Harlequin Rasboras with White Fins

[NJ_FishDad]

Hello.  I recently added some additional harlequin rasboras and silver tip tetras to our existing community tank which already had 4 of each.  The new fish brought each school up to 7 total.  I lost one rasbora a day after intro to what appeared to be pop-eye.  A second got cloudy skin and lethargic about a week later and died about 1 day after showing symptoms.  The 5 remaining rasboras and 7 silver tips all are acting healthy but two rasboras have fins that are turning white.  Photo attached.  We're currently treating (2 days in) with the "natural" anti-fungal, anti-bacterial solution.  I have ordered the full suite of 3 medications recommended here on AC which will arrive today or tomorrow.  So my questions are:

• What is this?
• Should I wait for the natural solution to work?
• Or should I dose with the three recommended medications ASAP to prevent further issues?

The tank is fairly new, started 7/23/22.  Tank is 38 gallons, no live plants (yet).  Tank also contains 2 mystery snails and a single, small pleco.  Lesson-learned here as I'm currently setting up a quarantine tank setup for all future additions but I don't want to lose our existing schools.  I set this tank up as a project to share with my 5 yo so hoping we don't have a big die off.

I've been doing regular water changes and the original school of 4 + 4 rasboras and tetras were really thriving before the new introductions on 9/3/22.  Filter is hang on back which I've modified per the guidance on here re: swapping the disposable media with sponge filter material.

I'm using the aquarium coop test strips so I'm interpreting my numbers from it as:

• Nitrate: 0
• Nitrite: 0
• Hardness GH:  300
• Buffer KH:  120
• pH: 7.2
• Chlorine = 0

And another brand ammonia test strip is showing: 0

Water temp is 76F.

Thanks for taking the time to read this.

[DiscusLover]

On 9/14/2022 at 9:45 AM, NJ_FishDad said:

Hello.  I recently added some additional harlequin rasboras and silver tip tetras to our existing community tank which already had 4 of each.  The new fish brought each school up to 7 total.  I lost one rasbora a day after intro to what appeared to be pop-eye.  A second got cloudy skin and lethargic about a week later and died about 1 day after showing symptoms.  The 5 remaining rasboras and 7 silver tips all are acting healthy but two rasboras have fins that are turning white.  Photo attached.  We're currently treating (2 days in) with the "natural" anti-fungal, anti-bacterial solution.  I have ordered the full suite of 3 medications recommended here on AC which will arrive today or tomorrow.  So my questions are:

• What is this?
• Should I wait for the natural solution to work?
• Or should I dose with the three recommended medications ASAP to prevent further issues?

The tank is fairly new, started 7/23/22.  Tank is 38 gallons, no live plants (yet).  Tank also contains 2 mystery snails and a single, small pleco.  Lesson-learned here as I'm currently setting up a quarantine tank setup for all future additions but I don't want to lose our existing schools.  I set this tank up as a project to share with my 5 yo so hoping we don't have a big die off.

I've been doing regular water changes and the original school of 4 + 4 rasboras and tetras were really thriving before the new introductions on 9/3/22.  Filter is hang on back which I've modified per the guidance on here re: swapping the disposable media with sponge filter material.

I'm using the aquarium coop test strips so I'm interpreting my numbers from it as:

• Nitrate: 0
• Nitrite: 0
• Hardness GH:  300
• Buffer KH:  120
• pH: 7.2
• Chlorine = 0

And another brand ammonia test strip is showing: 0

Water temp is 76F.

Thanks for taking the time to read this.

If I can make a good guess I believe that its fungus. I am not 100% sure but just in case before you get some good answers you should qt

[NJ_FishDad]

Thanks for the response DiscusLover.  I have got my hospital tank spun up and ready for use now.  So, now I'm just thinking out loud...should I just dose the whole display tank?  Do I isolate JUST the rasboras showing symptoms into the hospital tank?  Do I bring over all the rasboras to the hospital tank?  Or should I try to get all the tetras over too?  My understanding is the snails don't tend to harbor disease.  That just leaves the pleco.  Should she get dosed or just leave her be if she's not showing symptoms?

Funny enough since these are silver tip tetras, I can't really tell if any of them are starting to show the same white fin symptom as the rasboras.  All the current fish are otherwise eating and acting normally.

Thanks again to anyone who takes the time to read this. 

[DiscusLover]

On 9/15/2022 at 10:23 AM, NJ_FishDad said:

Thanks for the response DiscusLover.  I have got my hospital tank spun up and ready for use now.  So, now I'm just thinking out loud...should I just dose the whole display tank?  Do I isolate JUST the rasboras showing symptoms into the hospital tank?  Do I bring over all the rasboras to the hospital tank?  Or should I try to get all the tetras over too?  My understanding is the snails don't tend to harbor disease.  That just leaves the pleco.  Should she get dosed or just leave her be if she's not showing symptoms?

Funny enough since these are silver tip tetras, I can't really tell if any of them are starting to show the same white fin symptom as the rasboras.  All the current fish are otherwise eating and acting normally.

Thanks again to anyone who takes the time to read this. 

Well in my opinion I think medicating the whole tank would be best since you also did have some rasboras die earlier I think it would be a waste to just move one out . So yes I think the best option is to medicate the whole tank

[NJ_FishDad]

On 9/15/2022 at 2:11 PM, DiscusLover said:

Well in my opinion I think medicating the whole tank would be best since you also did have some rasboras die earlier I think it would be a waste to just move one out . So yes I think the best option is to medicate the whole tank

Thanks again for the insight. Because of a delay in getting the full trio of AC recommended meds, I only dosed with the Marycyn using the recommended dosage off the box and then completed a 25% water change on day 6.  I now have the other two on hand but I'm going to just monitor them a bit to see if there is any reason to do the ick or parasite meds.  Fins on affected fish look like they're better and improving.