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Sick Cory
Badmans Tropical Fish Message Center:
Fish diseases : Sick Cory
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marie6749
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Sunday,
January 13, 2002 - 12:16 am
Well I am at my wits end here. I have one very sick peppered
Cory cat. She was in a 55 gal tank. (she is now in a
10 gal QT tank) Tankmates (in the 55 gal) were
6 Rasboras, 6 neon Tetras, 6 Zebra Danios, 9 other Cories
(4 of them are babies) and one ramshorn snail. Temp=77,
PH=6.6, Nitrate=2.5 ppm , Ammonia and Nitrite are both 0.
I do a 20% water change every other week. There have been
no new additions to this tank since October. No one else
shows any signs of sickness. About 2 weeks ago I took some
gravel out of my tank to give to my mom to seed her new
tank. There was some debris floating around from this, but
it settled in an hour or so. Last Friday, I noticed this
cories scales looked a little roughed up around her top
fin. Then Saturday morning, it looked like little tiny blisters
on her. I put her in the QT tank to watch her. I looked
all over the net..starting here of course..to see if I could
find anything that resembled what I was seeing. I can't
find anything that sounds like what she has. I treated her
with Kanacyn every other day for 5 days. The last day was
Wednesday. These blisters just keep getting bigger and bigger.
There are at least 20 of them. Most are on the top, there
are none on her sides and there are a few on her belly.
I have a digital camera and if anyone is willing to take
a look I could email a picture to you. I feel awful for
her, but I don't want to keep dumping meds in there
if I don't know what is wrong with her. Any and all
advice will be appreciated.
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Kick
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Sunday,
January 13, 2002 - 10:59 am
marie, send me a pic. Let me take a look. In the meantime,
I will look over my books for "blisters" to see
if I can find anything pertinent.
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marie6749
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Sunday,
January 13, 2002 - 12:12 pm
Thanks kick, I sent you a pic just now.
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Kick
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Sunday,
January 13, 2002 - 01:43 pm
I sent you an email back. Strange.....indeed. Well, the
investigator is on her way to the LPS plus while my husband
drives, I will check out my illness and health book along
the way. If we can find out what this is, why it happened
and if there is a cure, we definitely need to send this
to badman for posting. Wish me luck!!!
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marie6749
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Sunday,
January 13, 2002 - 06:23 pm
GOOD LUCK and THANK YOU!! The cory is still in QT. Acts
normally and is still eating well. None of the fish in the
55 gal show any signs of this strange malady thank goodness.
I am watching them all very closely. Maybe when I took some
gravel out to give to my mom, the cory ate some of the gunk
that was released into the water column and that's what
caused this. That is the only thing "unusual" that
I have done to this tank.
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Kick
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Sunday,
January 13, 2002 - 06:24 pm
marie, are you there? Email me if you are. I have information
for you. If I don't hear from you in about 20 minutes,
I will post back here.
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jeff s
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Sunday,
January 13, 2002 - 07:27 pm
hey can I get in on this?..how about sending me a pic to
see if I can be of help..and marie please describle what
these blisters look like are the jelly like?..white,hard,
black or what?
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marie
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Sunday,
January 13, 2002 - 08:36 pm
Sure Jeff I will email you when I get home. At Mom's
right now. They look just like a blister would on a human,
except with Kick's help, I have discovered they are
full of air instead of fluid. I think Kick has solved the
mystery. Gas Bubble diease-I've heard it called "the
Bends" when divers surface too quick and their body
can't equalize the pressure. Here's what happened.
In my first post I said that I had taken some gravel out
for my mom. What I failed to mention was the most important
part (of course). I panicked because of all the
crud. So after it settled, I did a much bigger water change
than usual 30-35%. Kick thinks (and I agree) that
the change in water pressure has caused these "blisters".
I will send you the pic though and see what you think. We
haven't decided on treatment yet.
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Kick
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Monday,
January 14, 2002 - 09:13 am
After making this "project of the day", we have
investigated and hopefully found a solution to the problem.
After thoroughly checking several books, talking with my
fav LPS gal pal and discussing in depth what transpired
with this fish, we have found it is, indeed, gas bubble
disease. I asked marie to pop one of the bubbles and nothing
was there but air. This further confirmed our diagnosis.
But none of the books helped much with treatment. We worked
together searching the net and discovered the possible reason
it happened and hopefully a fix.
