up. At least now they have the salt there to compensate. Seriously the ammonia reads 0. One would think to have a large nitrite spike you would need an ammonia spike.

 

[onefishtwofish]

nitrazorb works well.