Possible Fungus Problem?

[Alm0stAwesome]

Tank Size: Juwel Rio 180L
pH: 7.6
Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate/KH/GH: haven't checked but will do if you think it's needed
Tank Temp: 25-26


There's a whole back story on these fish so I'll try and keep it brief lol. I'm posting about three fish. 1 is a sterbai cory who I have had for a while. He had some fin damage when I got him from the LFS it got a bit "rotty" but until recently was pretty much healed. Today I notice that he's looking a little fuzzy on his side and his tail seems to have actually gotten a bit worse. I do a thorough headcount of my fish every day so I'm pretty confident this just showed up today.


The other two fish were inadvertent "rescues" as I got them (and 6 others) from an ad on Aq Classifieds and they ended being in pretty bad general physical condition. The two that are showing symptoms are the two I would expect it from as they were the worst off. One a large female who is actually quite robust but clearly has an eye problem and now has signs of possible fungus on her fins. The other is a large male who is in very bad general condition and is showing the same symptoms of fin damage. You'll see it all in the pictures below.


Volume and Frequency of Water changes:
Because I've got these corys that aren't in the best shape I've been doing a large (60-70%) water change every second day for maybe 2 weeks? I use Prime and I dose enough for the whole tank. My media is the standard stuff that comes with a TetraTec EX1200 (plus some purigen).


Tank inhabitants:
It's late, forgive me if I ask you to check my signature?


Recent Additions:
6 Cardinal tetras, 2 baby BN plecos - all looking in very good health and have been in the tank a week.


The only other thing I should mention is that I did have a short ammonia and nitrite spike when I added all the new fish (the cardinals etc went about a week after the corys) it never went above .25 (as far as I'm aware) and I managed it with daily water changes. This is over now and I've had 0, 0 for the past two days. Also, my tank temperature drops by about 5 degrees when I do a water change, I'm working out a way to improve this - but could the stress of that affect them?


I guess what I want to know is, what this is? Do I need to worry about it? I'm worried about it being a secondary problem because I would not be surprised at all if these corys brought in some parasites or something. I really don't like adding meds to the tank if I can avoid it at all. Plus since my EX1200 has a lot of carbon media and it's not particularly "aged" I don't want to mess about with it for meds but I want your opinions on what these guys need.

Tail Fin

Dorsal Fin

This is the best I could get of the female but it's pretty much the same as above, she's very active so a nightmare to get a picture of. You can see the eye problem as well, I've posted about it before and didn't get much of a response.

 

[bristlenoseitplecoman]

they remind me of small worms. don't go crazy and buy medications though. many fish diseases other than ich are rare and hard to diagnose. I suggest water changes often and a watch for behavior out of the ordinary. I made the mistake of going crazy on the medications and ended up with a fish pharmacy. Your cory should be fine for a long time because they are pretty hardy and are catfish. I think at one point my cory had the same thing because she looked similair to your last picture. make sure you aren't overfeedng her.

 

[FishFanatic04]

I am not an expert of course but wanted to comment on one thing. The sunken belly is VERY worrisome. Parasites are the first thing that come to mind. Have you seen that one eating? I bet you anything, his fin damage is caused by whatever is making him emaciated.


Fungals require medication as far as I know. I haven't heard of other methods, though I don't doubt someone will suggest salt...but for a cory May not be the best way to go.

 

[bristlenoseitplecoman]

if you do resort to a medication that requires half dose for scaleless fish the cory cats are scaleless as well as the BN plecos.

 

[Alm0stAwesome]

Yeah I know, he's been that way ever since I got him, he does eat (albeit not very well, he's quite clumsy do to him being a bit weak). And yea, I've been having the same thought!

 

[Alm0stAwesome]

Hi guys, pardon the blatant bump, it's just that I posted this quite late at night and I'm worried most will have missed it.

 

[Alm0stAwesome]

Thank you very much for the help above BTW, I appreciate your response but would like to hear a more definite opinion of what is going on and a plan of action if possible.

One more thing...I've had these poorly corys for 3 weeks now. Surely the thin one would have bulked up a bit by now? Looking more like parasites? Could he just be old? He's very long.

 

[Tizer]

He could just be a bit deformed, not unusual these days! not too sure what to suggest really, perhaps a treatment of pimafix and melafix together over the next few weeks. They are quite a hastle/worry free treatments and usually very successful.

What are you feeding them? Anything high in protein would be a good start, Tetra Prima is great, very meaty and JMC granules are great too, nice and small, keeps the corys amused for hours as is hides in the substrate.

People tend to think corys are algae eaters and just feed them algae wafers, couldn't be further from the truth.

 

[Alm0stAwesome]

Thanks Tizer.

They get a mix of TetraMin and TetraWafer-Mix four days a week (though they don't get much of the flakes...), daphinia one day, bloodworm one day and peas or some veggie one day.

Hubby is in the neighbourhood of P@H just now so I've asked him to go in a look for those two you've suggested but if I remember correctly they don't have it in. I've seen it in MA though so could get it tomorrow.

Second question, I do have some melafix here. My filter has been running (with fish) for just shy of a month. Is the carbon still "activated". I'm very nervous about removing media just now - in fact, I think it's a very bad idea lol

 

[Tizer]

is it a sponge? or the granular carbon inside a bag? if its a sponge....i cant really give an accurate answer, however, if it is active, to some degree, it cant remove all the meds at the click of a finger, they should get time to work. personally, i would just treat it and ignore the fact its a carbon sponge. In truth, i've never used carbon sponges, i dont "get" them, to me its just another sponge for biomedia, i understand the granules in a bag though!

 

[Alm0stAwesome]

There's both in there, it's an EX1200, as you can see there's loads of it. There's two carbon bags in the top tray with some purigen as well. I am planning to eventually swap some of it out...

 

[Tizer]

I've got the same filters, i didnt put the carbon bags in and have just recently burnt one on med removal after a small ich outburst. I would say you can safely take yours out, bin them and order some more to stick in the cupboard for when you really need them. The sponges however, i would just treat as biomedia....i have

 

[Alm0stAwesome]

Okie dokie well I've removed the media bags of carbon and dosed the tank with melafix. Do I really just need to chuck these media bags out now? Such a waste!

As a side note, I was able to get the Prima tonight and they chowed down on it

 

[Alm0stAwesome]

Update regarding the male cory. I watched him really closely at feeding time tonight and he is not eating! I can't believe it. He joins in the fray he forages everywhere, he picks up food....and spits it out again. Is he unable to eat? Surely a fish in this condition wouldn't be fussy if he was hungry? The foods that went into the tank tonight were Tetra Prima and TetraMin flakes. He tried both and spat them back out. I then put in a Tetra wafer and he did have a look at it but didn't really get a proper go at it because of the other fish that wanted it. I didn't put more in at the risk of overfeeding everyone.

I'm thinking about going out and getting a breeder net and putting him in to try different foods to see if he really is just fussy, or if he cannot physically eat - thoughts?

 

[Tizer]

better left unstressed to do his own thing. if he's ill, he will die, if he's not, he will perk up in his own time. hopefully the meds might help, but if its internal, hes most likely beyond help. Fire up the BBQ! Its fish for dinner!!