Help my cory

[Tobytyke245]

I have just noticed today my albino Cory's eyes are bulging out and his face looks a little swollen is there anything I can do to help him I've just tested my water its 0 ammonia 0 nitrite and 10 nitrate

 

[Colin_T]

Wipe the inside of the glass with a clean fish sponge.

Clean the filter if it hasn't been done in the last 2 weeks. Wash filter media/ materials in a bucket of tank water and re-use them.

Do a 75% water change and gravel clean the substrate every day for 1 week. Then do it once a week.
Make sure any new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it's added to the tank.

Increase aeration/ surface turbulence to maximise oxygen levels in the water.

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Add salt.
You can add rock salt (often sold as aquarium salt), sea salt or swimming pool salt to the aquarium at the dose rate of 2 heaped tablespoon per 20 litres of water.

Keep the salt level like this for at least 2 weeks but no longer than 4 weeks otherwise kidney damage can occur. Kidney damage is more likely to occur in fish from soft water (tetras, Corydoras, angelfish, gouramis, loaches) that are exposed to high levels of salt for an extended period of time, and is not an issue with livebearers, rainbowfish or other salt tolerant species.

The salt will not affect the beneficial filter bacteria, plants, shrimp or snails.

After you use salt and the fish have recovered, you do a 10% water change each day for a week using only fresh water that has been dechlorinated. Then do a 20% water change each day for a week. Then you can do bigger water changes after that. This dilutes the salt out of the tank slowly so it doesn't harm the fish.

If you do water changes while using salt, you need to treat the new water with salt before adding it to the tank. This will keep the salt level stable in the tank and minimise stress on the fish.

 

[Tobytyke245]

Thank you any idea as to what has caused this as it only seems to be affecting the one fish. Is it a water quality issue I do a 25% water change weekly one weekend gravel vac and next weekend clean filter media and sponges. I alternate filter and gravel vac as i was informed it's best not to do them together. Should I be doing more the water is clear and nitrate never goes above 20ppm

 

[Colin_T]

It's usually caused by a dirty environment that encourages microscopic organisms to flourish and infect weakened fish.

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You do water changes for 2 main reasons.
1) to reduce nutrients like ammonia, nitrite & nitrate.
2) to dilute disease organisms in the water.

Fish live in a soup of microscopic organisms including bacteria, fungus, viruses, protozoans, worms, flukes and various other things that make your skin crawl. Doing a big water change and gravel cleaning the substrate on a regular basis will dilute these organisms and reduce their numbers in the water, thus making it a safer and healthier environment for the fish.

If you do a 25% water change each week you leave behind 75% of the bad stuff in the water.
If you do a 50% water change each week you leave behind 50% of the bad stuff in the water.
If you do a 75% water change each week you leave behind 25% of the bad stuff in the water.

I recommend doing a 75% water change and gravel cleaning the substrate once a week to help keep things clean.

 

[Tobytyke245]

Okay thank you for your advice I will start doing 75% water changes and gravel vac weekly is it okay to leave cleaning the filter to every other week or should that be weekly too

 

[Colin_T]

Filters should be done at least once a month and every 2 weeks is great. You don't need to do it every week unless it blocks up, and if that happens you need a bigger filter.