White spots appeared on tiger barb fins overnight

miniflea84

I don't know if its ich or finrot or what. The spots appear to only be on the fins. I'm trying to grab a few pictures so you guys can see it more clearly.

Relevant tank info:
Ten gallons, contains 8 tiger barbs. Previously were two others, one died three days ago, body removed intact, other died approx. 2 weeks ago, body heavily picked at before it was noticed- both deaths were from the same store, remaining fish all from a different store (from which I have never had any deaths)
Ammonia- 0
Nitrites- 0
Nitrate- 10-20ppm
Temp- 78

Its my first tank and I've had it a couple of months now, and it appears (to my inexperienced eyes) to be fully cycled. I did a 30% water change yesterday (which I do every week, plus or minus a day or so) and I changed the carbon filter but NOT the sponge filter.

My questions boils down to, what should I do? About half the fish are affected. Should I raise the tank temperature, do a large water change, what? I thought about isolating the sick fish, but in what? I don't have another tank, and I'm not sure how to heat my bucket. Also, I unfortunately am not in a position to go to a store to pick up any medications for perhaps another 3-4 days.

Any advice is appreciated, and if I've left out anything I apologize. Working on getting some clear pics so you guys can see for yourselves.

Edit: I'm pretty sure I've been overfeeding them recently, and I've had a couple of plants dying due to poor lighting, which I've removed from the tank as soon as I've noticed them.

aunt kymmie

If it is Ich isloating the affected fish won't do any good since the entire tank has been exposed. If what you see are tiny white specs or spots and no fin damage it is most likely ich. Do the fish flash or rub against surfaces?? Your best bet would to treat with meds. I just finished treating my tank for ich and I used Kordon's Rid Ich and it worked very well. Do a large water change prior to adding the meds and follow the directions on the bottle to the letter. I also slowly raised my water temp from 78 to 83 to hasten treatment.

During treatment with meds it's important to remove the carbon from your filter. After you are finished with treatment do another water change and replace the carbon in your filter to pull out any medication residual. Good Luck.

If you can't get meds for a few days you can always try this method:

http://www.fishforum.com/member-subm...as-style-6594/

miniflea84

Thanks for the advice kymmie. I'm thinking they probably have fin rot. The spots are only on the fins, and then only on the very outside edges. I wasn't sure at first because all the real life cases I've seen have been in stores where the fish's fins are already half gone at least.

I'm going to raise the temp a bit (they are all very lethargic, and bunched around the heater anyway) and just hope they make it until I can buy some meds.

What sort of water changes should I do? Would a very large change do more harm than good?

aunt kymmie

Yikes, I have no idea. The only issue I've ever had to deal with is ich. If it is fin rot I doubt it would hurt to do a water change. If anything I'd think it would be helpful. I wouldn't do any more than 20% as you don't need to stress your fish out anymore than they already are. Someone with experience as far as fin rot will chime in. I wish I knew the answer. Any chance on getting a pic & posting??
It's good that you noticed you were overfeeding so you can change that!

miniflea84

Well, they're all gone. I did get some meds eventually but it was too little too late. Its been several days now and its actually kind of tough to fall asleep without the sound of the filter in my room. I'm feeling really discouraged but I think I'm just going to take the opportunity to completely redo my tank. New decor, new fish, everything. Or something. I dunno.

aunt kymmie

I'm sorry you lost your fish. It happens, don't be discouraged. Your next set up will be successful!