Something wrong with Bronze corys mouth!

[ShinobiFishKeeper]

I just changed the substrate from gravel to sand and noticed one of my corys had his barbels deteriorated the other two have fine barbels its just this one. What's wrong and what caused it? I do weekly water changes changing 25-50 percent of the water when I had gravel in and thoroughly vacuumed the gravel. The gravel wasn't sharp at all. Should I do anything?

 

[aquandrew]

have you been checking your water parameters daily? changing substrate usually makes a tank go through a mini cycle

 

[ShinobiFishKeeper]

have you been checking your water parameters daily? changing substrate usually makes a tank go through a mini cycle

I have no test strips but it should be stable

 

[aquandrew]

gravel holds more beneficial bacteria than sand. so by changing substrates you removed some of the BB and your filter needs time to catch up to the bioload this usually makes it go through a 1-2 week mini cycle so the levels are probably messing with the cories. if you dont have test strips i would at least up your water changes to 3 times a week until it is stable

 

[ShinobiFishKeeper]

Alright but they are swimming around normally digging across the sand and the other fishes are doing fine. Will the Cory with the deteriorated barbels regrow it's barbels ? It has no problem getting the food I throw in.

 

[aquandrew]

yes they will grow back just keep up with water changes

 

[ShinobiFishKeeper]

yes they will grow back just keep up with water changes

I see. There's also a lot of live plants. I added more not to long ago. Will that also help with filtration and such?

 

[Bbush]

Same thing happened to all 6 of my peppered cories! I don't know what it was. It makes me scared to get any more. The only thing I know is that nothing I did could save them. I think it is some type of advanced fin rot. NOT just bad water quality IMO. I had pulled one from my main tank, and he was the only one that didn't get it. Eventually I moved all of them, and it got it too. Very frustrating. Hopefully yours will fair better. People told me it was b/c I had gravel. I moved them to glass bottom, and still didn't help.

 

[ShinobiFishKeeper]

Same thing happened to all 6 of my peppered cories! I don't know what it was. It makes me scared to get any more. The only thing I know is that nothing I did could save them. I think it is some type of advanced fin rot. NOT just bad water quality IMO. I had pulled one from my main tank, and he was the only one that didn't get it. Eventually I moved all of them, and it got it too. Very frustrating. Hopefully yours will fair better. People told me it was b/c I had gravel. I moved them to glass bottom, and still didn't help.

I have sand now and I'll just keep doing some more water changes

 

[ShinobiFishKeeper]

But yeah they were in gravel for awhile until today that's when I noticed after putting the sand in so I suspect it was because of the gravel

 

[Cactuspixie]

Most likely a combination of wear (from the gravel), and subsequent infection due to water quality issues (not vacuuming the gravel well/often enough, and high nitrates).
If you keep the water pristine, he will heal up nicely without the need to medicate. Just watch your parameters. I believe the test strips don't test for ammonia? You are better off getting a kit which will test for each stage of the nitrogen cycle plus ph.

 

[Bbush]

Agreed on the test kit. I will say my nitrates were high, but it is hard for me to believe that gravel had anything to do with it or even the nitrates b/c I know someone who has healthy cories in a gravel tank who never changes their water. They just do top offs! I think some type of disease, infection or bad breeding maybe. People told me to keep doing pwc as well, and mine never got any better. Have you seen the little guys face? It may start off from bad water or gravel (which I doubt) but once it advances this far I really don't think pwc's will cut it. I'm sorry I don't really have an answer, but let us know how the treatment goes. Hopefully you can figure something out or someone who has successfully treated this will chime in.

 

[Cactuspixie]

Agreed on the test kit. I will say my nitrates were high, but it is hard for me to believe that gravel had anything to do with it or even the nitrates b/c I know someone who has healthy cories in a gravel tank who never changes their water. They just do top offs! I think some type of disease, infection or bad breeding maybe. People told me to keep doing pwc as well, and mine never got any better. Have you seen the little guys face? It may start off from bad water or gravel (which I doubt) but once it advances this far I really don't think pwc's will cut it. I'm sorry I don't really have an answer, but let us know how the treatment goes. Hopefully you can figure something out or someone who has successfully treated this will chime in.

I can't tell anything from the pictures, so I'm just going by the OP's description of worn barbels. I had a couple of cories get that when I had high nitrates for an extended period of time. Daily water changes worked for mine- they were able to fight the infection themselves. If the cory looks weak, then I'd go straight for the antibiotics in a QT.

 

[Bbush]

I don't know that I did "daily" wc's. That may be where I messed up. I think the Cory in the pic is pretty far gone. When I told the lfs about mine, they said it was most likely fungal and fatal.

 

[ShinobiFishKeeper]

I can't tell anything from the pictures, so I'm just going by the OP's description of worn barbels. I had a couple of cories get that when I had high nitrates for an extended period of time. Daily water changes worked for mine- they were able to fight the infection themselves. If the cory looks weak, then I'd go straight for the antibiotics in a QT.

The Cory is fine he's eating not having trouble finding food and doing what Corys do shoaling with other corys and foraging

 

[ShinobiFishKeeper]

My other corys have gotten even longer barbels and the cory has begun to regrow its own as well. I'm currently adding stress zyme to help the aquarium stay clean and stress coat to help with the repairing.

 

[Cactuspixie]

My other corys have gotten even longer barbels and the cory has begun to regrow its own as well. I'm currently adding stress zyme to help the aquarium stay clean and stress coat to help with the repairing.

Glad to hear they're doing well

 

[Bbush]

That is great! Mine never got any better. I guess. My problem began with gravel / high nitrates. I moved them to a bare bottom tank but maybe too late. I don't think I will ever put them in gravel again. But they also had fin rot - not just barbell issues. So I still don't really know. I would like to get some more for my 20 gallon sand tank & see how they do.

 

[Coursair]

The main thing is keep your water pristine and gravel vac or hover vac sand to keep substrate clean. Feed a good variety and they can recover well

 

[ShinobiFishKeeper]

Finally got a test kit and here's my parameters. Anything wrong? I'm currently treating the tank with Melafix and Maracide to combat a parasitic infection and my temp is at 30 Celsius. So can't change the water right now due to the meds but I will after the treatment.