31 replies to this topic

[RyanV]

Hi I am wondering if anyone can help me figure out why my cory is sick. Yesterday I did my weekly water test and 25 water change, everything looked good. Woke up this morning and feed the fish before I left, came home this evening and my cory is on its side I thought it was dead until I went to take it out and it swam away. It moves every once in a while but it isn't swimming normally and is pretty much laying on its side most of the time. I have other cories that are all fine, do you know whats wrong with this one and is it possible to save it at this point? Any idea's why this happened?

[snazy]

What type of tests did you use to test the water? By saying everything looked good can please post the exact test results?
How long has the tank been set up for?

The cory could be on it's way, sorry You need to do a large water change as a first measure to see if it will help. Are any other fish or corys showing any signs of sickness?

[RyanV]

Just watching it a bit longer and it is actually swimming around the tank but looks like its on crack It's spinning and turning, doing circles all over while trying to swim straight.

[WILDER]

Can you post your water stats please.

Does the cory look darker in colour, or pale?
Does he look bloated?
Is he still eating?
What does the cory waste look like when he goes to the toilet?
Is his anus enlarged, or red and inflamed?
Check his eyes just to make sure there not bulging out?
Does he try to get off the bottom of the tank only to fall back down again?
Any signs of red streaking on his body, or fins?
Check his barbels to make sure there not thin, short, or missing any barbels?
Can he maintain balance when he swims?

Sorry for all the questions. Looking for signs of a bacterial infection,.

[RyanV]

What type of tests did you use to test the water? By saying everything looked good can please post the exact test results?
How long has the tank been set up for?

The cory could be on it's way, sorry You need to do a large water change as a first measure to see if it will help. Are any other fish or corys showing any signs of sickness?

Ammonia and Nitites are 0 and Nirates are at 20.

The tank has been running for about 3 months now, cory is either 1 or 2 months old (I got a couple more a while back so not sure). All the other cories look good.

Can't tell if he's pale or bloated, what do you think? If he's eating i'm not sure I left right after feeding today, but I'm pretty sure it has been.

Picture:

Edited by RyanV, 27 October 2012 - 08:45 PM.

[WILDER]

Sorry snacy must of replyed while I was writing my reply.

He looks bloated to me.
Is there a red, or pink lump below his gills. Hard to tell in the pic.

He looks bad to me. I would prepare yourself for maybe losing him.

[RyanV]

Can't tell is there's a red or pink spot, I think there might be (he's hiding his head atm, hard to see). Based on his size compared to the others I would assume it's one of the cories I got a month ago. You think just sick when I got it?

[WILDER]

Can you isolate him and try an internal bacteria medication. It might be to late but worth a try.
Hows the fish breathing. It it laboured?

[snazy]

I'll suggest a last option to try in case you do not have any medications at the moment. Since the cory looks on it's way out and if you don't act it will probably not last too much longer, not even till tomorrow. When they lose their balance they are gonners.
So the option is to remove him in a temporary container with temperature matched water to the one of the tank, but not dechlorinated. That's only for about 5-10 minutes max, observing him and then move him back to the tank. As you know chlorine kills bacteria so if it is something bacterial it will work like a free of charge medication, it should not kill the cory for this amount of time. It certainly doesn't kill healthy fish for this amount of time as I have done it as a prevention when doing a water change and it was recommended here on this forum a year ago by one of the old administrators(Tolak) If you have ammonia or even nitrIte in your tap water, then it's not an option I guess.

[RyanV]

I can try that. It is pretty much just laying on the bottom of the tank now, breathing looks okay. I hate to bring up another question, but after staring at the cory for so long I also noticed this on my red wag platy:



Best picture I could get as it swims to fast for my camera. Its a female and I am pretty sure it's pregnant, but there's a white spot on the top of her head? Is this ick? If so can I treat it while it's pregnant? I keep having so many issues with this tank..never had a problem with the other.

[WILDER]

As you know chlorine kills bacteria so if it is something bacterial it will work like a free of charge medication, it should not kill the cory for this amount of time. It certainly doesn't kill healthy fish for this amount of time as I have done it as a prevention when doing a water change and it was recommended here on this forum a year ago by one of the old

That good to know snazy. Thanks.

How big is the spot RyanV. Is it bigger than a grain of salt?
Does the spot have a red, or pink centre?
Does the spot have a circling or red, pink around the edges of the spot?

[RyanV]

As you know chlorine kills bacteria so if it is something bacterial it will work like a free of charge medication, it should not kill the cory for this amount of time. It certainly doesn't kill healthy fish for this amount of time as I have done it as a prevention when doing a water change and it was recommended here on this forum a year ago by one of the old

That good to know snazy. Thanks.

