# Freshwater Aquariums > General Freshwater Topics > Livestock Health & Nutrition >  fin rot

## djprincessx

My poor cardinal tetras have fin rot  :Frown:  I wanted to know if anyone has any good tips to get my fish back to healthy. I treated my tank with Melafix for 4 days. It said to do it for a week but my tank is only 5 gallons so I didn't want to destroy the good bacteria too bad. This was about 2 weeks ago and they are doing better but I wanted to know if anything else would help? I also use Cycle which is why I think they are still alive. My poor fishies  :Frown:  Anyways, any tips, suggestions, etc will be greatly appreciated  :Smile:  Thanx guys!

*leslie*

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## Timo

I dont have any tips but hope they get well soon  :Smile:

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## lost

Not my work but i hope this may help a little
*Fact file:* Fin rot
*Caused by:* Aeromonas and Pseudomonas bacteria.
*Symptoms:* Split, torn or ragged fins, often with a white edge or signs of bleeding. Damage may extend to the body. Sores may become infected by other disease organisms including fungi  and other bacteria. Secondarily infected wounds often have a fluffy appearance. 
*Reason for infection:* Virtually always due to poor water quality, especially the presence of ammonia and nitrite. Wounds from fighting and fin-nipping, improper handling and grazes from sharp decor may become infected if the immune response of the fish is suppressed by stress from poor water quality. 
*Action:* If the water is heavily polluted the fish may die from poisoning and treatment is unlikely to be effective, so test first. If there's something wrong with the water, try and find out why. Remove fin-nippers or bullies from the tank. Ensure there's no sharp decor.
*Treatment:* Buy an antibacterial liquid treatment from your aquatic shop, and add this to your tank according to the instructions. Keep monitoring the water quality during treatment and make a water change if pollution becomes a problem. Adding aquarium salt at a dose of 2-3g per litre may help fish control their internal salt levels. Your vet may prescribe antibiotics in severe cases
Best of luck

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## djprincessx

thank you for the info lost, and thank you Timo for your well wishes :P I knew I let my tank get too bad. It was in direct sunlight and I have been feeling so overwhelmed that I just let the algea sit in there. It was a horrible move and I knew better... definately  :Frown:  The night I cleaned out the tank I noticed there poor fins and rushed right to walmart to get treatment because I was sitting here crying. I love my fish and mean them no harm, just when you do everything for your household + a million more things and are pretty sick... everything kind of becomes crazy! If anyone else has more advice it would be much appreciated but I am deff gonna get some aquarium salt and get them some antibiotics!

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## Timo

UV sterilisers can be useful for disease control because they can kill parasites.

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## djprincessx

> UV sterilisers can be useful for disease control because they can kill parasites.


That wouldn't really be reasonable for a 5 gallon tank would it?

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## Timo

> That wouldn't really be reasonable for a 5 gallon tank would it?


My 10 gallon nano had a little UV in the filter system so you can get low watt small ones, don't know were you can get them in the states though.

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## drjallen3

I had a problem with fin rot on a betta in my 10 gallon tank that also contains 4 dwarf cory catfish. The cories weren't eating the food on the bottom and the water quality got bad. The betta died before I could treat him. I put my cories in a goldfish bowl and broke the tank down and sterilized everything with strong bleach solution including running it through my power filter. After everything was rinced and set bac up, I had a clean and sterile tank. I'm fortunate to have a larger tank that includes an undergravel filter. I seeded the small tank with a small handful of gravel from the large tank and started over. I treated the cories with bettafix in the bowl for 4 days in case they were carrying fin rot spores. I then put a dose of Ammolock in the tank and added the cories back. It's been 2 weeks and everything is fine. By the way, when I added the good bacteria seeded gravel to the tank, I put a Q-tip in plain ammonia and swirled it in the tank to feed the good bacteria. I knew it worked because the water was cloudy with bacteria on the 2nd day. Thanks. Jeff

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*Gary R* (30-01-2018), *Reddevil* (08-02-2018)

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