Help Me Please

[gaz gun man]

Hey all.

1 of my 6 Sterbai Cories has seemed to develop an itch.

In the 15 minutes or so I have been watching the tank, he has done it 3 or 4 times.

Also his fins are not almost see through like the other 5, but seem cloudy. Also he dosent seem to have spots on his tail like the others.

He is the only one doing it, I thought maybe it was stress, but I dont see what could stress him out?

Tank is 125L, occupants are 6 sterbai, 2 gourami, 9 danios and 10 tetras.
levels are fine, I have been testing everyday and ammonia and nitrite read 0, Nitrate reads between 20-50mg/l on my nutrafin kit, and 10mg/l on my API kit.

I did a 10% water change this morning, added dechlor.

Tank is relatively heavily (plastic) planted, with a cave for additional cover.

His behaviour is the same as the other cories.

Any ideas?

Posted here due to the activity, and im desperate!


I have attached a pic, compare the 'sick' cory on the right with the left one.

Help is really appreciated with this one guys

 

[gaz gun man]

BTW the pic was taken yesterday but I only noticed the itching today.

 

[ox5477]

itching? do mean that it rubs its boddy against things like it's trying to scratch some place it can't reach? If so, this could be any early warning sign of ich as the spore pocket develops under the fishs scales before bursting to incubate in the substrate. It just may be it has an itch too... just keep a close on eye on it


The fins... most likely just has lighter coloration... nothing to worry about. But, one thing to watch is if you start to see a red coloration flow into the fins. This is a warning sign of septicimia, a disease which will kill a fish within a week without treatment and is extremely contagious. I hope I haven't made you paranoid now, as it seems everything is fine, but just watch and if you see specs of what look like salt on the fish, its ich. Red coloration running throuhg the fins... septicimia.

 

[gaz gun man]

thanks.

uh oh. he has a very small red mark on the tip of his dorsal fin

 

[ox5477]

I see what your talking about and honestly... wouldn't worry about it. Prob a slight bit of color at the tip of its fin. When I say red coloration I mean it can be seen easily with the naked eye sometimes even at a distance. Here is an example of a bala shark I had about 1.5 yrs ago:

Sorry about the blurry pic, but you can def see the red in his fins. It starts at the base and goes out towards the tip. so if you see any coloration starting at the tip, its prob not septicimia

 

[gaz gun man]

I see what your talking about and honestly... wouldn't worry about it. Prob a slight bit of color at the tip of its fin. When I say red coloration I mean it can be seen easily with the naked eye sometimes even at a distance. Here is an example of a bala shark I had about 1.5 yrs ago:

Sorry about the blurry pic, but you can def see the red in his fins. It starts at the base and goes out towards the tip. so if you see any coloration starting at the tip, its prob not septicimia

thank god and thankyou, I hope you are right!

I just added a food tablet, and the fish is eating, so he hasnt had a loss of appetite.

IF it was septicimia, would it affect only one fish? Those cories have been in the tank for over 2 weeks now, the danios and gourami's a week and a half. I know its contagious, but wouldnt I see an outbreak on all the fish?

seriously thanks guys for your input with this one.

 

[gaz gun man]

morning all,

checked my fish this morning, and the Sterbai in question has a chunk missing out of his tail.


It looks like its been ripped/bitten away as I dont think it could degrade at such a rate?
Is it possible he has been nipped? only thing I can think of is the Gourami