rash

[liamoi]

A small barb in one of my tanks seems to have some kind of rash (a bit like white spot) on its tail fin. It appears to be the same colour as the tail (orange) only a bit darker. I can't see any more of it on any other part of the fish or on any other of the fish in the tank. The fish seems to be behaving and feeding normally, though maybe flicking a bit. Does any one have any idea what this might be and how best to deal with it!?
Cheers.

 

[RadleyMiller]

First think I would do is raise the temp of the tank to the mid 80s F and add 1 tablespoon of salt per 5 gallons.

 

[guppy]

Orange or rusty looking fine spots?, if it is a bit soft looking and spreads it could be velvet (oonidium) salt and heat help as does keeping the tank dark, it also responds to treatment with copper sulphate or formalin/malachite green meds. Barbs tolerate that treatment but cats, loaches, knives, and most eels are very sensitive to those meds. If it is velvet it will spread rapidly.

 

[liamoi]

Only other fish are a Texas cichlid and a rainbow fish. They are all fairly small, the biggest is the Texas which is about 4 inches (100 mm). The tank is quite big, an 'L' shape about the equivalent of a 5 footer. Unfortunately there is no treatment tank available. The rash sort of looks like grains of sand.

 

[guppy]

Both the rainbows and texas should tolerate treatment for velvet, I would keep a close eye on the fish and if the spots spread or show up on other fish go ahead and treat for velvet. Except for the color this is often mistaken for ich. Other meds such as Kordon's Acriflavine and Jungle's Velvet Guard will also work.