Anything else I can do?

[fishdude07]

Well...my oscar has fin rot. I put some melafix in the tank yesterday and this morning, and I'm planning on doing a WC later tonight. Is there anything else I can do?

 

[revfred]

Not sure that the Melafix is an aggressive enough treatment. You may want to check remedies that are specifically for fin rot .... others on the board may have some suggested brands.

 

[TaffyFish]

Agree with revfred, I doubt Melafix would do much on its own, get a more powerful medication........and keep up with the water changes, is that why he got the rot - lack of maintenance?

 

[fishdude07]

I've been doing normal cleaning/maitenance...I'm not sure why he has fin rot. I tested the ammonia and nitrites not too long ago and both came out at 0 ppm...but I don't have a test kit for the nitates...so I'm guessing they must be pretty high because everything else is fine. I'll see if I can find a more powerful medication at my LFS whenever I get the chance to go there. Is my oscar going to be in trouble if I don't get more powerful medication soon?

Here's a pic of my oscar...only his caudal fin has fin rot. He MIGHT have it on the back of his dorsal fin...and maybe it just hasn't gotten into the bad stages yet...because he has all these little bumps on the back of his dorsal fin. At first, he just had the same bumps on his caudal fin...and now he has the fin rot on his caudal fin.

 

[fishdude07]

Another pic...

 

[fishdude07]

One more...this one's a closeup of his caudal fin

 

[leck85]

jungle fungus eliminator.. wal mart sells it.. its in a small white container and has a gourami on it.. its one of the strongest out there

 

[Orion]

When I had my oscar, he never had full blown fin/tail rot, however he would scratch himself on gravel/rocks quite offen. If I did not see him do this, they would start to get infected. White fungus would begin to grow on the wound. I would dose with melafix for three days, and it always took care of the problem. Normaly after the first 24 hours the visible signs of the fungus were gone.

However the rot seems like it is being rather aggresive if you think its already spreading to the dorsal and anal fins, so you may want to just get a stonger med as the others have mentioned.

 

[fishdude07]

Thanks Orion and leck85. I'm going to get some Jungle Fungus Eliminator as leck suggested ASAP and I'll keep dosing with the melafix. When I woke up this morning, I looked at my oscar and it looks like the fin rot on his caudal fin is getting worse...

 

[Purple]

you need to add finrot meds - looks like a fungal infection to me - and yes - it will get worse if you don't treat it

all part of fish keeping..........

possible causes are uneaten food lying around, or a mucky filter, dead fish somewhere - but it's usually water related one way or another

 

[Firebug]

I'd use Maracyn II..It works on my fish every time! Hope he gets better soon!

 

[fishdude07]

Well guys, here's an update. Yesterday I went out and got some Jungle-brand Fungus Clear. It treats stuff like fin rot and alot of other things. I put 4 tablets in the tank (I probably should've put in 5 or 6, but there's 8 tablets in the pack I bought and I just used half just in case I had to add more later on if the fin rot didn't get better). The water is all green (the green coloring should go away once I do a WC and add carbon back to the filter) and I haven't really noticed his fin rot getting any better. If I do notice it getting better, I'll let ya know .

 

[leck85]

the fungus clear isnt as strong as the fungus eliminator.. hopefully it will still work...

the stuff in the container probably treats more gallons of water and its probably only like $4 a bottle.. might wanna try that stuff if it doesnt fix the problem

 

[fishdude07]

The Jungle-brand Fungus Clear was the only thing they had that treated fin rot that was a Jungle-brand. I didn't see any fungus eliminator. Hmmmm...I don't think his fin rot is getting any better yet, but I don't think it has gotten any worse.