one cory died, forgot to take pictures

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ftbetta

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Hey guys. I had one of my peppered corys die the other day. I glace and count the fish almost daily, but I guess this one had either been hiding, or im not sure how i missed it.

But by the time I noticed it, there was a fairly large growth (aproximately 3x the size of their eyeball) on the side of its body and it was separating itself from the rest of the fish. It was an opaque but kinda clearish oddly shaped lump sticking out from the side - not like an outward bulge, closer to a roundish shape separated from the body and only attached by one side of the sphere. After I noticed the lump I immediately did an ich treatment, just incase that is what it was, but hindsight, I don't think it was ich because it wasn't white, but finished the treatment anyway.

48ish hours after I first noticed the lump, and that he was separating himself, the fish had died. On the very last day he showed a light red spot on his insides just behind his gills on one side, and was swimming to the surface for air, and also struggling to stay upright as he swam, then resting on the bottom.

Currently, I have examined all my other fish closely with a bright light (I know they hate the light, but I wanted to make sure they were OK) and everyone looks very healthy. No sign of and spots, lumps, roughness, strange colors, ragged fins, everyones eyes look good and they are all behaving totally normally.

I tried doing some searches to see if I could find out what was actually wrong with the fish that passed, but didn't have any luck. Does anyone have any ideas of things that I might search under to try to identify it? I want to make sure it's nothing that is going to affect the other fish.

I tested my water.
zero ammonia
nitrates were maybe a 5 or 15 - I have a hard time reading that scale as the colors between 0 and 20 is such a slight change. I was due for a water change, but the ich stuff said to wait until the treatment was done (4 days) and then do a 25% change. so that is scheduled for today.
0 nitrite
pH aprox 7 (normal for this tank)
KH 120 - normal
GH 40ish - also normal

thanks in advance
 
It wasn't whitespot. Ich produces small white dots that look like grains of salt on the body and fins. The fish usually rub on objects and the parasite has to be introduced into the tank from contaminated water, plants or fish. If you haven't added anything new in the 2 weeks before the fish got sick, it is unlikely to be a protozoan infection.

Large growths that appear suddenly are either a tumour, bacterial infection or fungus. However, bacterial infections are normally red, fungus is white and fluffy, tumours are the same colour as the fish and grow reasonably slowly, over a month or more. If it appeared and grew large in a day or two then it was probably not a tumour.

If the fish was physically damaged or split its side, then it might have been a hernia or the skin might have ballooned out and filled with blood. However, without a picture it's impossible to say what it was.
 
I don't think it grew over 2 days. I noticed them lump because the fish had separated himself from the others, and was sitting just out in the open. He died about 2 days after I noticed this.

Normally when I check on the fish I mostly just count them and I do check on the ones that are out in front enough to see, but they have two darker/shadowy cave areas that they can hide in. So if this one guy was just consistently one of the ones that was hiding every day, I probably wouldn't have noticed. It was mostly the same color as his "flesh" (a little bit clearer and a little bit whiter), So I can't say for sure that it wasn't there for longer.

When I check on them, should I be making sure that I get every one of them out in the open to check them? I think the only way I would get them all out would be to tap on the tank, or stick something in to scare them out, and thus far I didn't think that was necessary. Even when I feed them they don't all come out at once. They kinda take turns and go in and out.

Since I don't know for sure should I treat for a bacteria or fungus (you're right I havent added anything new in months aside from water) so the other fish don't get it?

Thanks :)
 
I wouldn't add any medication yet. Just monitor the rest of the fish and see how they do. From your description it doesn't sound like a contagious disease and was probably just an issue with that fish. But if any fish do develop unusual symptoms, then take some pictures and post them on here asap. :)

I usually check the fish when feeding. You can drop a bottom feeding pellet in the front of the tank in a clear area and watch the fish come and feed.

If you have big caves you can shine a torch into them to check them for fish.
 

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