Cory help

[maestromad]

Hello I'm treating my tank for ich and things are going well, only thing is y peppered cory is acting a bit odd, he's hanging out in the corner of te tank at the top.
He does swim about occasionally but seems to come back here!! My nitrates were up a bit this morning but I have pwc since then.
My other cory goes up to see him quite a bit but in just concerned at the odd behaviours!

 

[maestromad]

Here's some more pics of some marks on its body anyone??

 

[KonvictKeeper]

I think corys are very sensitive to salt. Did you use salt to treat the ich?

 

[Mumma.of.two]

He might not be handling the treatment very well. The ich could be in his gills also. He could be developing a secondary illness from the stress of the ich or high heat. Is he breathing heavy or fast? Is he eating? Have you checked your ammonia and nitrite levels?

 

[Mumma.of.two]

What about aeration?

 

[maestromad]

hey guys, thank you for the reply, im starting to stress now! Bioth my cory's are doing the same thing. I've not used salt in the tank I'm using Protozin to treat on day 3 today.
my temp is now 84 gone up very slowly over a few days, my readings are nitrates 0, nitrite is 0.25, ammo 0.25, I'm going to do antoher pwc in the morning (did one today which brought the ammo down form 0.5 but nitrite up) they were rooting around eating earlier, but currently firmly in the corners (one on the thermometer, the other ontop of my heater!).
I have two long airstones to give more oxygen.
I'm seriously considering bringig the temp down to normal (78) to see if that helps, they look so sad, I've also noticed white poop aroud the tank, but on the postive side there are hardly any of the white ich spots floating around

 

[Mumma.of.two]

You won't be able to see ich floating around. It's too small. What you actually see on the fish is it's immune systems response to the ich. I would do a PWC as soon as you can. Now if possible. IMO they are not handing the meds very well and you need to remove them ASAP.

 

[gabysapha]

Even if you have no QT tank for the cories, get the largest bowl or tupperware container you can find, clean it up really well to make sure there is no soap residue there, and put them in with a sponge filter. Or airstone if that's all you have. Put them in the warmest part of the house.

It's better than leaving them in the tank, and you can continue ich treatment in the rest of the tank.

 

[maestromad]

But my corys are the ones which showed the ich first, i'll do a 50%pwc now, and what were all the white floaty spore things?

Do i keep the temp where it is or look to bring it down? My cory's had done SO well and were really perky until today

Guess chaning the tank over really stressed them out, my plants came today too, do you think it would be a good idea to get them in when I do the water change or leav it till tomorrow??

 

[Mumma.of.two]

But my corys are the ones which showed the ich first, i'll do a 50%pwc now, and what were all the white floaty spore things?

Do i keep the temp where it is or look to bring it down? My cory's had done SO well and were really perky until today

Guess chaning the tank over really stressed them out, my plants came today too, do you think it would be a good idea to get them in when I do the water change or leav it till tomorrow??

The plants will be fine in a bucket until you get everything sorted.
Are you sure your not seeing micro bubbles?

 

[maestromad]

nope they were definatley little tiny white grains alsmost like salt, the same as was on the fish and there were LOADS of them, after the second day of treatment there was some on the sand which i hoovered up and hardly ant in the water, the water is free of them now as are the fish.
I've just done a bit of searching and I think the cory's may be bad becasue of the nitrite, so on the pwc case now!
Am I ok to drop the temp a bit too?

 

[gabysapha]

When in doubt, change the water.

I would not lower the temperature of the water, as that can give ich a firmer hold. Cories don't react that badly to high temps, especially if the rise was gradual. That's very abnormal. It's either the nitrite or the meds, I assume the meds as peppered cories are very hardy.

I would remove the meds as much as possible, and put charcoal in the filter to remove more of it. If the cories are still not well after removing the meds, then I would move them out of the tank and lower the water temperature. It's easy to isolate cories and there's no point in putting your other fish in danger.

And also make sure you know the cause for the ich outbreak and be sure to fix it

 

[maestromad]

im guessing the ich was from one of two new guppies i intorduced a few days before the tank change over. I'm hguessing that the stress of being kept in a bucket for just over an hour before i put them in thier new home stressed them out majorly, I feel like such a bad person!
One of my new guppies didn't make it along with one of my established ones, just doing a 25% change, the meds I have are to be put in on days 1,2,3 and then 6 so I'll pop the carbon back in now and hopefully my parameters will sort themselves out.
Also I was told at the LFS tht I shouldn't use water from the warm tap (as my cold id COLD) becasue i'll introduce copper thoughts on this?

