Sick Panda cories, don't know what it is

[DFSmith]

Hello, everyone

This is the first time I post something here, and it's bad news already. I've been a member of the forum for a few weeks now, even before I bought some cory cats, but so far I was only reading the articles and information.

A week ago I bought 3 Panda cories from the LFS. I noticed, when I got home, that one of them had something weird, like a scar tissue, some mucus/slime/skin build up on his dorsal fin, but didn't thin too much about it, as they seemed to be acting normally once in their new tank. As the days passed, I started to notice that they all had more of this weird looking whitish grey build up, and last Thursday it got me really worried and I looked for more information on it, and thought it could be Columnaris, and I started treating them with Maracyn. But I'm not even sure it's Columnaris, if it's fungus, or what. They seemed to be eating more, behaving more normally before I started using this medicine, so, I wonder if it's doing them any good.

Can anyone help me figure out what it is, and if I'm doing the right thing?

Here are the parameters:

1. Water parameters
a) Temperature range: 75˚
b) pH: 7.6
c) GH: 9
d) KH: 4
e)Ammonia: 0 Nitrate: 5 ppm Nitrite: 0 ppm (did 2 water changes this week)
f) Water change frequency: twice a week if ammonia reaches 0.25ppm, as it did last Monday, but usually 50% every Saturday
(Most LFS's will check your water and give a list of readings).

2. Tank set up
a) Size: 10 gallon
b) Substrate: Eco Complete by CaribSea
c) Filtration: Penguin Bio Wheel that comes with the 10 gallon tank
d) Furnishings: plants (vallisneria, java vern, anubias and anacharis) and two rainbow rocks
e) Other tank mates: 7 black neon tetras
f) How long has it been set-up: 2 months

3. Symptoms / Problem description: weird build up that looks like columnaris or fungus, ragged tails and dorsal fins, and now they're hiding most of the time behind their plants, instead of swimming around looking for food. Since yesterday they're not eating as much as they did the first days since I bought them (but maybe it's the medicine). The other fishes (7 black neon tetras) are healthy are eating like little pigs.

4. Action taken (if any): since last Thursday I started using Maracyn, and yesterday I added 1 tsp of Kosher Salt on the water, and this morning another half tsp

5. Medications used (if any): Maracyn, Kosher salt

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iLCzkm408uo[/youtube]

I'm not sure how to post a video, don't know if the youtube thing worked, so, I'm sending the link for the video on youtube, please, take a look!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iLCzkm408uo

[uaru]

It might be columnaris. In my experience, columnaris doesn't clear up with Maracyn (erythromycin). (I don't know if some strains are more or less resistant to the drug?) I've had better luck with kanamycin, or kanamycin + furan-2.

Hope the little guys get better!

[papwalker]

Don't wait for it to reach 0.25ppm. Keep changing every other day. Use an ammonia binder. IMO, your tank is not stable yet.
On new tanks I use Prime and Stability as directed, Water changes 5 - 10% daily and prefer to get some live matrix and some small amount of live gravel from an existing tank.
These fish have been shocked by water conditions / temperature somewhere along the line.
Looking at the condition of your fish, recovery will be touch and go.
There may be some permanent scaring.

[DFSmith]

Hi, guys

Thank you very much!I've done some further reading, and I started to think it looks like fungus. There was a stringy build up on that mucus looking thing on one of the cories, and since they were not getting better with Maracyn, I decided to treat for fungus and I started to use Ich Attack (which is recommended for fungus, too, and it worked pretty well, at least for Ich, with no side effects or damage to the livestock in my tank before. When I bought the neon tetras, one of them had ich, and some days later, all of them had a little, and I treated them with Ich Attack and they were healthy and happy in no time)

I always use AmQuel when I change the water, as well as NovAqua, and also Quick Start, just in case.I'm doing water changes every other day, and the little guys seem to like it. Two of them seem to be a little better. Not really better looking, but they're eating more, and swimming around more.

Oh, yesterday I changed 50% of the water, didn't put any medicine, changed the charcoal filter, and today I took the charcoal out and started using Ich Attack, so the tank would be free from medicine for a day. And as soon as I changed the water, it seemed to revive the fish. Tomorrow it's time again to do another one, and I think this is doing a lot of good to them.

Again, thank you! I hope they all make it!

[papwalker]

Good to hear. I had one little fellow I shocked by letting him get cold. (unforgivable) Since it is difficult to diagnose the pathogen, I simply treated with Stress-guard and API's Melafix and let him fight it off. Which he did - just. He's still a bit raggedy in the looks department though.

[CoryfanAad]

Could be Chilondella. It makes the slime get loose from the fish. Is closely related with Ich and to be treated with anti-Ich meds as well. That was what you were doing so that's possibly the reason it worked. Greetz Aad