FishProfiles.com Message Forums

I have been treating an albino cory who lost his barbels, got a ratty tail, and grew all this fungus on one of his side fins. I treated with pimafix for a week and he looked to be getting better, although his side fin looks like it has disappeared.

Well upon feeling better, he belted around the tank and must have snagged himself on the driftwood as the fin area looked torn. I am now dosing the tank daily with a full dose of melafix. The barbels are starting to grow back, the tail is all better and the fungus on the fin area looks to be lessening and the area getting smaller. Now if he can just behave himself until he's all better an not go wildly swimming around the tank again, we should be in the clear in a week or two.

I have posted a photo of the original fungus so everyone can see what it looked like.

Do you know what caused the original outbreak of fungus and have you fixed that concern? For some reason I have never had any luck with Cories and I gave up on them years ago.
Have a look in [link=My Profile] http://www.fishprofiles.com/forums/member.aspx?id=1935[/link] for my tank info

Look here for my
Betta 11Gal Desktop & Placidity 5ft Community Tank Photos
eith
Keith

Near enough is not good enough, therefore good enough is not near enough, and only your best will do.
I VOTE DO YOU if not WHY NOT?
VOTE NOW VOTE NOW

Looks like flexibacter columnaris to me, try to track down some furan. That tuft is pretty big and well advanced, so youll need to get to it quick, he wont have a lot of time left without meds.

Damn good disease pic BTW, its easy to tell from that one.

Yep it is the same tank, different fish which had previously had a columnaris attack on guppies.
I cannot source furan here but I have ordered Myxazin.

I checked the water today. Low ph below 6, due to using rainwater. Nitites 0, Nitrates 5 but the really interesting bit was the ammonia tested 4. It must be the melafix distorting it. Anyway, to be on the safe side I changed some water, fixed up the ph, added todays dose of melafix and the ammonia reading came down to 1.

I took another photo tonight. It doesn't look markedly better, just less fluffy. To his credit, he was out and about tonight feeding with the others.
His motto "Never give in!"

The Corydoras has on barbels as well & that's a very bad sign.

For the Fungus, you'll better raise the temperature to 30 deg.cel or maybe a very light salt bath.

I think that the ph is very low & i had trouble when my ph fell to 5.8/6ph. I recommend a 7ph with most corydoras.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/corydoras/
Member of the Malta Aquarist Society - 1970.
http://www.maltaaquarist.com

Pedantic mood today...

Jason : I wouldnt raise the temp to 86 f 30 c, because that reduces saturated oxygen when you go over 84f, increases bacterial activity and will make the ph worse.The low oxygen will also reduce the immune system of the cory, not enhance it. A cory likes life around 75f and a hike to 30c when already ill could be fatal. That temp recommendation was too high. Next the barbel loss is never good, but is the thing we should be perhaps least concerned about because as you can plainly see the gill tissue is infected and once the lamellae takes sufficient damage the fish will be dead. Last time I checked nothing died from losing a barbel. Im sure he knows the ph is low, and that indicates a change in chemistry , but its still within tolerable ranges for a cory, and trying to buffer it now will really stress the fish. If the med kills some filter bacteria, and it probably will,, the low ph will be a blessing because it will reduce ammonia toxicity on its reaction in the fish, especially when its gills are already taking a beating.

Lets hope the myaxazin does the trick in time. Good luck with the cory.

Well, i always raise the temperature gradually with any problem that i have. Another thing...... i always move the fish in another tank & keep it on it's own as well. I try not to use medics. as much as i can.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/corydoras/
Member of the Malta Aquarist Society - 1970.
http://www.maltaaquarist.com

Flexibacter columnaris is lethal, without treatment every fish in the tank will be dead.

Raising temps is usually useful, but depending on the species and the ailment to be fought there are limits. The big one is the oxygen saturation of average quality water at 84f. it holds nearly 40% less oxygen than water only a deegree cooler, its a chemical and physics tipping point.Only fish like rams and discus with high temp tolerances and gill adaptation should be exposed to temps over 84f. Column bacteria invade internally as well as grow externally and they consume sugars and salts from the victim. The gills are entirely reliant on the presence of salts and sugars to retain the integrity of lamallae that allow the continued function of the osmotic balance, if these functions fail, the fish will go into dropsy and there will be little chance of saving it, in addittion should the tissue in the lamellae lose enough sugars the cell integrity will fail, the circulation will retract and the fish will lose discrete lamellae. They will thicken, retreat and scar, then oxygen absorbtion becomes difficult. If oxygen absorbtion becomes to low the fishs immune system will fail, the bacteria will progress and the gills will be overcome, the bacteria will spread throughout the body, overtake it quickly and kill the fish, and that is only if the fish doesnt die of suffocation first.

Therefore it is imperative that saturated oxygen remains high, and that means no temps over 84f. I dont always give this much information behind an instruction of what to do, but I assure you in every case these things are considered.


If he follows your standard advice in this instance, he will kill his fish. It may or may not make it as things are. Please check the details of the ailments jason, we have profiles on here you can refer to. There is no one protocol that improves your chances with all ailments, you have to know how to deal with a range of diseases, and this one is clear as day, and I can be more specific about the treatment regime, thusly making for improved odds of survival.

