HI,

I think im stuck in the middle of a finrot pandemic within my fishtank.
tank details:
~50L capacity, fluval internal filter, and ample aeration, 2 living plants and a few fake ones as well...housing 10neons, 5 tiger barbs (4 are green variants), 2 dwarf gouramis (one dead now), 4 albino corys.

Now, last week there was some cottony-wool growth on one fo my gouramis. I immediately got the nutrafin/interpet (cant remember off the top of my head) fungus and finrot treatment and treated them as instructed. I also isolated the gourami in an in-tank quarantine/birthing net. soon after treatment, the gourami died, things were dead slow for a while with the fishes, 3 barbs were swimming upside down for a couple of days and my corys were inactive and then things seemes to settle down yesterday evening and the corys started swimming about and the barbs were fine too!!! AND Then today ive found 2 barbs with cotton-wool growth and the other gourami is also affected. all three quite severley.

I have isolated them SHould I treat again now or wait for a couple of more days for the second treatment? OR should I clean out the entire tank in hot water and re introduce the fish to fresh (finrot-treated) water???
Please help...

There are two possible causes of finrot...

1) A water mould known as Saprolegnia.

2) A secondary-infection from internal bacteria known as Columnaris.

In the latter case you will need to treat for an internal-bacterial infection, API pimafix is one of the best medications on the market. Separating the affected fish is the best thing to do however you still need to treat the main aquarium.

Stripping down the aquarium is unlikely to help as eventually it will build up small background populations of harmful bacteria and parasites, these aren't usually a problem however they will cause problems when the fishes immune systems are compromised due to stress. A major cause of stress is poor water quality, so I would test the water for pH, ammonia, nitrite and nitrate. Also post the test results if you can.

Finally a photo of the affected fish would be useful.

Pics here...

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about the pictures,
you cant see all clearly because of the isolation netting. Notice that the colour of the barbs face has gone reddish orangey..there is cottony-wool growth on the gourami and the barb as well.
Hope that helps.
Cheers
Jay

All 5 barbs are now affected. The neons and corys however seemingly are unaffected.

I will try to get the primafix pleccy. Im now waiting on a test kit off ebay.

To be frank, I have kept fish in India before. And it was a great community and there was never many problems and I had them for about 4-5 years. Also in india we did not need to worry about thermostats and fitlers were unheard of 12 years ago for a normal community tank. only breeders and shopkeepers kept filters then. (I dont know how it is now though I must admit!!!)...The only thing we had to worry about was the chlorine in the water. We would leave it stand for a couple days before introducing the fish to it. But THAT WAS IT!!! Its soooooo much more complicated here in the UK. For starters you need the heating

I never thought that I would really need a testing kit. I did the 25% water change every week to dilute any hamful substances and I thought that was it. I still dont get how after treatment, more fish are seemingly affected. Is that normal. Does not seem right to me.

If the neons and corys pull through this, then I will clean out the entire tank and treat them as a prophylactic and wait a month or so to see what happens before introducing any more fish...and I WILL get my hands on that testing kit and monitor the water quality as well...

But seriously, I did not even fathom for a second that the water (that I can drink out of a tap in this country) could be bad for fish compared to the water in India...which we cannot drink from the tap!!! That just confuses me...