My fish has fin rot and lives in an uncycled aquarium PLEASE HELP

7 years ago

I bought a 2 gallon tank about 2 days ago and unbeknownst to me, I found out they had to be cycled. Well, here I am two days later and I notice my fish has fin rot. I started the cycling process by using API Quick start as well as API Stress Coat and to treat the fin rot using API Bettafix. I'm wondering if I should continue cycling my tank with Quick Start or stop using it and only use Stress Coat along with Bettafix... I've been trying to figure this out all day and it's driving me crazy! My tank needs bacteria and fish needs to rid itself of it...WHAT DO I DO?!

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Comments (3)

Jason (Zone 10b, San Diego)
7 years ago
Cycling a tank can take awhile. There are a couple of different ways to do this, one is to use starter fish to help add nitrogen and other wastes to the water. Depending on the fish type, this can be hard on the fish, ie you will lose some of them. I expect that the fin rot is occurring because of the non-cycled tank, not the Quick Start. I do not think that the Quick Start will hurt your fish, it should not hurt to keep using it per the directions on the bottle. Good luck!
Jenny K
7 years ago
I'm guessing you have a betta? They are pretty resilient fish. I kept one in a one gallon tank, no filter for 5 years until he got old an died. I had a gallon jug of water that i would fill with tap, treat with conditioner (1/2 tsp of aquarium salt, and stress coat) and left the cap of it for 24 hours to let most of the bad chemicals evaporate out, then the next day i would do a 100% water change. I did this every week. You can also buy distilled water from the grocery store. That way is a pretty labor intensive way of fishkeeping, but was necessary for the size tank I had.

His fins should grow back in time. Make sure you don't have any plastic plants in your tank, use silk or live plants. Bettas don't like any strong currents in their tanks. If you do frequent partial water changes this will promote him to grow his fins back faster. A heater will also help immensely. They're a bit harder to find for a tank that size but they are pretty cheap and almost essential for helping a betta grow back his fins. I had a betta in a 3 gallon that got sick while i was on vacation, resulting in almost all his fins rotting off. With frequent, twice a week water changes, a heater, the aquarium salt and stress coat, he had grown most of his back in just a month. No bettafix was used and it can potentially be do more harm than good if your fish is not really sick.

TL;DR I'd get him some aquarium salt and a heater and make sure until he is healed your are doing water changes with dechlorinated water twice a week. Doubling the stress coat can help too. Once he is healed you can cut back water changes to once a week.

http://velvetdragon.com/bettas/finrot.html this site is a great resource to your problem. I'd give it a read when you have time.

Hope your fish feels better!
Kayla House thanked Jenny K
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Skyler, N. TX
7 years ago
last modified: 7 years ago
It can take 2+ weeks for a tank to cycle, and during that time the ammonia in the tank during that process could further worsen your fish's fin rot. I'm assuming you have a betta.

If you're certain it has fin rot, clean warm (78F-80F) water is what will really help heal it. You can also try dissolving aquarium salt in a cup of conditioned water and mix it with the tank water according to the dosage on the bag the AQ salt came in.

Personally, I would probably treat the fish in a separate container (you can use a 1 gallon kritter keeper) while you cycle the tank and just do water changes everyday to maybe every other day. Keep in mind both would need to be heated, so you'd have to buy another heater for the separate container. It's good to have a quarantine tank for emergencies though.

I would also make a post on an aquarium or betta fish (if that's what you have) website. Bettafish (dot) com is a very good website.

edit- I just noticed the date on the posts, but I have already posted this. Hopefully this'll come in handy for anyone else.

My fish has fin rot and lives in an uncycled aquarium PLEASE HELP

Comments (3)

Jason (Zone 10b, San Diego)

Jenny K

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Skyler, N. TX

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