 

[gabysapha]

How else do you put warm water in a tank then? That never occurred to me, and unless I have fancy shrimp I wouldn't worry and do it anyway.

Yes new fish often bring diseases like ich into your tank when you do not quarantine them for 2 weeks or so. This is common and could be easily avoided if you set up a quarantine tank. I use a large tupperware storage container I got for $1 at Walmart. I put a sponge filter in and a heater. Good to go. If they do come down with ich, I can take care of it without putting my other fish in trouble.

Don't worry about stressing fish in a bucket, and fish often don't get diseases because they were in a bucket for a little while. Fish are very resilient, and unless you were kicking the bucket or something it's really not a big deal. If the fish are really freaking out for some reason, you can put them in a quiet place, with an airstone, and a blanket covering them. Anyways, don't blame a little time in a bucket to have caused disease or stress. However, if the water in the bucket was significantly colder than the water in the tank and they were not acclimated, that could have aggravated ich symptoms that were already there.

Bet on the guppies for introducing the disease, and next time you get new fish you know what might happen if you do not quarantine

 

[maestromad]

Yes i shall have to look into a quarantine tank, as I need to stock my tank once all this is over, and I still have the previous tank but its finding somehwer to keep it! they may have to stay in the garage but itll be very cold in there! Cant really risk a bowl as I have two cats and although they ignore the tank I can bet they try out swimming in bowl!
I've been warming the water by adding a kettle full of boiled water per 10 litres (i have a filter kettle thingy) but its still bloomin cold going in!
Thanks for all the help - fingers crossed all will be good now - i'll test the water ion the morning then add my plants, carbon is back in too!

 

[gabysapha]

I mean, unless you have a lot of copper in your pipes, I don't know if it's worth boiling the water and still having it be too cold. The only things I can think of that can have a problem with high levels of copper are shrimp and cories. You can try using warm water from the tap and see what happens. I would be very surprised if that would cause a problem though!!

Something to think about is that bad water quality and cooler water can aggravate ich. Ich is always in an established tank, but it does not harm your fish in low levels. But if something happens that disrupts the immune functions of your fish, it can overwhelm your fish and that's when you see symptoms such as flashing and salt grains. That is how I find ich in my tank: when the temperature drops a lot, I usually see ich (my house is pretty cold).
So not adding water that is of the proper temperature may do more hard than good in terms of copper vs. proper temperature.

If I were you, I would use warm water from the tap. But then again I don't know what the pipe conditions in your house are and if they do create high enough levels of copper to harm your fish.

Good for you for being so proactive about healing your fish and not just leaving them to get better on their own! You're a good fishkeeper.

 

[gabysapha]

Oh, and if you go the tupperware container route for quarantine tanks (cheapest method I think), you can get matching plastic covers for them to keep your cats out

 

[maestromad]

Thank you, I know a lot of people dont agree with meds but I think if I hadn't used it then I would possibly lost all of my stock. My LFS is getting some Panda corys in for me soon, so will certainly need to think of something.
my corys have now chilling on the bottom of the tank and even been rooting for some food, which is making think it may be the high temp? the pwc brought it down to 78 from 82

 

[nnacho528]

Just a tip, corys are very sensitive to salinity and they HATE fermarldyhyde, the stuff thats usually in ick medicine

 

[gabysapha]

Just a tip, corys are very sensitive to salinity and they HATE fermarldyhyde, the stuff thats usually in ick medicine

Yes exactly. Maestromad, it is very likely it's not the heat bothering them but the meds. I have kept 4 species of cory at 86, so have many people, and i have never heard of cories doing so badly; they are very adaptable.

Be very careful with the meds if you plan on using them again. Be ready to take the cories out. Right now you don't know if it was the meds or heat that made them sick, but I would bet on the meds.
I wouldn't use them again at all, the cories have already been through a lot.

Most do think meds are not necessary. The heat method is very effective. I have always used only heat and everything cleared within a couple weeks. I don't use salt as the cories don't like that much.

Try your best not to decrease the temp of the tank when you do water changes.