We feel it was caused by her removing a larger portion of
water than normal. Since the cory is a bottom dweller, the
nitrogen saturation from the new water was too high, therefore
causing gas inside the fish which was released through his
body. One webpage described how this can happen in the winter
months of the year because the nitrogen saturation in the
water is higher during this time. This can also be caused
by adding cold water to the tank and allowing it to heat
up too fast, not allowing the nitrogen gas to be released.
I was a bit puzzled because marie does have a good filter
and bubble wand for her tank, which would agitate the ,
but apparently it was not working fast enough to release
the nitrogen gas.
The fix: Move the tank out of any direct sunlight, keep
the lights to the tank off and agitate the water with a
bubblestone or stirring. Since this little guy has these
"actual" blisters on his body, I suggested a mild
dose of aquarium salt to soothe the areas plus the salt
also agitates the scales which will produce a heavier slime
coat. Also since marie popped one of the bubbles as I asked,
we are bit worried about infection. She had already used
Kanamycin upon putting him in Q tank with no carbon filter,
so we thought that for now, we would not use any more antibiotic
and just wait and see from here.
I am planning on writing an article concerning this malady
and along with the picture that marie sent, will have badman
post it to the site. I think this information could help
other fishkeepers if this strange thing should happen to
one of their fish. But this mystery is solved and now we
will wait to see the outcome. Hopefully, we can save the
little guy!
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joycedonley
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Monday,
January 14, 2002 - 12:18 pm
Kick great investigation and please do get the article up
as I have never heard of this malady! Why the dark tank??
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jeff s
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Monday,
January 14, 2002 - 01:27 pm
joyce after discussing this treatment with both kick and
marie(the pics really helped!)we agreed with the
treatment and diagnosis..reducing light is alway a good
stress reducer for any sick fish and it is usually further
indicated with those of us who have planted tanks or lots
of algea to slow down the gas production...
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Sierra
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Monday,
January 14, 2002 - 05:31 pm
Good luck Marie, I hope your corie gets better
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joycedonely
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Monday,
January 14, 2002 - 05:54 pm
Thanks for the postscript Jeff. Hopefully I will never see
that particular problem. Good detective work! Let us know
how it turns out Marie and good luck.
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marie
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Monday,
January 14, 2002 - 05:56 pm
Thanks Sierra. I added the aquarium salt and airstone last
night, and have left the lights off. We will go from there.
Will keep you all posted!
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Nancy
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Monday,
January 14, 2002 - 06:36 pm
Hey you guys - I keep hearing conflicting reports.
Some say corys hate salt, others say they don't.
Marie, I see you have added some. How much? Some of my fish
would like some salt in their tank, but I haven't done
it because of my cories.
What is the correct answer? Thanks.
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Nancy
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Monday,
January 14, 2002 - 06:39 pm
P.S. Marie, I hope your little cory gets better. I have
three and I know how much personality these little guys
have. Good luck.
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marie
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Monday,
January 14, 2002 - 06:56 pm
Well Nancy, I really don't know the correct answer,
but I can tell you how much salt I added-I only put one
and a half teaspoons of salt in a 10 gallon tank.
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Nancy
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Monday,
January 14, 2002 - 07:31 pm
Marie, was this table salt or aquarium salt? Thanks.
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jeff s
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Monday,
January 14, 2002 - 07:34 pm
marie..firstly yes corys are sensitive to salt..and I hope
kick didn't mean to put salt in the QR tank..the reason
we wanted salt into the main tank is this: the higher the
salinity the less gas water can hold, because disolved salts
take up room that the gas could be using..this was to de-gas
your tank..not treat the fish
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marie
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Tuesday,
January 15, 2002 - 10:16 pm
Nancy, it is aquarium salt.
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Kick
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Wednesday,
January 16, 2002 - 10:15 am
To finish up this post and explain to Nancy and Jeff what
we did and why, I will update.
Yes, we did add the "aquarium" salt directly to
the Q tank. And yes, cories are sensitive to salt, but our
dosage was very small....1 1/2 teaspoons to l0 gallons of
water. The reasoning behind this is that salt has the effect
of agitating the scales which produces more slime coat which
in turn is the protective covering for the fish. It has
good healing powers to hopefully prevent bacteria from attacking
the damaged areas of his skin. It also kills any parasites
that might try to invade the little guy while he is trying
to get better. And it adds electroytes to the water allowing
him to remain hydrated and to balance things out. Plus what
Jeff spoke of above.
I talked with marie last night, and the fish's activity
appears to be unchanged. He is still eating and active,
however, the blisters appear to be getting a little larger.
