Battled Back from Fin Rot

Hello,

Wanted to share my experience with fin rot and how I battled back from it. I first noticed that one of my clowns had fin rot when his tail started to rip and his pectoral fins shortened (only fish in tank so not aggression). I kept an eye on it and it continued to get progressively worse and more aggressive over the next couple of weeks, continuing until most of the soft dorsal, 60% of both pectoral, and 70% of the tail had decayed.

Seeing that he wasn't going to get over it without help I started with a Methylene blue dip for 25 seconds in a bowl of tank water, mixed to the dilution recommended for dips. I also turned off all power heads in the tank so the only flow was from the return. I monitored the fish for 2 more weeks, giving Methylene blue dips once a week in this same way. This halted the progression of the rot.

I then started an aggressive water change policy of 80%-85% every other week (i'm normally an every other month "however-much-i-feel-like" water changer). Now, after 3 water changes the second (soft) dorsal fin has grown back completely, and 40% of the tail has regrown with the pectorals appearing thicker without much re-growth.

I plan to keep the water changes up in the future to prevent any relapses that may occur.

I hope this helps other people start a treatment plan in the future if their fish have fin rot. From what I understand fin rot can be caused by several bacterial and/or fungal sources. Methylene blue may not work to remedy all specific causes but it did work very well on mine. Good luck!

 

yup...I'm a WC guy..every 4 weeks...need it or not. lol
Glad you "doctored" him up ! Cheers !