White cotton-looking spots on Panda cory

[tdp]

One of my panda cory got white spots on parts of his bottle. Half of his upper tail looks like cotton and just fell off.

Moved him to an empty planted tank for treatment
What kind of disease is this and how do I treat him?

 

[Autumnsky]

What are the tank parameters?
Ammonia, NitrIte, Nitrate

How long have you had the tank and had the fish, any other fish go missing or die?

How often are your pwc, and how much?

If you can get a close up pic of the tail and then of the fish too, that might help.

In the new tank is the water got excellent water parameters?

Are any other fish seeming to be ill?

*****First line of defense is to have excellent water parameters.

If you don't, then some pwc's are in order.

That means 0 Ammonia and 0 Nitrite and about 30 or less NitrAte.

Do you happen to know what your pH is and KH and GH is?

If you do weekly pwc of 25% or more then couple pwc one after another may be a good start, say 30-50%, It kind of depends on the parameters you have/and had in the tank he WAS in. If you have fish in the original tank he was in then you would need to get that tank's water in order.

If you don't happen to get that pwc very often then you might have to do smaller pwc more frequently as to not shock the fish.

 

[tdp]

~7.0 pH, 75 F temp
0 for ammonia, nitrite, nitrate

Had the tank for about a month, no fish dead/missing
Water changes weekly 20%. Just did it today.
Have 8 panda cories but only one is sick.

The other tank is almost 2 weeks old. Plants have been in there since the beginning. Water perimeters and temperature are identical to the other tank

 

[Autumnsky]

Did you do anything to cycle your tank, only a month doesn't seem the right amount of time to have those parameters with that many fish. It seems more likely that you would not be finished with your nitrogen cycle.

You might want to get a second check on the parameters.

If you need any info about the nitrogen cycle, you can start out by clicking on the link in my signature, and you can also go to the article section at the top of the page in the green bar to "Articles" and there is info about cycling with fish in.

 

[tdp]

I have a 2+ years old tank in my office and I used some of that water with bacteria doses to cycle these 2 tanks for two weeks before adding the cories.

 

[J.Mcpeak]

Saprolegnia, it is a fungus.

It could be another fungus but treatment is the same, salt may not be advisable for Cory.

 

[Delapool]

I have a 2+ years old tank in my office and I used some of that water with bacteria doses to cycle these 2 tanks for two weeks before adding the cories.

Out of interest was the bacteria doses just nitrifying bacteria or did it include sludge destroying bacteria as well?

 

[tdp]

Yes it does include sludge destroying bacteria. Is that a good thing or bad thing?

Currently treating my fish with antifungal, how should I feed him during the treatment? How high should I keep the temperature?

 

[J.Mcpeak]

I have a 2+ years old tank in my office and I used some of that water with bacteria doses to cycle these 2 tanks for two weeks before adding the cories.

I'm not convinced that this will cycle your systems, normally an ammonia source is needed to feed the bacteria. (Food or ammonia is commonly used in fish less cycles) ammonia is used in a cycled system.

Adding bacteria may work if it has a food source. I have never used bottled bacteria so I can't really comment on it. The bottle may contain enough ammonia to assist? I don't believe in these products but they may work?
They may help to kick start bacterial life but if you have a cycled system you could just add a filter to it, tried and tested this many times.
Add a filter works, it's simple too. When you're ready move filter to new tank, fill up on the day using some original and some new water. Here's why I use this over bottled products, the bacteria normally grow in the sponges and in particular the bio media in a filter, this is the best way to harvest them. They are not free swimming but live in colonies in those areas and also in substrate (usually DEEP substrate)
Removing maybe 1/3 bio media is enough to start a system without causing too much damage, replace lost media. (Sensibly low stock on new tank as the tank itself needs a few months to really settle, more for bigger systems, ease up a bit on food on original tank for a few days, two systems that are far more forgiving than new starts)

Readings of 0-0-0 are highly unusual for a normal system that has only 20% weekly changes. A massive tank with minimal loading possibly or if you use some type of nitrate filter. If I get consistent zeros I doubt the test or the kit itself. The first two should be zero, the last is normally measurable at some point in a normal system. Even a well maintained system! If you test the day before the change you should be getting a nitrate reading.
A tank+life=nitrate, standard.

Autumnsky gives good advice.
What size is the tank? You could have a large system and everything could be in order, except the fungus. Normally that's traceable to water.

If you've had fish for two years you may think I'm insulting you but are you doing the tests properly? Sometimes it's easy to get them wrong, I do. If you changed brands or use various brands, some of them work to different times or doses. It is quite easy to get mixed up.

