Panda Cory

[gems]

Hi

Came home from work today and found one of our Panda Corys struggling to swim. He's since stopped trying and is just sitting on the floor of the tank. On closer inspection he looks like he is missing some of his barbs/whiskers, and has a small red mark on his side. His gills are moving frantically and his fins look smaller than the other pandas in our tank. We have gravel rather than sand which I know isn't ideal but we bought 'smooth' gravel and the corys have been fine up until now - the other two seem to be happy and normal. I have a photo but don't know how to attach it, although the picture isn't very good at all (old camera).
The only other species we have is Pearl danios, but they have never hassled the catfish so i can;t think what else could have caused this other than disease perhaps?

Any advice would be appreciated as he looks in real bad way compared to the other pandas
thanks



Tank Details:

25% Water Change Every Week
No New Fish
no Deaths
Filter hasn't been turned off
No Medication / Chemicals other than De-Chlorinator to fresh water

Tank size: 16 Gallon
pH: 7.6
ammonia: 1.0 ppm
nitrite: Zero
nitrate: 10 mg/l
kH: 10d
gH:10d
tank temp: 24 deg

 

[tttnjfttt]

The corey has septcemia, a bacterial infection. The key symptom for this is red streaking. For this, I would begin treating with an antibiotic medicine. If possible, remove and isolate the fish because from your description he is very sick.

The second problem is the ammonia reading. 1.0 is high enough to stress out any fish. How long has your tank been set up for? Begin daily water changes of about 30%, right before adding meds if you cannot isolate your sick corey.

 

[gems]

Ok thanks, what could have caused it? Tank is new, only going for a month. Will the meds affect the other fish? It seems fast for a bacterial infection, he was OK at 11.00 this morning and now he has lost barbs and by the look of it one fin as well.

As far as quarantine goes, the only other tank I have is a small Betta tank - 5 gallons, but this is very new , empty and not cycled. i also don;t really have a way of bring the sick fish upstairs to the other tank, Other than a jug or small plastic box. And I know the ammonia is too high, and we have been putting in a few extra water changes to keep it down.

 

[WILDER]

Need to act fast with septicemia, plus how much of his barbels has he lost, as thats bad news too as they need them to find food or he will die.

 

[gems]

He only appears to have lost two of his barbels, the others have four. Will using a product I have heard about called mxyazin help? Will we need to do another water change? only did one yesterday, worried other fish will be affected cos we have no way of isolating him from the others at the moment.

oops, sorry just realised you already told me to do a water change before adding meds if we can't isolate him.

 

[BigIan]

panda corys arent the hardiest of corys, they generaly need a mature tank (at least 6 months old)
if its a viral or bacterial infection you should treat the tank the corys is in as the pathogen will be present in the water and needs to be destroyed.

 

[gems]

many thanks to everyone who helps with this

 

[WILDER]

To be honest you really need a med like this for septicemia and with his barbels goings, but it will wipe the bacteria colony out in your filter, i doubt the myxazin will be strong enough, but you could give it a try.
http/www.aquaessentials.co.uk/index.php?...bb88ecadf913bd8

http/www.jbl.de/uk/aqua/uk_10032.html

 

[gems]

is there anything stronger that wont wipe out our bacteria? If not how do we get it going again and it will it affect the other fish?

 

[WILDER]

Thats the problem really with septicemia you do need them to wipe the bacteria colony out as that what antibiotics do, this mean they are strong and good, thats why it's best to have a hospital tank to use them in.
The only other med which says it treat septicemia is anti internal bacteria med by interpet, but thats not strong either, i would contact interpet as sometimes you can double dose, but i would take there word for it not mine.

Or you could keep your filter running somewhere, but you need alot of aeration in the tank with meds.

 

[tttnjfttt]

There is one other possiblity, however it involves contacting a vet. Int the US, we are lucky enoght to have lots of strong meds avaliable at the LFS. In the UK, you need to contact a vet for antibiotics. If you do go this route, i would recomend trying to get kanacyn (aka kanamycin, k-mycin). I have used it against septcemia very successfully.

 

[gems]

JBL Furanol site says we can take out the filter materialm storing it damp, and just run the filter without it during treatment, in order to preserve our bacteria colony. The treatment is four days though, surely not having filter material in the tank for four days will mean the water quality will get bad?

"Since JBL Furanol also destroys all filter bacteria, the filter should be disconnected and allowed to run on in a separate aquarium or other container. If the aquarium cannot be sufficiently aerated without the filter, remove the filter material, rinse and store damp, before running the filter without filter material. Put the filter material back into the filter after treatment has ended."

 

[WILDER]

I agree, as the shelf meds in lfs are not strong enough for septicemia, though that jbl med would do the job.
You just do water changes if the water quality goes down hill, and add the correct amount of med back, and remove debris with a net.

 

[gems]

ok, thanks so much! hopefully the little guy will make it, my boyfriend has gone to buy the meds now!

 

[WILDER]

I would put the myxazin in for now as you need to get going on a med, as septicemia can soon kill a fish.
Don't know why they have recommended keeping the media damp, as i thought to keep bacteria alive it need a constant flow of tank water going over it.