The maracyns or...if he's not too weak just get his water cleaned up and see if it gets any better.

Adrea

Okay, I'll do that. Thank you for the medicine recommendation.

Try the Maracyn combo. If it doesn't work, hit it with Tetracycline. Make sure to keep the water as clean as possible and add a bit of aquarium salt to discourage bacterial growth. Best of luck!

After the 5 day Maracyn combo, I did a 100% water change. The next day, I noticed his tail getting bad again. I put him back on another 5 days, since the medication said you can do this one more time. On the medication, his tail never got worse, but it didn't seem to get any better either.

Could it possibly be something wrong with my water, although he's had it since I purchased him? I use Stress Coat to condition the water. I don't have a water test kit, but I am thinking about picking one up if there is a chance that could be the problem.

If he's not better after the current 5 day Maracyn combo, I do have Tetracycline. Does Tetracycline work better than the Marcyn/Maracyn II?

Don´t add tetracycline to the tank, it turns the water into a thick brown-yellowish soup where you can´t see a thing, it literally wipes out the bacteria from the biological filter and to make things worse, it creates foam, tons of it. Five day treatment doesn´t work, fin and tail rot is a bacterial infection caused by an association Aeromonas aerogenes/ Pseudomonas aeriginosa that needs at least 8 day treatment. Erythromicin ( EM ) is what you need, first dose 1 tablet for every 5 gal of water, 24 hours later 1 tab for every 10 gal of water, after 3 days do a 25% water change and continue treatment for at least 5 days more. EM doesn´t dye the water and doesn´t create foam.

Thank you for the advice. I will look for some of that.

I went ahead and purchased a test kit and Stress Zyme. Only today did I find out ammonia burn could appear to be fin rot.

Don´t add water conditioners freely and everytime you think they are ok because they are not ok, they build up in the tank, the best water to replace evaporated water and to replace water from water changes is bottled water, bottled water is purified by reverse osmosis and sterilized either by UV radiation or ozonization, it´s free of chemicals. Ammonia can cause fin rot like symptoms but by the time you see those symptoms the fish has already shown ammonia intoxication symptoms too, fish intoxicated by ammonia "surface" desperately looking for "air".

Melafix is supposed to work great and it doesn't kill your bio filtration. It also has the added side effect of making the water smell really nice :-D I use it at every water change and when i add new fish. It's natural (tea tree oil) and it seems to keep the fish healthy. It also is supposed to help them with thier slime coat.

Eric

You have to be careful with Melefix with bettas though. It is easy to overdose them on it. I have had good results treating fin rot with it though. I used 2 drops melafix per gallon of water. Another that I have used is 1 drop of melafix and 1 drop of Pimafix per gallon. Other then that all you really should need (unless it is a severe case) is good clean water with a teaspoon of aquarium salt (not table salt mind you) per gallon. Wal Mart sells aquarium salt in the fish isle. It looks just like a little milk carton. Do 100% water changes every other day to keep the water as clean as possible untill the rot is gone. That's the biggest key to getting rid of fin rot is sparkly clean water. Also if you have a heater, turn it up to the low 80's if it's not already. That will help with the healing process.

Medicating isn't always necessary to cure fin rot though. I've gotten rid of mine on more then one occasion just by adding salt and the every other day 100% water change. If it is severe rot salt dips would probably help as well. 4 tablespoons aquarium salt/gallon. Keep him in this for no more then a half hour. When doing salt dips keep a close eye on him for the first 5 minutes or so as this is stressful on the fish and may cause him to pass out. (you'll know if he passes out if he rolls over) If that happens, quickly scoop him out of the salt bath and put him back into fresh conditioned water. He will come to soon after being put back into the fresh water. Good luck with your boy!!

Mela fix is snake oil. I normally am into koi and gold fish and fool around with bettas, and did an expriemnt with various meds to treat fungus et, and out of them all Melafix did little to nothing to help the fish........SImple cheap water changes do more overall and create a better environement than mela or even pima fix did.......It used to be touted as being a miracle cure, but its rarely used by the serious ponders any more. Its nothing but heaps of undissolved carbons, which is extremely hard to remove, and can load up filters pretty quick. I played around to see how much more work it took to get it completely removed, with doses of PP, and it had to be dosed 3 times with PP until the water was considered free of any remnants of Melafix.......I can clea up most meds out of water with 1 dose no more than 2. NOw I will admit it makes water smell different, sort of like vicks vapor rub.

