Brown Fuzz Eating Cory's Fins??? Help! :(

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totalnoob

Aquarium Advice Regular
Joined
Jun 22, 2014
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55
Location
Maryland
Good morning everyone! One of my corydoras Julii is suffering from something growing on his fins and I have no idea what is wrong :( He wasn't really moving last night, but he's a cory, and they do that sometimes, so I didn't think too much of it. This morning I found him in the same spot and thought I saw something on his fins so I pulled him out and put him in a tupperware container (it is currently floating in the community tank - my husband and I are about to leave to go somewhere, so for the moment he is in there).

EDITED TO ADD WATER PARAMS (I have the API Freshwater Master Test Kit):
pH: 7.4
Ammonia: 0 ppm
Nitrite: 0 ppm
Nitrate: 40 ppm

I have attached pictures - I'm not sure what's going on here :( I have never seen this before. I don't have time to post water params, but I will do it when we get back. For now, he is in a 38G tank with 6 harlequin rasboras, 7 neon tetras, 8 danios, 3 other corys (who, the two that I could get eyes on - looked fine and are skittering around and eating), 4 nerite snails, and a female HM betta.

The temp in the tank is ~80 - I just finished treating a bout of ick in the tank yesterday and have had the temp at 86 for the last 3 weeks and was doing 1/2 dose of seachem paraguard. I have since been lowering the temp back down.

The corys were all fine during treatment, as were the snails, until I noticed this guy this morning.

What is this? What should I do? Do I have to treat the tank, or just QT and treat this guy? :(
 

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Looks like fin rot, though a better picture will be helpful.

Fin rot usually points back to water quality so we will see what that says wen you get it tested.


Caleb
 
I just got home and saw that one of my other cories has white fuzz around his mouth, and I'm about to catch him and stick him in with my other cory while I'm doing the water tests. :/ All my other fish are totally fine, it's just the corys.
 
Oh dear, white fuzz (especially on the mouth) usually means columnaris disease. I'd catch any fish you see acting abnormal and QT them.

I used Furan-2 and Kanaplex for my treatment with columnaris on my discus. I did a salt bath of 1 tablespoon for every 5 gallons to help build up their immune systems.


Caleb
 
Thank you to you both. Should I just treat the whole tank, then? (Reading the link now)

I have both Furan 2 and Kanaplex on hand.

ETA: I'm going to be doing a huge gravel vac and water change today, as well as trying to clean my tank decor. *sigh*
 
coralbandit said:
I would treat the whole tank!
The first link is very good but may take several reads?
It took/takes me many as I find different info from the links in the article.
This link is easier to read and may be of some value also.
http://www.myaquariumclub.com/columnaris-and-what-i-have-learned...-1689.html
Very fortunate of you to have the meds on hand(y)
Click to expand...

I have actually read that article before, but part of me is wondering if it isn't the saprolegnia (sp??) because of the brown growths on my cory's fins AND the fact that my temp was sustained at 86 for 3 weeks. My plants were dying off, too, so that would've contributed to the organic matter decay, as it were.

Would those same medications work? Can it be possible to have both diseases at once? (The Paraguard, even at half dose, could have stressed the corys)

*Sigh*

BTW I am doing my water tests right now. Will post params in a sec, but so far they look good.
 
Unlike some other diseases, columnaris loves clean warm water. The stress from the high temperatures could have caused it. Secondary infections are also no uncommon.


Caleb
 
ImACoolguy said:
It's like as soon as the word columnaris is mentioned you appear :D ^^hes the columnaris expert :)


Caleb
Click to expand...
(y) :thanks:
IMO it is the "fish flu" of the decade if not century!
We will have to see if any control is to be had over this in years to come?
The furan and kana combo have been in use a while now and it is mentioned it does not always work as well as it did before?
We are creating a super bacterial issue here IMO.
This particular "disease" is huge in the agricultural fish farm(catfish for food) market costing them $$$$$$$$!
It is seasonal in many of the farms which leads me to question the 32 day life cycle without a host.
Also it seems no coincidence that this disease shows up for many during the hottest part of the year.
Remember;
Columnaris loves clean and warm water!
Makes it a "horse of a different color" for most of us keepers.
That and the 4 different strains not always showing the same symptoms make this a particulary difficult disease to diagnose and "cure".
I hope I help most as opposed to scare them on this topic.
 
That's a very good point. I've seen more cases of columnaris this summer than since I joined. Maybe the hot weather does have an effect?

But our tanks have regulated temperatures? So environmental outside the tank?


Caleb
 
ImACoolguy said:
Unlike some other diseases, columnaris loves clean warm water. The stress from the high temperatures could have caused it. Secondary infections are also no uncommon.


Caleb
Click to expand...

