Fin rot and Mystery Snails

Question
QUESTION: Hi there,

Recently one of my black golfish, Pedro had the misfortune to see his
beautiful long tail slowly rot away. It hasn't rotten all that much, he's about 8
cm long and the rot has only rotted about 3 mm of his tail. Another fish had
already died from the rot (Kip) although it didn't really look  that bad. I
bougth something called PimaFix from the pet store. However, I was told by a
friend that this wouldn't do the job and that I would also need MelaFix. Is this
so or will PimaFix be able to do the job fine?
I also recently bought a Mystery Apple Snail (dubbed Monsieur Escargot!). I'm
not too sure whether the snail will eat all the plants as I have been told they
would and would I also need to supply him with a different diet to the
goldfish or would feeding him goldfish flakes do it?
Also, do my goldfish also need live and fresh food as well in their diet? I've
had about 3 fish die on me  (I know...shameful!!!) and I've tried all the pet
store staff told me but maybe it's the diet? I'm only feeding them proceessed
flakes at the moment.

Thanks heaps,

Jo

ANSWER: Hello,

What size tank do you have the goldfish in and how many do you have right now?

I'm sure that MelaFix would most likely do the job. Though fin rot is hard to get rid of.

The apple snail will definately eat the plants. You should be ok with that.



---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: It's a 38 L tank and I have 3 small goldfish in it. So far, the apple snail has
been eating the fish flakes and the poo on the bottom but has yet to touch
the plants though I won't know for sure.
Hopefully PimaFix will work, if not, I'll go and get some MelaFix on top of it.
Thanks

Answer
We recently had an Oscar(Cichlid) returned to us at our store that is pretty banged up. We are putting Melafix in with him because his fins are damaged...so you actually might want to try the melafix.  Those 3 gold fish will need a bigger tank eventually they grow to be huge the rule of thumb for gold fish is 5 gallons per inch of them.  It's good that the snail is eating fish flakes as long as it's eating something : ).