This is a desease called "fin rot"

As deseases happen with poor water quality which causes stress to fish and stress makes them more prone to desease because of a weak immune system it is very important to keep the water quality up to date.

Frayed fins look just like they sound! You can see some small rips and tears by the edges of the fins, usually most visible on the tail. The edges can look rather white, and the skin can turn red by the base of the fin. If it's left untreated, the whole fin may rot away! And if the bony rays of the fin are destroyed, it won't be able to grow back. But of course, if you leave it so long that the tail has rotted away, you can hardly save the fish anymore.

It's an infection caused by different kinds of bacteria, which usually gain access to the fish when the water quality is bad or the fish are generally stressed. Therefore, the first and foremost action is to test the water, and do a large water change on about 60-70% of the water (which should be done no matter which disease symptoms the fish show.) if necessary, you can add some anti-bacterial medication after the water change, always monitor the water quality daily, and feed the fish a variety of nutritious foods! It could be tropical fish flakes or krill, blood worms... anything that the fish will readily accept during the illness.

As always, it's easiest to get rid of this and any problem if you take care of the source, so in some cases (if you're fast enough) you might just solve the problem just by giving the fish some fresh water to swim in! And make sure that you correct any problems with the water parameters.

Here are a few pics that I found too:

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Aww, thank you! *hug* (I gave you one back) I have no idea how I can remember all those things anymore! xD I haven't even brought any of my fish books along to our new home

But I do think it's more important to know how to best prevent fish from getting sick rather than knowing what to do if it happens!

Is there anyway to treat this?

Sunshine once had fin rot and I used melafix to treat it  Did it actually do anything or did it just heal on its own because I fixed up the water chemistry?

Ah ok I see Thanks Nossie. I always heard it killed the good bacteria but I am guessing this isn't true? Also when I get my new fishie I was going to quarantine it in Sunshine's old tank and treat it with melafix for a few days. Is this a good choice? Or it won't do anything?

Thanks once again Nossie. I don't reckon the fish will be sick as I trust the pet shop and I know what diseases look like so I won't be picking sick fish. But I won't tank any chances with Sunshine so I'll be doing the quarantine

I am so happy that there are fishies out there with such lovely, caring fishy-parents

Great pix Nossie on fin rot!!!