Thank you. Okay, so question about salt (Also I posted my params up top on the original post - everything looked okay, except my nitrates were a bit higher than I'd like to see...but it's water change day anyway, and I'm going to do a big thorough gravel vac and boil my decorations and get rid of the java ferns that hated the high temps and decided to melt, lol).

Anyway, yes back to the salt -- I have read that corys don't do well with salt and are sensitive to it -- is the 1 tbls/5g a safe amount for the corys, or should I halve it? Also, can I add it directly to the tank, since I'm treating the whole tank? Often when I work with salt, I will just do it in a QT tank, or it's one of my bettas that live alone and are in their own tank anyway. This will be the first time I have to use salt in my community tank. I also know that generally 100% water changes are recommended because salt compounds and can't be completely removed unless a 100% water change is performed. Is it unsafe to use the salt in my community tank? Would I have to try to do 100% changes in that tank with all the fish in there? o_O I have always done salt with bare bottom tanks that I can just dump out and rinse/refill, repeat. Haven't ever done it with substrate in.

Also, I have some methylene blue on hand (I lost a betta to velvet a few months ago and didn't have any medicine on hand, so I went crazy and bought ALL THE THINGS for my fishie pharmacy, lol), and I know it dyes crap blue and generally is used as a dip. Given that I can't dip all of my fish at once, should I just quickly dip the ones that I do see issues on (in this case, the two corys)? Should I halve the dose for that because of their sensitivity?
 
coralbandit said:
(y) :thanks:
IMO it is the "fish flu" of the decade if not century!
We will have to see if any control is to be had over this in years to come?
The furan and kana combo have been in use a while now and it is mentioned it does not always work as well as it did before?
We are creating a super bacterial issue here IMO.
This particular "disease" is huge in the agricultural fish farm(catfish for food) market costing them $$$$$$$$!
It is seasonal in many of the farms which leads me to question the 32 day life cycle without a host.
Also it seems no coincidence that this disease shows up for many during the hottest part of the year.
Remember;
Columnaris loves clean and warm water!
Makes it a "horse of a different color" for most of us keepers.
That and the 4 different strains not always showing the same symptoms make this a particulary difficult disease to diagnose and "cure".
I hope I help most as opposed to scare them on this topic.
Click to expand...

Ha, oh, I'm definitely scared. I've read about columnaris and it's scary sh!t. But I also am trying to get a jump on it and be as proactive as I possibly can. Thankfully the corys are the only things showing symptoms so far *knock on wood* and the rest of my fish are like "DAYUM THOSE BLOODWORMS WE HAD FOR BREAKFAST WERE AWESOME!" so...

Thank god it's water change day.
 
The salt may be best used in a bath /dip for the cories and left out of the DT?
I have read of some keepers using H2O2 to treat!
IMO it is very much like potassium permanganate and like the salt treats the fish from the outside where in some strains the issue lives.
I like PP but know it is difficult and not common.
I will look farther into the H2O2 treatment and report back if I find a good idea.
All disease treatments work best/better when you are on top of the issue .
 
coralbandit said:
The salt may be best used in a bath /dip for the cories and left out of the DT?
I have read of some keepers using H2O2 to treat!
IMO it is very much like potassium permanganate and like the salt treats the fish from the outside where in some strains the issue lives.
I like PP but know it is difficult and not common.
I will look farther into the H2O2 treatment and report back if I find a good idea.
All disease treatments work best/better when you are on top of the issue .
Click to expand...

Thanks! I have a giant thing of H2O2 (because I'm a klutz!), so would be up to that as well. I have seen PP mentioned a lot in forums, but honestly I haven't really researched it. For some reason I feel like it's bad for inverts? o_O But that might be untrue (I've read a lot about a lot of meds - hard to keep them straight).

Also, do you know if Furan-2 is invert safe? I've got 4 nerites in there.
 
Just a quick update: I had to euthanize the cory that is pictured on the first page. Poor dude kept flopping over on his side and I would think he was dead and then he'd like spaz and flutter and right himself. But he was listing and breathing heavily and I felt so bad for the little fella. Also I was worried that he'd die overnight and I'd find my fish picking at him in the morning. T___T My other guy with the fuzzy mouth isn't doing too hot either - it looks like the fuzz ate his little mustache and maybe even part of his mouth? He doesn't look like my other, sole, normal cory (the 4th one disappeared - like totally gone. Eurgh).

THESE FISH, MAN! I do everything I can to keep them healthy and they keep betraying me with illnesses! First the ich and now this. *facedesk*
 
It happens to the best of us sometimes. I managed to save 3 of 4 discus that got it. The one that died was looking better then just one day started rolling around like his swim bladder was messed up and in less than 24 later he was dead. Sometimes it's out of our control


Caleb
 
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