What's this on my Corydora?

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Matt&Britt

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Hi all,
This is our first post here. I purchased some corydoras about 7 months ago and within a couple of days, one of the corys started developing these lumps.

At first they looked like fungal infections. They were fuzzy/fluffy looking. They grew quickly and then stopped. The lump on her side has completely disappeared and there is only a scar looking thing which is basically the same colour as her skin (you might be able to see it in the photo attached with the fish facing the camera). There was another one on her head which has also healed and now appears to just be a lump. The deformities we are most concerned about are the ones around where her fins attach to her body. These appear to be bubbles filled with liquid. I've done some reading and from what I've read it could be lymphocystis, but there aren't many photos for me to be sure.

As mentioned, her lumps grew within days of purchasing. They healed and stabilised in size within a month. They have looked the same in size for about 6 months now and her behaviour has been normal the whole time; breathing, eating, swimming etc. There is another corydora in the tank, some cardinal tetras and some crystal Red & yellow cherry shrimp. All have lived happily alongside each other for 7 months & both shrimp colonies are breeding. She is the only fish showing these symptoms.

When the corys were first added we were having issues keeping the pH up. It would often plummet to 6, and eventually we were able to get it to stabilise around 6.8-7.4 by adding more rock (would still love some advice as to how to keep pH up without throwing money at pH up products?)

Parameters:
90L
pH 7.2
Ammonia 0.1ppm
Nitrite 0ppm
Nitrate 0.2ppm

We have 5 tanks, 3 fresh and 2 reef. We love and care so much for our fishies & corals. We lost our first fish last week - our beautiful Percula clown, Ernie. He jumped out the one night we forgot to put the lid back on the tank after a water change (I never thought I'd feel so much grief for a fish!). We have luckily never experienced any losses due to infections, so we aren't experienced with this.

Sorry for the long post. We initially thought she would heal, but her fin bubbles haven't shrunk in a couple of months. Hoping for some good news....

We look forward to any help!

Thank you,
Britt & Matt



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Hi all,
This is our first post here. I purchased some corydoras about 7 months ago and within a couple of days, one of the corys started developing these lumps.

At first they looked like fungal infections. They were fuzzy/fluffy looking. They grew quickly and then stopped. The lump on her side has completely disappeared and there is only a scar looking thing which is basically the same colour as her skin (you might be able to see it in the photo attached with the fish facing the camera). There was another one on her head which has also healed and now appears to just be a lump. The deformities we are most concerned about are the ones around where her fins attach to her body. These appear to be bubbles filled with liquid. I've done some reading and from what I've read it could be lymphocystis, but there aren't many photos for me to be sure.

As mentioned, her lumps grew within days of purchasing. They healed and stabilised in size within a month. They have looked the same in size for about 6 months now and her behaviour has been normal the whole time; breathing, eating, swimming etc. There is another corydora in the tank, some cardinal tetras and some crystal Red & yellow cherry shrimp. All have lived happily alongside each other for 7 months & both shrimp colonies are breeding. She is the only fish showing these symptoms.

When the corys were first added we were having issues keeping the pH up. It would often plummet to 6, and eventually we were able to get it to stabilise around 6.8-7.4 by adding more rock (would still love some advice as to how to keep pH up without throwing money at pH up products?)

Parameters:
90L
pH 7.2
Ammonia 0.1ppm
Nitrite 0ppm
Nitrate 0.2ppm

We have 5 tanks, 3 fresh and 2 reef. We love and care so much for our fishies & corals. We lost our first fish last week - our beautiful Percula clown, Ernie. He jumped out the one night we forgot to put the lid back on the tank after a water change (I never thought I'd feel so much grief for a fish!). We have luckily never experienced any losses due to infections, so we aren't experienced with this.

Sorry for the long post. We initially thought she would heal, but her fin bubbles haven't shrunk in a couple of months. Hoping for some good news....

We look forward to any help!

Thank you,
Britt & Matt



View attachment 112271View attachment 112272View attachment 112273
Kind of looks like a tumor to me.
@essjay @Colin_T
 
Kind of looks like a tumor to me.
@essjay @Colin_T

Hi, thank you so much. Do you think she may be in pain? They dont seem to affect her behaviour at all, it's almost like she doesn't realise they're there.

Could it be contagious and maybe we've just been lucky this last 7 months? I think I read lymphocystis is a viral infection and can be contagious when the tumours burst.

And finally, if we were to euthanise, how should we do it? We've never had to euthanise before :(

Thanks heaps!!

Britt
 
I'm not sure what the lumps are. Lymphocystis is supposed to be white and look like cauliflower while your cory's lumps are grey. I once had a betta with something similar which I too thought was lymphocystis but I was told it was actually a tumour - or to be accurate, several tumours.




And finally, if we were to euthanise, how should we do it? We've never had to euthanise before
This is something most of have had to do at some point.
The least stressful for the fish is to crush the head with something hard and heavy, but not many of us can bring ourselves to do that.
The other way is using clove oil. This is an old toothache remedy and it can usually be bought in small bottles at a pharmacy/drug store. Because it is an oil is is prepared by mixing with water in a screw top bottle and shaken very hard to mix the oil and water. Place the fish in a tub of tank water, mix the oil at the rate of at least 10 drops per litre, then pour into the tub with the fish. As it's an anaesthetic, leave the fish in there for a couple of hours to make sure it is dead.
 
If its a tumour and not troubling her leave it until it does - at least that is what I would do.
As for the pH I keep cories and cardinal shrimps in a pH of 5.3 (possibly even lower as I can't measure that low). A pH of 6 is no probem at all as long as it is stable. The best way to keep it stable is with regular substantial water changes. I recommend at least 50% per week although personally I do 70-80% weekly in all of my tanks.

What are you using to raise the pH? It is probably not needed. The shrimps do need some mineral in the water. The critical measure is GH (general hardness). This should ideally be at 4 degrees german or 70 ppm (70mg/L CaCO3). 6 dGH is optimum but they thrive in a fairly wide range.
 

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