possible fin rot?

Question
hi,
i have a pair of blood red parrots. the male (i assume its the male) keeps digging in the cave that i have made for them and keeps removing the substrate. he also has black marks on his fins, lips and forehead. is this normal or does he have finrot? i have a community tank however none of the other fishes have this symtoms. the other parrot has a small black mark on her body. if he has finrot (worst case) then what medications would you reccommend? i usually put some ich medicine and chrolomycitin (antibiotic)in the tank to prevent diseases!

Answer
Hi Kunal
First, check your water quality and make sure the ammonia and nitrite is at 0 ppm, and nitrates ideally under 20 ppm.  Black spots can be a sign of ammonia burns, when it's black it's actually healing.  Now, not sure if I'm understanding you correctly, but do you constantly keep antibiotics and ich meds in the tank?  If so, I'd advise not doing that anymore.  First, most antibiotics will kill off your beneficial bacteria which will lead to water quality problems.  Second, it can lead to bacterias and parasites becoming immune to the meds.  So when you really do need to use them, they may not work.  

BUT...it is normal for parrots to get those black spots.  It commonly will show up when they're stressed from water quality or something else, and it commonly shows up when they're breeding/mating-which is what sounds like yours may be doing.  

Usually with fin rot, you'll see the fins ripping, tearing, looking tattered.  So, like I said, I'd just check your water quality, and the black spots are most likely normal and should go away on their own in time.

Hope that helps.

Christy