Black tip fin disease, what is this called, how can I treat it?

Question
Hey Renne!

So, I have recently (one week from today) bought a beta, two guppies, one silver molly and a ghost shrimp. I previously had three gouramies (two blue and one pink kissing) and the kissing gourami was getting quite large and attacked/killed the two blue gouramies. I gave the pink kissing gourami away to a fish store to sell and I had gotten three balloon mollies. I soon found (the night I bought them) that all three were deathly ill with a disease that was covering the fish in white. I gave these ones back to the fish store and got a refund. I then went to Petsmart and got the fish I listed earlier.

The shrimp was dead by the saturday morning, and just last night when I came home from being in St. Catherine's for school, my beta had black stuff coming out of its lungs. I moved it into its own container and it died. I just checked on my other fish now and my silver molly has a little bit of black on its tail fin, and one of my two guppies is kind of hiding in the lower right hand corner of my tank. (The guppies have stayed at the top since I got them last friday). Other than these fish I have a pleco that I have had since getting my tank just over a year and a half ago. My tank is a 10 gallon and I have not had any problems other than I did have tail rot one time but that was more than a year ago and was taken care of with medication and the fish lived for about another 6 months. The gouramies I had (two blue, one kissing) lived in there for just over 6 months and were perfectly fine.

When I had taken the balloon mollies back to the fish store I asked them to check my water and he said that I was a little high in nitrites but to just add the bacteria (yellow bottle in Canada) to the water about twice a week and that I could not overdose and it would fix my problem. I left my tank with no fish in it for a week after having the balloon mollies.

I would appreciate it if you could please tell me what this black stuff may be, and if it is going to spread to my other fish or if it maybe isn't even a true problem?

Thanks lots,
Rebecca

Answer
Hi Rebecca,

Wow.  I am so sad to hear you have had such problems.

After you have an infection of Ich (the white stuff on the fish), some experts advise a week empty tank so the lifecycle of the ich can die off, but I have found, that often, many are STILL alive.  Sometimes it takes 3 weeks to a month without anything in the tank for it to actually kill the ich.

What I'd advise at this point is to add ten teaspoons of marine salt to the water and dissolve it.  The fish can live in there, forever, with that salt...it will NOT hurt them, but if there is anything still bad in the water (ich, bacteria, fungus), it's likely going to keep it at bay from harming your little fishes.

The nitrites can't be a "little bit high".  I often hear of things like this from petstore employees.  Nitrites at ALL are dangerous.  Any, is deathly to the fish.

If the water has any yellow, it's deadly water.

Nitrites begin and they come from death.  When they are in the water, the chemical reaction is to form Ammonia.  The fish are swimming in ammonia.  It's very bad for them.

Let's do this:

Change the tank's water and thoroughly rinse gravel, plants and filtration unit.

Re-fill it using something to dechlorinate the water, or use bottled water.

Then, add your fish again.

Take 10 teaspoons of marine salt and dissolve it in water and pour it into the tank.  Swish it around so it dissolves.  This will ensure safe water for your fish!

It should keep most parasites away also.

Then...go get some new fish, but examine them thoroughly before you take them home.

In fact, bring your own tupperware container full of water.  Make sure it's got 2 teaspoons of salt per gallon in the water, so while they're on the way home, anything on their skin is dying before you put them in your tank.  

Never, ever add petstore water to yours.  Use bowls to direct transport the fish into fresh, safe water, before they even go near your water.

If you took Petstore water and put it on a slide, you'd be seriously amazed at the life it has!  Your water has life also, but it is most likely less invasive, disasterous life.

I hope this helps, Rebecca. :)

Happy fish-keeping.

Renee