What is wrong with my Cory?

[FallenAngel]

I got this guy around 3 weeks ago. Ever since I let him out of the bag he was much less playful than my others. I thought at first he was just really stressed (it was an hour drive home from the fish store), now he still seems really off and barely moves. He also looks like he may have some white spots appearing near the top of his head and he is much darker with a funny body shape compared to my other. What's wrong with him and how do I treat it? None of the other fish seem effected.


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[FallenAngel]

Oh, and what medications do you'll recommend? I can't really separate him because my 30 gallon is cycling and the 10 all my fish are in is going to be the quarantine tank once there moved. I could move my Betta out of the 5 and into the 30 since he's so hardy and use that if I have to. I just would rather not risk harming the Betta that way.


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[FallenAngel]

Here is one more pic, the tank is a 10 gallon

Tank mates:

5 rosy finned tetras
2 other cories
1 clown pleco

No idea what kind of filter is in it, tank has been running for about 1 year. The tetras, 1 cory, and pleco have been here since the beginning no problems. I'll do a water test in a bit and get you the readings. Here's another pic, may not be ich cause there's nothing on the front of his head from this angle.


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[nshepler]

Are the cories eating good? Mine acted a little odd until I started feeding them a little more.


May the force be with you.

 

[FallenAngel]

The other 2 are but the one that is looking bad hasn't seemed very interested in food since I got him. He may nibble on a piece here and there but is not nearly as hungry as the other 2.


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[FallenAngel]

According to my test, does this help any? I know the ammonia is high, but I don't know why. I clean the tank often and there are no dead fish. I haven't. List a fish in months. Do you think this is what's messing with the cory and if so why are my other fish not affected?

Ph: 7.6
Ammonia: 1 ppm
Nitrite: 0 ppm
Nitrate: 20 ppm


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[Coursair]

That's a lot of fish in a 10g. You may need to do water changes more often.

That Cory looks like he has Ick ! He may have been weaker already so that's why it attacked him first, but now your whole 10 gallon has been exposed to it.

Cories are considered a scaleless fish, so any medications you may need to use at half strength.


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[FallenAngel]

Got it, what medications do you recommend since the pleco is going to have issues with medication in the water as well? I do know it's to many fish, I'm trying to get the new tank ready as soon as I can so they'll have more room but something like Ick would be MUCH easier to treat in a 10 gallon!


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[Coursair]

Read up on Ick threads on the forum. Heat, lots of water changes, and 1/2 strength meds. Some use Salt, but be careful of too much.

Ick is ONLY affected by the medicine during the free swimming stage that's why you need to keep medicating the tank and doing water changes.




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[FallenAngel]

The temp to heat the tank to is 86 degrees correct? Do I need to slowly raise the temperature so the fish can adjust? And finally can I raises the temperature, and add either 1/2 strength meds or salt or will that stress the fish out to much? I'm guessing the entire tank has been infected since that one has been in there that long but is there any chance the tetras and pleco are still okay since they're never near him?


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[FallenAngel]

As of this morning I don't see any white spots in him, do you still think it's ick? I don't want to treat for ick and it be something different



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[Angela1108]

Since you said you don't know why the ammonia spike and don't have dead fish or anything you might want to check your tap water and see what it is coming out at! You could be replacing water with more ammonia than you are taking out when you so changes.


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[FallenAngel]

Since you said you don't know why the ammonia spike and don't have dead fish or anything you might want to check your tap water and see what it is coming out at! You could be replacing water with more ammonia than you are taking out when you so changes.

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I tested the tap water and these are the readings:

pH: 7.6 (I probably need to test high range pH as well because every time I do a test it's 7.6 in my tanks)

Ammonia: between .25 and .50 in color

Nitrite: looks like it's between 2.0 and 5.0 That's kinda high coming out of the tap isn't it? Both the colors on my chart look the same for 2.0 and 5.0 so it's either between those or one of those.

Nitrate: 0 ppm



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[FallenAngel]

Could he possibly have some ammonia poisoning and that's why he's turning so dark?


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[Angela1108]

It is possible. That does seen high for nitrites out of the tap! I've seen ammonia but never nitrite??!

Do you have a friend that is on another water source? It might be worth testing theirs and then taking some if it is better. :/ pain in the butt but might be worth it.

Not sure what you use for a dechlorinater but ones like prime also make ammonia and nitrite non toxic for 24 hours.


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[FallenAngel]

It is possible. That does seen high for nitrites out of the tap! I've seen ammonia but never nitrite??!

Do you have a friend that is on another water source? It might be worth testing theirs and then taking some if it is better. :/ pain in the butt but might be worth it.

Not sure what you use for a dechlorinater but ones like prime also make ammonia and nitrite non toxic for 24 hours.


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We live out in the country and actually the water in town is "supposedly" worse than ours. It's from a lake that once had a lot of cotton fertilizer run off in it and has been thought to be leading to cancer in the town. I actually thought mine was fine until I did the test. I may have to go ahead and test someone else's after all. That explains so much, the guy at the fish store was yelling at me once asking me why I let my nitrites get so high and didn't believe me when I told him I clean the tank. Is there anything I can do to lower those levels? I've been uping my water changing frequency because of the cory but maybe I need to stop doing water changes for a little while and see if that helps any. I've been using the aqua safe brand of dechlorinater but I may have to try the prime to see if it helps any.


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[Angela1108]

I honestly don't know if there is anything to help other than tons of bacteria. I know prime and similar things will make the ammonia and nitrite non toxic. Hopefully someone else will post who knows more


Maybe a mix of your water and bottled??


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[FallenAngel]

I'm not sure either, I went ahead and started another post more dedicated to the water issue because the cory died while I was away today. I did a 30% water change last night, then a 20% one this morning to try to get rid if the ammonia before testing the tap water so I think I stressed him out to much by adding more harmful water to the tank thinking I was fixing the problem...


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