Help Help Help!!!!!!!

[Luchi]

I have been treating my little guy for finrot for the past week or so. He seemed to be better so after using the fungus clear for the recommended length of time, I gave his tank a nice rinse and clean. I went away for the weekend and my mother fed him and everything. When I came home last night he looked worse then before i started treating him! His fins are torn now and they are curling and he just looks awful I feel horrible for him and I really need your guys' advice on how to medicate him. I tried bettafix for 7 days, jungle buddies fungus clear tablets, and salt/waterchanges. Can anyone give me any suggestions please?!?!?!

[neenjar]

Have you given him a salt bath? any chanse you mom over fed him spoiling the water?

[Luchi]

No she only had to feed him once and she only fed him 2 pellets. And what's a salt bath? I could try that...

[neenjar]

To administer a salt bath you dissolve 1 tsp. of aquarium salt in 1 gallon of treated water. Make sure the water is the same temp as your tank and add your fish to the bath. Leave him in 5 minutes unless he passes out. If he goes unconscious immediately put him back in fresh water. If he stays awake let him sit 5 mins in the bath, then scoop him out into a mixture of the 1/3 salt bath and 2/3 tank water. adding more tank water every 5 mins for about 20 mins to dilute the salt and not put him in shock (this works best of you float him in a cup in the tank.) after about 20 mins you can add him back to his tank.

What tank is he in? is it filtered? was it cycled? how often do you do water chages? what are his tank mates if any?

[Luchi]

He's in a 2.5 gallon tank right now. He used to be in a 1 gallon. I'm home from college and he won't get a bigger tank until I go back to school. I had a small underground filtration in the tank. I do 2 100% water changes a week. He had tank mates a while ago but he ate one and tormented the other so he's by himself now.

[neenjar]

Ypu may have too much current going with the under gravel. is the tank fully cycled? It could be a cycling issue too. in tanks with filters 100% water changes are not advisable as it can create an ammonia spike. have you tested the water parameters?

[Luchi]

Well, I took the filter out last week. And no, the tank is not cycled. I never really had a chance with moving the fish home and stuff. He needed somewhere to go immediately.

[neenjar]

Salt bath + 100% water change then. Rinse all his decorations and gravel in hot water or reboil to sterilize it. also rinse the inside of the tank with hot water and a tank scrubber. make sure he has a clean environment to go back into.

I would pull him out into a cup or glass jar with tank water and leave him set there while you clean the tank. get the tank back together 1st, then give him the bath. Adding a small dose of bettafix to the clean treated tank water will help him a bit too, not as a cure, but as a stablizing buffer to help prevet further illness.

Do you have a heater in his tank? what is the water temp>

[Luchi]

Thank you SO very much. And yes he has a heater. It keeps the tank at about 78-80 degrees.

[neenjar]

good deal with the temps! My heater only gets 77 deg. but Zeus seems to not mind.