 

[Autumnsky]

I have a 2+ years old tank in my office and I used some of that water with bacteria doses to cycle these 2 tanks for two weeks before adding the cories.

Please read up on the nitrogen cycle, info in my signature link.

The BB, beneficial bacteria live mostly on things in an established filter pad/media because it is the area of greatest water movement and oxygenation, and surface area. Not the water.

BB need food, ammonia to stay alive and healthy. The two weeks with no fish in between adding water and BB, means there was no ammonia, or little in your water to sustain or grow new BB to create a cycled filter.

Also do not use chlorinated tap water to rinse your established filter because chlorine/Chloramine and other stuff which can be added to water kill bacteria, as is their job to make tap water "safe" to drink.

I only mention this as the aquarium will run more smoothly long term with out the stresses of a tank which is not cycled.

The stress of poor water quality, and also fluctuations in water parameters, in an uncycled tank, can cause fish to be stressed and become ill more quickly.

Also keeping the tank cycled with bountiful BB will make for better fish keeping and healthier fish. I kept fish for years with out knowing that changing the filter pad was a bad thing for the fish, or understanding there were BB on my old filter pad and rinsing it with tap water killed them. Most of my fish lived. After learning about cycling my fish have been much healthier and my tanks have run much better.

Happy fish keeping.

as a side note: A little salt (aquarium salt dissolved in water before adding or kosher or regular salt with no additives like iodine and anti-caking agents) being .25 tsp per gallon should have no ill effect on the Cories.

It can help when there are fungal issues and other illness, and can be removed with pwc's.

 

[tdp]

My tank is 20G planted. The current tank water itself is one month old.

I forgot to mention that the filter pad is older than that since I used it when I kept pleco/apple snails another month prior til I found out they ate portions of my plants.

 

[Delapool]

Yes it does include sludge destroying bacteria. Is that a good thing or bad thing?

Currently treating my fish with antifungal, how should I feed him during the treatment? How high should I keep the temperature?

In a normal tank that should be fine. In a tank under stress such as start-up, then the bacteria may latch onto your fish as well.

Say for example, you get a little fin damage from ammonia spikes, that opens the way for bacterial infection followed by fungal infection around damaged areas.

 

[Angela1108]

I agree 0 nitrAte sounds weird/incorrect.

If you used a liquid test make sure that you shake the second bottle for the full 30 seconds before you add it and then shake for the full minute once it is added. It will give a false 0 if you don't


Sent from my iPhone using Aquarium Advice

 

[tdp]

Apparently my last test kit didn't work properly. Then I checked, they're all expired.Went to get a master test kit and I got:
7.0 pH 0.25 ammonia 0 nitrite 10~20 nitrate
Guess my tank parameters are ok.

Never had experience with a sick fish aside from ich before. How should I go about feeding him during treatment?

 

[Autumnsky]

Mostly normal, but conservatively so as to not have any leftovers or anything left to foul the water.

If you ever feed any Bloodworms, maybe a little extra nutrition to help, also consider foods with garlic which is good for the immune system.

Frequent pwc 20-25% to keep the water clean, every couple to few days. Vac any uneaten foods. Keep all parameters on the lower safe side. Hopefully soon your fish will be better.

 

[tdp]

Mostly normal, but conservatively so as to not have any leftovers or anything left to foul the water.

If you ever feed any Bloodworms, maybe a little extra nutrition to help, also consider foods with garlic which is good for the immune system.

Frequent pwc 20-25% to keep the water clean, every couple to few days. Vac any uneaten foods. Keep all parameters on the lower safe side. Hopefully soon your fish will be better.

I should add that the sick cory is really weak as in he hardly moves at all, weak breathing. Sometimes I couldn't tell if he's alive or not.

 

[Autumnsky]

You might lose him, but you can try a turkey baster from the dollar store to spot feed him. Just put the food in a dish or plastic cup and add a couple ounces of water suck it up with the baster and gently, slowly drop it above or next to the Cory depending on how afraid it is of your movement.

Also wanted to add that liveaquaria says Panda Cories should be in a 30G. Something to want to check on for future purchases to make sure your set-up is right for the type of fish, in addition aqadvisor can help give a general idea, also for quantity of fish recommended and check which fish do well together in terms of water parameters and/or temperament. (for example, you might not want to try Cardinal Tetras if your water was 8.5 pH. The aqadvisor tool is a continuing work in progress so not always spot on. There can always be exceptions for how a person keeps their water or one experience a person might have but overall these type tools will give general assistance. And as always we can help here.

Learning about as much as you can about the fish you would like to purchase or keep is best, research, research, research, we are always learning here.