Unless you know exactly whats worong with the fish in question and going the antibiotic route you will find most fish usually suffer from Gram positive more than gram negative bacterias. Tetracycline is for gram negative problems, and Maracyn is G-P , Maracyn Two is about equal to Tetracycline in regards it targets G-N

I would go with either Maracyn Plus or Maroxy both of which are more suited to fungal problems.

Unless snake oil is tea-tree oil, Melafix is not snake oil. And although pet shop employees and otherwise experienced fishkeepers tout it as a remedy for finrot, personally I don't recommend it except for healing torn or damaged fins.

I'm not talkin gabout store employees pushing Mela or Pima, I'm stating from personal experieince and lots of tesyting and experimentation with batches of fish with variou problem over a long time span, as well as others that breed and sell and others that keep and show generlalay do not have any use for this snake oil as it does not do 1/10 of its so called claims....If your also ding water changes as suggested with this product, odds are its the water doing most of the work as well as the fishs own repair system, not melafix. Melafix is a oil emulsion, it hinders respiration in a fish after a period of time, and does nothing but make water smell better. Torn or damaged fins will heal up fine if fish is fed quality food and the water conditions are spot on.....all without the addition of snake oils....

HELP HELP HELP!!!
Pima fix doesnt work for my poor goldfish whose tail and fin are being eaten by fungus.
I read so many suggestion. I dont know what to follow. People at petsmart cant suggest anything but pima fix. :( What should i use, and which medications can be used in conjunction and which should be used strictly separately?
thank you so much.

Try some of those aquarium buddy fizzie tablets for fin and tail rot and fungus......They seem to do the job pretty well, as does frequent water changes using water of good quality.

Myself I would dose it and the tank with ppotassium permangante and then keep on doing frequent water changes with perhaps a bit of salt.

I have had many fish with your same problem. In fact I have one now, but she is almost cured. I use Maracyn II to treat my fish and everday I change about 1/2 of the water to keep it clean. Do NOT keep your fish in a tank with other fish. Get it a small tank maybe 1-5 gallons large. I also recommend you buy some aqua safe and add one drop to the tank to keep it clean. Hope this helps.

~Lexi

I worked in a tropical fish wholesaler. We used a variety of meds, some for prevention and some for curing. We brought fish in and overcrowded them and sold them as fast as we could. Of all the bacterial meds out there, the best was Tetracycline. It was also the ugliest and most annoying to remove. Actually, for many fish I used it in combination with salt, to help with the slime coat.

I have a yellow guppy that has fin rot and signs of ammonia burn. I've noticed this for the past 2 days. He seemed fine in mannerism up until earlier today. Now, he falls the gravel a lot, I can see him trying to swim up but he has a hard time doing so. It's kind of like a spiral fall.

I have 5 tetras and another guppy, none of those seem sick or have fin rot.

I've increased water changes, added more aquarium salt, increased the temperature, and vacuumed the gravel.

I'm considering different medications. Are there any suggestions you can provide?

Please help soon.

Tetracycline is the best out there... and the ugliest! TC can arrest the spread in a day. Salt soothes wounds and helps with slimecoat.

he didn't make it... should i use that anyways to make sure that the other fish are fine?

I'm sorry to hear that. It could be used as a preventative, but I would look for signs of problems before adding any kind of chemicals.

I USED T.C. TETRACYCLINE IN MY TANK. AS OF FRIDAY MAY 29TH I PUT THE FILTER CARTRIDGES BACK IN AND DID A 25% WATER CHANGE ON FRIDAY AND ANOTHER 25% ON SATURDAY. THE WATER STILL IS UGLY BROWNISH YELLOW. SHOULD I DO WATER CHANGES DAILY? OR WHAT SHOULD I DO? HOW LONG WILL IT TAKE TO CLEAR UP? ANY HELP WOULD BE APPRECIATED. THANKS KAY