Fin rot? and ??

Hello, I have a clown loach that has part of his tail fin missing. I don't know it this is fin rot or just some other fish nipping at him. The edges of where the fin is damaged are white. See pic. I also have a neon tetra that has a strange bumpy growth on his tail. Per the guys at the fish store, I treated the entire tank with Maracyn 2 for 5 days using the recommended dosage on the box. Then I changed 5 gallons of water (30gallon tank) and replaced the charcol. They haven' t gotten any worse but they don't seem to be getting better. I had my water tested and everything was good except my PH was around 6. I have since added some sea shells to the tank and with the partial water change my PH is now at 7-7.5. Sorry for the long post. Please help! Thanks!

fin rot raise ur temp and use melafix, i would raise it to at least 82 to 86 until they get better then lower it.

I don't think that's fin rot on the clown loach. It looks like something nipped its tail fin. As for the neon, thats anybody's guess. I would go with Pillie's advice and go ahead and treat with Melafix just to be on the safe side.

wen i get fin rot with my mollies especially my balloon mollies they look lik ur clown laoch so that why i think it is but u never know lol but ya just keep an eye on it and treat them and keep the temp high.

pillierox1 wrote:

fin rot raise ur temp and use melafix, i would raise it to at least 82 to 86 until they get better then lower it.

, i did Melafix treat once for a week and it worked perfect!!

Looks like it started with an injury though. But I agree with the treatment. 82 is high enough fro a tropical community though.

Who all is in the tank?


The neon could have the beginning of neon tetra disease. If you see his spine start to bend or him swimming jerkily or erratically he needs to be put down asap. But only if you see those. There is no cure yet for neon tetra disease and if one has it it could be passed on to the other neons. It seems that it only begins to be contagious at that stage though. Only neons can get it. It tends to start with odd lumps and bumps, erratic swimming and then their spine gets bent all weird. No one knows how or why it happens but some times it just takes one fish other times it can take all the neons in a tank.

Thanks so much for all the replies! The tank is currently at 80 degrees. I have some mollies, harlequin rasboras, a pleco and a glofish as well. The tail of the neon tetra does appear to be bumpy, almost looks like a piece of cauliflower! Fern, do you work at Boardroom Aquatics?

Yes I do! Your tank sounds familiar.....

Depending on the kind of pleco I think he may have been the one to nip the clown loaches tail.

Yes it is a familiar tank...remember the high PH of 8.4?? And I rid my tank of all the coral and added driftwood? I can't remember what kind of pleco I have...think its a common pleco....looks like a bristlenose without the bristles! So does the loaches tail look infected? That whitish on the edges worries me.

Ya I think we figured out you have a rubber lip pleco?
It looks borderline infected, a dose of wound ease in the tank would help. Go ahead and dose with melafix and if you don't want to buy a whole thing of wound ease I can give you a dose and you can come see all my fish! I don't have any melafix on hand or I would give you a dose of that..

That tetra really sounds like he has neon tetra disease. Personally I would put him in the freezer now but that's your call.
I had that in my tank once and it marched right on through 1/2 of my neons and wiped them out within the week, the other half never got it at all and were just fine. Its a very very strange disease.....