Upon investigating, I found that the blisters may become
worse before getting better. This is partially due to the
air still escaping from his body into the blisters, but
that recovery is still possible. It will just be a long
and slow progress. The addition of the extra aeration is
our treatment to get the air supply "balanced" in
the Q tank, and hopefully in the next couple of days, we
will start seeing some improvement.
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Nancy
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Wednesday,
January 16, 2002 - 12:11 pm
Kick, so then is it an okay idea to add 1 1/2 teaspoons
of salt to each 10 gallons to an aquarium with cories in
it? Or is this really only done during illness?
I have some gobies and rainbows that like salt and so this
is why I was wondering. I don't have to, but if the
cories don't mind that amount then I think I would like
to. Thanks
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jeff s
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Wednesday,
January 16, 2002 - 02:57 pm
nancy..well this certainly has proven to be an interesting
post..firsty corys are belly breathers they like to gulp
air extracting O2 from airbubles in there intestinal track..hence
why just her cory got overdosed on gases..secondly regarding
the salt issue..well the truth is that is debatable..some
of us agree the they are sensitive to salt yet some say
maybe just a bit more than fishes with scales..I do know
some keep corys quite happily in tanks with livebears who
need it...so well if you want to add salt maybe just half
a normal dose would be fine..or we will start a huge argument/controvery
here yet.
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Sierra
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Saturday,
January 19, 2002 - 06:16 pm
Actually I'm starting a live-bearer tank and I will
be using about one teaspoon of salt per gallon. I plan on
having swordtails, mollies, platies (all ladies 'cause
I don't want them breeding!), bumblebee gobies (hopefully)
and a blue gourami (for some blue colour). I was
thinking some bronze cories would be nice to have and would
clean up any fallen flake food but I was put off the idea
because lots of people said they wouldn't like salt.
But maybe I will try it now. I will stock the tank first
and then start adding salt gradually to get the fish used
to it (they were probably all kept in fresh water at
the LFS!) So maybe the cories will be OK if they gradually
get used to the salt. And is it OK to have the gourami in
salted water - I use 1tspn/gal. with my bettas and paradise
fish (related) so I figured the gourami would be
OK too?
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joycedonley
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Saturday,
January 19, 2002 - 06:57 pm
Kick can let you know on the salt as I think she uses it
in all her tanks. I'm pretty sure she sticks with the
half dose on the corys.
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Kick
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Sunday,
January 20, 2002 - 12:07 am
Most fish are okay with salt, but some require it and others
are a little sensitive to it. If you want to keep cories
with the livebearers, I would drop the mollies as they require
larger doses of salt (almost to a brackish degree)
and the cories probably will not do well at all with this
much salt. In my tanks where I know the fish are rather
senstive to salt, ie catfish and loaches, I use the salt
only at half strengh. The usual is l tablespoon to 5 gallons
of water, and with these tanks of senstive fish, I usually
use 1 level "teaspoon" per 5 gallons, just enough
to keep ich and parasites away and to add the electroylytes
to the water for the fish's health. If you feel you
want mollies that require at least 1 tablespoon or more
to 5 gallons, then I suggest you leave the cories out. I
would assume that salt will not hurt the gouramis, as I
have had them before in salted water, as above, with no
problems.
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Kick
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Sunday,
January 20, 2002 - 12:12 am
Now back to the topic of this thread. Since I did not see
that marie had written, I will tell you that the outcome
of our treatment was not favorable. The little guy died.
She examined him closely after death to try to be sure the
cause was not something other than the nitrogen gas we first
thought it was. I don't know whether we are sure of
that now or not. But she can post here if she (we)
find that these mysterious blisters were caused from something
else.
Can we have a moment of silence please for this little fish
that fought so hard to survive.
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Sierra
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Sunday,
January 20, 2002 - 12:55 am
Thanx for the advice, Kick and Joyce. I am so sorry for
your loss, Marie
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marie
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Sunday,
January 20, 2002 - 11:43 am
Thanks everyone for your kind words and I especially want
to thank you Kick for all the time and effort you put into
trying to save this little guy. In examining the fish, I
didn't really find anything that would point to something
else being the problem. I will post again if we find out
anything different.
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joycedonley
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Sunday,
January 20, 2002 - 12:17 pm
Sorry your fish didn't make it. You put all you could
in to trying to save him.
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Adam
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Tuesday,
January 22, 2002 - 12:01 am
I think it is kinda cool that so many people from different
places in the country got together to help 1 little fish.
I think it is wonderful because so many aquarium owners
have to try to deal with these things all by themselves
and it can get pretty overwhelming. And Marie, i am sorry
for you lose.
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