How big is the spot RyanV. Is it bigger than a grain of salt?
Does the spot have a red, or pink centre?
Does the spot have a circling or red, pink around the edges of the spot?

Defiantly larger than a grain of salt. It doesn't appear to have a pick center or a circling pink edge. The shape is almost like an 'X'. I'm even starting to wonder if it could be a few scales missing?

[WILDER]

Any white edging to her scales.
Have you noticed any cotton wool patches on any of your fish?
Hard to tell in the pic but does the X look white, or pink.

[snazy]

The stuff on the platy looks like columnaris?
Alternatively, I can't recall the name of it but there's a disease very similar to columnaris that is common for corydoras catfish. Maybe Wilder knows. I'll try to find the name of it.

And apparently corydoras don't suffer from columnaris but can carry the disease.

Edited by snazy, 27 October 2012 - 09:47 PM.

[RyanV]

No white edging, no cotton wool on any other fish. I would say it looks a lot more white than pink. Here is another picture, there is also white under her mouth, is this the same thing that's on the top?


Put the cory in the tap water for 10mins and back in the tank. It's not moving a whole lot, but it is staying up straight now

The stuff on the platy looks like columnaris?
Alternatively, I can't recall the name of it but there's a disease very similar to columnaris that is common for corydoras catfish. Maybe Wilder knows. I'll try to find the name of it.

And apparently corydoras don't suffer from columnaris but can carry the disease.

Looked up some pictures on google and Columnaris looks a lot more like its on the scales edges. This isn't just on the edges of the scales.

[WILDER]

Alternatively, I can't recall the name of it but there's a disease very similar to columnaris that is common for corydoras catfish. Maybe Wilder knows. I'll try to find the name of it.

Haven't a clue snazy.
All I know is that corys are very prone to picking bacteria infections up from the substrate. This is why it's very important to keep up with weekly sand, or gravel vacs.

It sounds like the platy has columnaris.
Myxazin by waterlife good for mild cases. Medication not meant to harm good bacteria in your filter.

[WILDER]

Columnaris has many disguises.
Bleaching beneath the skin.
Cotton wool patches on fish mouth, body.
Saddle back columnaris. Goes along the back, and down the sides of the fish to form a saddle shape.
Cotton strands, mouth, fins.
White edging to scales.
Columnaris spots. Greyish white spot, with a circling of red around the edges, or a pink centre.
Greyish film on fish with cotton patches.
Can show as white, pink, brown, yellow, cotton wool patches.

[RyanV]

Yeah I did a gravel vac yesterday. I'll let you know how it does, looks better already though. I can try myxazin, never used before though, do I want to isolate the platy or is it okay treating the whole tank? Can I also treat for ick just in case or does it not look like it at all?

[snazy]

Alright, no bother. I was reading about it the other day and I thought I remembered the stupid name of it because I actually never knew about it. The symptoms are the same as columnaris, can't find it now and I've been searching and there was a whole scientific paper on it. It was just worth mentioning in this case and corys are not succeptible to columnaris, so who knows. But yes, I agree that first common cause is bacterial infection and chlorine kills most of them

Anyway, glad the chlorine treatment is ok so far. See if it's showing any improvement(swimming properly), then maybe another one in a few hours can be done, although it causes stress to the fish, there's not too many options at the moment.

Yeah I did a gravel vac yesterday. I'll let you know how it does, looks better already though. I can try myxazin, never used before though, do I want to isolate the platy or is it okay treating the whole tank? Can I also treat for ick just in case or does it not look like it at all?

If it's columnaris, you need to treat the whole tank as it is highly contagious. However, make sure the medication is not toxic to corydoras. And I wouldn't treat for ick at the same time. Ick is parasitic, columnaris is bacterial. Ick dies in high temperatures, bacteria thrives in high temperatures. So you can't treat for both, also you can't mix medications too.

[WILDER]

Sorry I forgot to mention in my early reply. Glad to hear the corys seems abit better.
I think with having 2 sick fish I would maybe add the myxazin by waterlife to the tank., Didn't you have a sick gourami a few weeks back. Was the fish in the same tank?

Signs of whitespot.
Tiny bubbles on fish body, fins can sometimes mean the fish is going to break out in whirespot.
Tiny white spots the size of a grain of salt.
The fish will look like it's been sprinkled in salt.
Sometimes excess slime, finrot.
Flicking and rubbing.
Gasping, laboured breathing.
Sometimes signs of darting around the tank.