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Hi all,

I know that I posted several days ago about one of my cory catfish. This post is about one of my other cory catfish who is presenting with different symptoms and I am wondering what is wrong with him so that I know what I can do to treat him. Here is the necessary information:

1. Water parameters
a) About 82F (increased because I thought that my tank had ich)
b) pH. (7.2)
c) GH. (unsure)
d) KH (unsure)
e)Ammonia, Nitrate, Nitrite, leavels. (Ammonia was 0, everything else I'm unsure)
f) Water change frequency (My water change frequency had been embarassing low. Since ich problem, I cleaned tank out on Sunday and Thursday, which included a good vacuuming and water change. I plan to do at least 25% every 2-3 days now, unless otherwise recommended here to treat the ich.)

2. Tank set up
a) Size. (10 gallons)
b) Substrate. (Gravel)
c) Filtration. (Whisper Filter with cartridge)
d) Furnishings. (Had a cave and fake plants until I removed everything when I cleaned it. I decided not to put it back in while I treat the ich.)
e) Other tank mates. (I have 2 cory catfish and 3 white cloud mountain minnows total.)
f) How long has it been set-up? (Going on 2 years at this location and same set-up 2-3 other years at previous location with additional catfish and minnow tankmates.)

3. Symptoms / Problem description

One of my cory catfish, who is probably 3 or 4 years old, looked like the fins on the sides of his body had some white on them about one week ago. Because of this, I started treating for ich (please see #4 and #5). Now, I've noticed that the fins on one side have gotten much shorter over the past couple of days compared to the fins on the other side. He is also swimming around the tank very quickly and erraticly.

4. Action taken (if any)

Treated for ich by gradually increasing temperature in tank to 84F and adding airstone to increase oxygen flow. I started aquarium salt treatment, after using one dose of CopperSafe and hearing that salt was a better alternative. CopperSafe was only used once and has been discontinued.

5. Medications used (if any)

Please see #4

Thanks so much in advance! I'm open to any thoughts or suggestions!

Greetings,

Although I have heard of it, on rare occasions, I have never seen a Cory contract Ich. The degeneration of the fins would indicate a bacteriological problem, or extremely poor water quality.

I would QT the fish and try treating with an appropriate medication. Careful reading of labels on the products available at your LFS should help you determine which medication might be best suited to the problems you are observing. I would start treatment immediately before the fins totally degenerate. This can be one of the causes of the erratic swimming as the fins do assist in stabilization, while swimming. Good luck. - Frank

Frank, I have Corydora paleatus and aeneus both contracted ick about 4 years ago when I first started in all this. The C.paleatus were covered in the spots(even their eyes). The C.aeneus weren't. They were just breathing heavily and scratching. The only fish to die in this outbreak were the ones who brought it into the tank(via me). It took me 2 weeks to get it under control. If I only knew then....

Mufty, Frank's advice is sound. If there weren't there any recent additions to the tank, it is unlikely to be ick. It could be a fungus or infection, if it's localized on one fin. A photo of the Corydora would be helpful. I'm not an expert by any stretch of the imagination, so please take my information with a grain of salt!
Amanda

Thanks so much for your everyone's help so far. What is being said makes sense.

I will post a photo as soon as possible, if I can get a clear one. (I've tried to get good ones of my fish in the past and it didn't work out for me.)

I haven't added anyone new, but I also read that sudden changes in tank temperature could cause ich, and that did happen in my tank due to my negligence. It definitely got colder around here, and colder in my apartment, and I hadn't turned the heat on in my apartment yet as I was trying to save on my electric bill. The temperature had dropped in the fish tank and I hadn't turned the heater on in there either because the weather has been erratic around here lately and it was likely to get hotter here again and I didn't want it to be too hot for them.

bronzefry wrote:Frank, I have Corydora paleatus and aeneus both contracted ick about 4 years ago when I first started in all this. The C.paleatus were covered in the spots(even their eyes). The C.aeneus weren't. They were just breathing heavily and scratching. The only fish to die in this outbreak were the ones who brought it into the tank(via me). It took me 2 weeks to get it under control. If I only knew then.... Amanda Quote edited by Coryologist

Hi Amanda,

That's what I meant by "rarely." I have heard of it happening. The only time I've seen a Cory with Ich was at an LFS. I'm sure (and hope), that since that outbreak 4 years ago, that you haven't experienced it, again. - Frank

In terms of the erratic swimming, perhaps erratic was a poor choice of words on my part. He doesn't seem to be having trouble swimming per se, it is that he is swimming quickly around the tank and not staying in one place very long. He is very skitterish it seems.

This made it very difficult for me to get a picture of him. I think I got one that kind of captures what is going on, but unfortunately, I can't figure out how to upload it here.

To give the best description I can, the fins on one side of his body are whitish in color (which they aren't normally) and they are about half the size of his fins on the other side of his body, which are still the normal color. My other cory catfish doesn't seem to be having this problem, and my white cloud mountain minnows seem to be okay too.

Ammonia, Nitrate, Nitrite, leavels. (Ammonia was 0, everything else I'm unsure)

Tested before or after the Coppersafe? It's possible you nuked your bio filtration. You also need to test for nitrite and nitrate.

Don

Coryologist wrote:

bronzefry wrote:Frank, I have Corydora paleatus and aeneus both contracted ick about 4 years ago when I first started in all this. The C.paleatus were covered in the spots(even their eyes). The C.aeneus weren't. They were just breathing heavily and scratching. The only fish to die in this outbreak were the ones who brought it into the tank(via me). It took me 2 weeks to get it under control. If I only knew then.... Amanda Quote edited by Coryologist

Hi Amanda,

That's what I meant by "rarely." I have heard of it happening. The only time I've seen a Cory with Ich was at an LFS. I'm sure (and hope), that since that outbreak 4 years ago, that you haven't experienced it, again. - Frank

Frank,
I quickly learned the value of this term: "Quarantine Tank."
Amanda

Fish Soup wrote: Tested before or after the Coppersafe? It's possible you nuked your bio filtration. You also need to test for nitrite and nitrate.
Don

Tested before Coppersafe. I can do it again. Would using Coppersafe only once do that to my biofiltration?

Unfortunately, I don't have a nitrite or nitrate testing kit, which is why I don't have those numbers. I never invested the money in one, and don't feel as though I can right now since I've been investing a lot of money in treating my fish, as I spent money on salt, and now pimafix and melafix.

If you don't want to buy a test-kit, you can usually get your local shop to run the tests for you (some charge a fee or say $1..$2 per test, others will do it for free). Bring a water sample to your LFS (obviously, you may want to phone first to ask). I'd say that a nitrite and nitrate tests are essential to understand potential problems with the tank's water qualtity, so you probably should plan to get test-kits for those at some point in the future - or rely on your LFS to do those tests for you, but that can be hard on a sunday evening when you notice the fish are in trouble - at least knowing the test values will give some useful indication of what is or is not part of the problem.

Biological filtration can certainly be affected by all sorts of medication - particularly those that are antibacterial, but others too can knock out your good bacteria.

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Mats