Fin and tail rot

Question
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Followup To
Question -
I have a comet in at 12 gallon tank. I prob. dont check the levels as often as i should, ill start doing that soon but fist i really need to fix my poor fish. He used to constantly like rip his tail on plants and i would use medicine to fix it that was for tail rot, b/c i thought that was what it was, now i dont think so b/c i think he does have tail and fin rot now. He is missing alot of the top part of his tail and his top fin looks like it is rotting in like a circular way. I see the same thing slowly happening to his other fins. I put him in a hospital tank and used the medicine i used before but it didnt help like it always did. Maybe its fungal? Can it be a sink tank? He seems to get sick alot. I was hoping you could reccomend something that i could do before he loses all of his fins. They also look very thin. Also, when you reccomend something, can i use two different things together and can i not move him into a hospital tank? I heard something about the filter messing up medicine. Im really confused and i dont want to lose my fish, please help me!
~Ashley
Answer -
Hello,

Fin and tail rot are fungal infections, so the medicine you were using before probably was one sort of anti fungal. Luckily though, there is more then one type of anti fungal, so if this one didn't work another might.

First off, no, you don't need a hospital tank. Especially since your tank is only 12 gallons to begin with. Yes, you should remove carbon from the filter while treating the tank with medicine, unless the medicine's instructions say differently.

You didn't mention which type of medicine you used, but you should try a different from that one. Make sure you use it for the ENTIRE recommended treatment time, which it should say on its instructions. Follow the dosage and times carefully.

Its best not to use more then one kind of medicine at a time, but if you think it is necessary try to use no more then two at once.

I hope this helps. If you have any more questions, feel free to get back to me.

Good-luck,
From Stephanie

The stuff that i used last time turned the tank orange so i thought that a hospital tank would be best. Is there any particular medicine that you would reccomend? Do you think its best to use it in his real tank?  

Answer
Hello,

Whether or not you use a hospital tank is really up to you. The advantage of a hospital tank is that your original tank and any other fish aren't affected. However, hospital tanks tend to have bad levels of nitrites, as they are not always constantly running. So before using a hospital tank, make sure you check the levels.

I would recommend a triple sulfa medicing. A particulary good one is Trisulfa by Mardel. Hopefully you can find this at your local fish store. I think its pretty standard and you should be able to.

Hope this helps and always feel free to follow-up with more questions.

Good-luck,

From Stephanie