Extremely Abused Cory

[Snooks1!]

Long story short...My mother bought convicts for her tank...And since they have bred, the cories in th tank have been the butt of their aggressions. One in particular is completely beat to hell, fins totally gone, skin ripped and mangled, bloodied up...the works.


My idea...is to stick him into my 80gal tank until he is healed ( my Quarantine tank is currently being used to treat two of my mum's marbled hatchets for ich ) , would there be any problems with this? The water is maintained at 75-78, it is slightly basic, the stocking is a bgk, 2 spiny eels, and a dojo loach. I would hate to see the poor cory suffer and die, what should I do?


Also...I cannot tell if he has some sort of fungus, or if he is just terribly tore all to hell. If it is indeed fungus..would introducing him to my tank be a bad idea?

 

[Colin_T]

There is a possibility the fish has fungal or bacterial infections getting into the damaged areas. However, cories are pretty tough and usually recover well. I would be careful about putting it into a tank with a black ghost knifefish because they will often attack and kill injured fish. And if the cory is unwell it could quickly get wiped out. You might be better off putting it into a breeding net in the tank it is currently in. Or you can use a 2litre icecream bucket instead. Put a couple of small holes in the side of the bucket and hold it to the inside of the tank with some pegs or something similar. Put the cory in that and see how it goes. The holes will help to allow some tank water into the bucket.

 

[Snooks1!]

I do not have a breeding net....Nor do I have a small bucket to put him in either...

I do not think it's a fungal infection as this has only happened within the past 24 hours, and according to my mum, the fish was well until earlier today when she saw the convict bullying him.

At the moment I have him in my tank, there have been no problems so far, he has been more active, and has even ate some mysis shrimp. I'll wait til the morning to see how he's doing.

 

[Snooks1!]

He's not doing so hot...just checked on him...he's laying on his side, he only moves when forcibly urged to, and even then...he just swims straight up then falls right back down onto his side...



I really don't think he'll make it...and I can't stand to see the poor little guy suffer. Should I just put him out of his misery? If so...what would be the best way to do it?

 

[Colin_T]

The quickest way is to knock him on the head but it gets a bit messy and is hard to do. You can put him into an icecream bucket with a bit of tank water and pop him into the freezer. As the temperature drops the fish's metabolism slows down until it dies. If you can get Clove Oil (available from Health food shops) you can add that one drop at a time to the container of water with the catfish in. Then when the fish falls asleep you can pop him in the freezer until it is frozen. Clove oil makes the fish unconscious and the freezing kills it.