You must be extremely careful when advocating temperature hikes with a fish that has badly infected gills.If he hiked the temps too much at your advice and the fish died, you would be directly responsible. Please take a minute to think about that.

With every post , I try as much as possible to give advice inclusive of the species itself, the disease to be fought, and any complications to do with the fish's biology and environment, and the continuing condition of the fish. The tolerances of a sick fish and a healthy one are not always comperable and you have to take it into account.

You also recommended a salt bath. Thats a smooth enough way to kill a cory and force it into osmotic imbalance, their salt cells in their gills cant take that.corys are alos very widely known to have a salt intolerance, it is in fact, common knowledge.

I have fought your corner before jason, especially a couple of years ago when you were about to get banned for putting out pointless posts.At the time you did indeed help me with a piece of advice I needed , and I thought you deserved a chance. I would not wish to have to revise that opinion. If you cannot give more accurate medical advice than that, please refrain from giving your advice. Im sorry if that offends, but this is life or death for someones pet, and im afraid you have to have a deeper knowledge before giving out advice in this area.Someone of your relative seniority in the hobby should know better than to do this. You have given out good advice before, and doubtless will do again, but this area of the forums is not your forte.

Apologies if I offend, but I have always promised myself that when it is life or death, I will speak out. Please dont consider it a flame, even though I know it might be a little hard to take, I know you are trying to help the fish, and as you should know, I hold no malice towards you.

I rang the dispatcher about the medication I ordered and it is packaged up ready to send so I should have it in a day or two. In the meantime I am continuing with the pimafix and melafix and put some broad spectrum stuff in yesterday. The latter didn't seem to do anything to date and now has been diluted with a fresh batch of water and pima-mela combo.

One minute I look at this cory and he seems to be on the mend and the next he doesn't. The infection doesn't seem to be in his gill but on the side fin near the gill. The infection seems deep. I have not increased the temp but I did add a smidge of salt as I didn't have any at all in there prior.

Cheers Brenda. (not a he )

PS: Just checked my dates and this appeared on the cory on the 23rd October, after a nippy guppy female took a set on everything in the tank. She was banished to my pond.

An update, day two of Myaxazin treatment. Although the fungus growth does not appear to be disappearing as yet, the general health of the cory does seem to be improving. I will keep you updated hopefully of his full recovery.

An update with a photo. I have been dosing with Myaxazin for 4 days now, and the final dose for the course of treatment is tomorrow. Although the fungus still looks awful, I believe the injury and infection underneath is clearing up. His barbels are getting longer, particularly on the right side, and all the other fins look good. He is eating like a horse and is showing no signs of feeling sick.

Now to the fungal side of treatment. I have Protozin on hand here now but I am unsure of what dose for a cory. It says 1/2 strength for a loach and fry but what about a cory? This is some pretty strong looking fungus we are talking here.

On Monday, I will administer the Protozin after first using carbon to extract the previous water treatment, and do a 50% water change.

Does this all sound ok?

After taking this photo today, I abandoned the idea of continuing the Myaxazin treatment. The fungus is way out of control. I filled the filter with carbon and extracted as much of the treatment as possible, then removed the carbon, did 50% water change and added Protoxin in a half dose rate for the corydora.
Incidentally, I took out 8 ghost shrimp I found in the tank still swimming around happily. I thought Myaxazin was harmful to invertabrates? There was still a shrimp I couldn't catch when I added the Protoxin. Twelve hours later and he is still swimming around happily.

Can you get seachem focus in aus?

That is a nasty infection the fish has Brenda. I havent ever seen Seachem Focus here. We can get Garlicguard. The best meds we seem to have here are the Waterlife ones.

Goodluck with the fish.

---

Before you criticize someone walk a mile in their shoes. That way you're a mile away and you have their shoes.

I might be jumping the gun a bit, but today's photo appears to show a marked improvement. Not getting my hopes up too high but things seem to be looking up for my corydora.

Today the fungus appears to be gone. There is another rest day tomorrow and then day 6 dose is due for the protoxin.
There also seems to be the start of a fin growing back.


The question is how is he going to grow a new armour scale to cover the hole? Should I after finishing that medication keep something like melafix in the water to keep the area clean?

An update, that fungus looked to be starting to grow back. I caught the cory and where he had lost his fin, was a loose scale. I removed the loose scale and all this muck came off with it. I put betadine ointment on him and put him back in the tank fearing I had really killed him this time. I added more melafix and a final dose of Protozin and steeled myself for some disappointment.
Good news, three days later I haven't touched the water or the cory and his wound is still as clean as a whistle.

How is the Corysoras doing, Brengun?.


http://www.flickr.com/photos/corydoras/
Member of the Malta Aquarist Society - 1970.
http://www.maltaaquarist.com

I think the betadine was probaby a minor stroke of genius, it kills the hell out of most bacteria and fungal causes if the wound isnt too deep. Sounds like he'll be ok. Well done you for beating a nasty little infection.It was very lucky it never went systemic, perhaps it was merely a dodgy scale rotting off.