cory cat fins damaged?

[Meredith]

I was looking at my cory and (please excuse my terminology) the feathery parts of his front fins are gone. It looks like he has two little stumps. What caused this and what can I do for him? I just got a little baby cory and I want to make sure it doesnt happen to him too.

 

[Meredith]

its the second set of fins as well

 

[Diva]

You know, this happened to one of mine.... actually I think it mayhave happened to 2.

They both died a few weeks after I noticed it.......

Course, yours might have something different...but Im curious to know what other people think it is. I couldnt find any info that cleared it up for me...

 

[Meredith]

I was just reading that they need a soft substrate. Could this be the problem? or disease? I currently have just reg aquarium gravel.

 

[tropicalman]

Other fish will nip at the fins (I had a Krib that loved albino cory fins). Acidic water may have an effect too. Once the cause is corrected, they usually grow the fins back easily. If it's not another fish then keep the water as fresh as you can by doing regular pwcs of at least 20% per week and vacuuming the gravel.

 

[Pipa]

I have had the same problem recently with both my cory catfish. When we brought them home they had already pierced a hole in the bag they were in so I imagine their mouths are quite powerful. Perhaps they do this to eachother? The only other fish in my aquarium that coud have nipped is the rosy barb, but I have never noticed any aggressive behavior - they dont even pay much attention to each other. I suppose we dont know what they do when the lights go out though. . . .I'm stumped.

 

[tropicalman]

No their mouths are quite soft in fact. I've heard of them losing thir "whiskers" to sharp gravel. Their fins have spines that are certainly capable of poking a hole in a plastic bag and if that happened, that might explain the missing finnage. Check the water conditions and do a pwc if needed.

 

[Corydoras4Ever]

Fins

The gravel is probably the reason as to why their fins have deteriorated, especially if the corys are kinda jumpy and tend to dart off. Sooner or later the regular gravel will damage their fins or barbels.

I'd like to advise you to buy smaller gravel without sharp edges. This might work best.

 

[DirgeDevil]

this happened to my earlier fish. check the PH of your water. My lil' fishies got their whole fins eaten away because they were swimming in alkaline water. i feel so bad now. but check the ph and change the water...

 

[Meredith]

oooohhh. my water is pretty alkaline. I haven't wanted to mess with the ph though. what should I do?