Red spots on peppered cories

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cory frenzy

Aquarium Advice Newbie
Joined
Jan 13, 2015
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2
1~What type of fish is afflicted? In addition, please describe what is wrong with the fish to the best of your ability (i.e. cotton like growth, bloated, etc.).
I have two peppered cories with red spots on their bodies. They’re still active & eating normally and none of the other cories seem affected. I tried to do some research but couldn’t find a definitive answer so I thought I’d ask for some advice. Here are some photos to show what I’m talking about:

Yesterday:
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One cory has a red mouth and right gill. There’s a small red bump on her left pectoral fin. (Looks like she just ate a bloody steak! :eek:)

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The other has a large red spot on her left side.

Today:
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The redness has faded on her mouth and gill, but now there’s a red bump under the gill cover.

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The red spot has faded a little.

2~What are your tank parameters (ammonia, nitrites, nitrates, temp, pH)? Please give exact values.
(Don’t have these right now, I’ll test the water later.)

3~ How large is the tank? How long has the tank been set up?
40 gal breeder, been running for about 4 months.

4~What type of filtration are you using? Please give the name and number (i.e. Fluval 304) and amount of gph if known.
Aqua clear 50 and a sponge filter for more aeration.

5~How many fish are in the tank? What kinds of fish are they and what are their current sizes?
14 peppered cories
5 albino cories
5 false julii cories
2 yoyo loaches
2 borneo suckers
1 bristlenose pleco
1 albino bristlenose
7 female bettas
10 male guppies
Overstocked… I’m planning on taking the guppies to the LFS and possibly move one pleco to another tank once I make sure the cories haven’t spread any disease/parasites to the rest of the tank.

6~When is the last time you did a water change and vacuum the gravel? How often do you do this? How much water do you remove at a time?
The tank has pool filter sand– Every other day I vacuum the bottom and change about 3 gallons. I do a 25% change once a week.

7~How long have you had the fish? If the fish is new, how did you acclimate it/them?
Since they hatched in August. They’ve been in this tank for 3 months.

8~Have you added anything new to the tank--decor, new dechlorinator, new substrate, etc.?
No recent changes. Seachem Prime is what I've been using.

9~What kind of food have you been feeding your fish, have you changed their diet recently?
Primarily a mix of algae wafers, brine shrimp & spiralina pellets. Freeze dried tubifex as a treat and frozen bloodworms or frozen brine shrimp once a week.
 
Poor babies! It looks like ammonia poisoning. And with it being overstocked it's a good chance the ammonia has spiked up even with water changes. I would suggest at least buying a cheap 5-10 gallon to transfer them to until you can get them a bigger tank. Just long enough to try and get that crap out of their systems.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using Aquarium Advice mobile app
 
Change more water! Lots;)

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G900A using Aquarium Advice mobile app
 
Looks like that's it, the ammonia levels were above 0ppm so I went ahead and moved the albino pleco to a separate tank. I do have a spare 5gal to put them in... If I can catch them!

Thanks y'all, I'm just relieved it isn't some kind of nasty parasite. :)
 
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