# What is wrong?



## hadjici2 (Mar 27, 2007)

Hello,

I have a 120L planted tank with some black widow tetras, corries, zebra danios and a pleco. One of the black widow tetras had its fin near the anus rotting and rotted so much that it started bleeding. I went and bought SERA baktopur and treated it and things went better until it was infected with fungus. So I begun treatment with ectopur,costapur and mycopur. The problem is that nothing changes and the poor fish is still infected with fungus. Water conditions are good and I also add SERA fishtamins. Might it be the problem that SERA's products are not strong enough to help out the sittuation? I was never able to treat a disease and now that I am trying as hard as ever its still not working. 

Whats wrong? Why do the diseases always win?

PS: I am treatingthe whole of the tank so that the disease will not spread.

Regards,

John.


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## Lupin (Aug 2, 2006)

Welcome aboard, John.:wave:

What are your water parameters? I am surprised you said they're good considering you used Sera Baktopur which has a tendency to destroy beneifical bacteria leading to mini-cycles. I would suggest postng the exact figures.

Sera Ectopur is used to force the parasites including to ich to detach from their hosts. Sera Costapur is not effective in your situation. It is simply used to treat ich.

You have the option to use either Mycopur or Baktopur. Treatment should be done in a quarantine tank, not the main tank. The danger lies with the meds trying to destroy your biological filtration. Your case appears to be finrot but the sign of bleeding seems close to septicemia which Baktopur can rectify.

Do the treatment in a quarantine tank and make sure the water parameters are safe enough to prevent any ill effects from the meds from damaging your fish. Follow the instructions carefully and do what it says.

Also, I would advise against mixing medications in one tank. Mixing meds causes ill effects to fish and much more damage is done to sensitive fish such as tetras. Not only that, the biological filtration will be severely damaged. Sera products are often strong. Use activated carbon if you wish to remove the meds and use another brand of med.

Good luck.


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## hadjici2 (Mar 27, 2007)

I dont measure my water parameters. I used to but not now. My tank is fully planted, I do regulat water changes once a week, I use fish vitamins, water dechlorifiers and the fish seem to thrive in these conditions. I just didn't want to stress this poor fish by placing it in a quarantine tank alone. It breathes fast and doesnt seem to care about anything around it. 

Should I treat the fungus first or the bleeding or both?
Should I continue treating the mane tank just to prevent diseases?
What temperature should the quarantine tank be?
Is it too late for the poor fish? Its been nearly a week!
What other suggestions do you have?

thanks.


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## Lupin (Aug 2, 2006)

hadjici2 said:


> I dont measure my water parameters. I used to but not now. My tank is fully planted, I do regulat water changes once a week, I use fish vitamins, water dechlorifiers and the fish seem to thrive in these conditions. I just didn't want to stress this poor fish by placing it in a quarantine tank alone. It breathes fast and doesnt seem to care about anything around it.
> 
> Should I treat the fungus first or the bleeding or both?
> Should I continue treating the mane tank just to prevent diseases?
> ...


Hi John.:wave:

My apologies. I made a mistake explaining Sera Mycopur. Mycopur will only treat skin and gill flukes, and fungal infection.

Don't continue the treatment anymore in your main tank. Use activated carbon to remove the medicines applied. Get API Freshwater Master test kit and measure your ammonia, nitrites, nitrates and pH. Make sure the first two are zero as both substances are quite toxic to the fish.

Do the treatment in a quarantine tank for two weeks minimum. Use salt and dose 1 tablespoon per 5 gallons. Dissolve the salt first before adding to your tank. This will ensure that the fungus' progress is slowed down by salt along with bleeding. The salt will prevent any more secondary infections.

Please do post a picture of the bleeding part of your tetra and the whole body. I can only hazard a guess about septicemia which Sera Baktopur can treat although do not treat until we are sure it is a sign of septicemia.

Temperature can stay at 26-28 degrees Celsius. A fish cannot be stressed by just being alone in a quarantine tank. Place the quarantine tank in a dark portion as light often stresses the fish. Breathing fast is not a normal sign and can be associated by its ill interaction to the medicines presumably.

Continue use of Sera Fishtamin along with nutritious foods to give it a boost preventing it from succumbing fast to fungus and stress. I used Sera Activant in my case and it works all the same.


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## hadjici2 (Mar 27, 2007)

The fish does not eat any more.

When you say continue for two weeks what do you mean? The treatments are for 3 days. Should I stop dosing after 3 days or should I start over again?


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## Lupin (Aug 2, 2006)

hadjici2 said:


> The fish does not eat any more.
> 
> When you say continue for two weeks what do you mean? The treatments are for 3 days. Should I stop dosing after 3 days or should I start over again?


Maintain the temp at 28. The treatment has to be done in two weeks with salt. Use salt instead of medicines until you submit a picture of the fish's whole body and its bleeding part.


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## hadjici2 (Mar 27, 2007)

Here are the pics of two fish. The white one has the fungus and the other one has somekind of problem on its upper jaw.
































































I have placed both fish in a quarintine tank in the dark.


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## Lupin (Aug 2, 2006)

Let me get it this way. You said the fin is rotting which made me think this is a case of finrot, yes. And then fungus develops. Fungus is a secondary infection to wounds if wounds are left untreated. Finrot if not treated can reach the body parts regardless of not being fins as this is a case of bacteria. At this rate, the wounds develop causing fungus to set in.

It seems clear to me salt is needed to stop the fungus and the bleeding part. It did not appear to be septicemia otherwise this would be a mixed infection harder to treat. You will be better off treating the fish with salt and dose the exact amount as the water you had replaced to prevent the risk of increasing the salinity which can eventually kill a fish.


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