Help with my corydora. New aquarist.

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Forest.

Aquarium Advice Newbie
Joined
Sep 15, 2020
Messages
6
Location
Kansas City
Hello.

New fish keeper here. Tried doing as much research as I could, but still hitting bumps.

Woke up this morning before work to see one of my corydoras has a white spot behind it's eye (see attached picture). This is in the community tank listed in my profile. I thought it was fully cycled (I used seachem stability for as long as the pet store told me and then they tested my water and said it was cycled). Found out after buying fish that it was not. Since then I have mostly gotten my parameters under control, have been dosing with seachem prime and aquavitro seed (was told that was better than stability) daily.

1) Black corydora (female?) has developed a white spot behind her right eye (see attached picture).

2)Tested my tank last night and parameters we're as follows.
Temp: 77.2
pH: 6.4 (this seems to slowly be dropping by 0.2 every two weeks).
Ammonia: 0.25
Nitrite: 0 (has been 0 for the past week and a half)
Nitrate: 0 (recently dropped from 5 to 0 and seems to enjoy holding steady).

3) Tank is 29 gallons. Tank has been set up for About 3 weeks.

4) Filter is a tetra whisper IQ 60 with a prefilter on the intake. 300 gph (I do not have the flow control turned up all the way). I also have a aquapapa bio sponge filter in there that says it's for a 5 gallon tank.

5) There are 3 black corydoras and 20 endlers in the tank.

6) I did a 5 gallon water change on Friday the 11th. I vacuumed the gravel where I put the food, but can not get into smaller places around the dragon stone and under Driftwood.

7) I have had the corydoras for about two weeks and the endlers for a week.

8) Nothing new has been added other than what's been listed and dosing with prime and seed.

9) Feed the corydoras hikari sinking wafers and have been switching between Bug Bite flakes and Sustainable Aquatics dry hatchery diet.
 

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Hello, I found your thread!

Check out the Aquarium Advice article linked in my signature for the Getting started info. Also noted in the thread are a couple more links for articles as well. There are a few at the end of section 1.

I can not tell for sure if it was from a scrape or ? Is it sticking out from the head?

The ideal situation is to keep the unsafe water parameters away.

Keeping up with good water quality, and vac'ing are excellent.

Watch the fish to make sure you do not get Ich. That spot looks too big, but just to be sure. In case...
https://www.aquariumadvice.com/freshwater-ich-yuck/

https://www.aquariumadvice.com/fish-disease-index-for-diagnosis-and-treatment/
 
Oh and feed lightly for the next week or 2.

You can do a regular feeding the evening before or (like 12 hours) to 2 hours before a pwc. This way they can eat but not pollute the water too much. Still keep the cycling process moving but easy on the fish.
 
Thank you very much for your reply! No, it's not protruding or anything. I was wondering if it was just a scrape as it just seemed to appear over night and when I was cleaning the inside wall of the tank, I had bumped one if the pieces of driftwood they like to hang out in.

Since I'm new to this, I just wanted to make sure.

I'll check out those articles and keep a close eye on her (I've made sure to spot all three of them at least once a day).

Thanks again!
 
Update. Still monitoring.

I did a 30% water change and added in some stress coat. Parameters have not changed. I did find a dead endlers behind a rock though. I think it has been dead for a few days now and am wondering if that wasn't contributing to the slight bit of ammonia I'm seeing.

She is still eating and swimming around as usual, but it looks like it has gotten a little bigger. I was able to get some better pictures.

Please let me know what you think.

Edit: Tap water parameters have changed from when I first measured it.

pH: 6.6
Ammonia: 0.25
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 5.0

So that's where the ammonia is coming from.
 

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It does look worse. I am not sure what it actually is. Does the Cory have Ich?

In the one pic it looks like a lighter grey circle on the back near the tail, is that actually what it is and not a shadow? If so maybe Columnaris now and are the tiny salt looking dots all over it?

You should check your tap water for ammonia, also and then do a water change (or more than 1 pwc if it still isn't 0) Sometimes tap water has ammonia from the start, so it doesn't help to put bad water in.

If the tap water is 0 ammonia, then you have a green light to proceed to get yours down to 0. Any ammonia will cause stress for the fish and make healing harder.
 
Not the big spot by the eye, the pic looks like salt sprinkles.

Is it really like that by you seeing it? Often pics aren't exactly could be bubbles ir food or sand... but you need to see it on the fish. If it seems to be like the pics of Ich that is what the article links are for. So you can help it asap and not wait another day for the response from me or someone else. Hope you can tell ifvyes or no.
 
Yeah, I looked up a few other pictures. Pretty sure it is. Those aren't just bubbles in the pic. Looks like corys don't handle salt, but I've started raising the temp. Will do that gradually over the next day and get some medicine as well.

Thank you.
 
Ich-X is recommended from people I know of with experience caring for Ich ridden fish. I haven't used it myself though.

Remember there is a life cycle and sometimes you might not see the spots.

Also, raising the temperature in the tank reduces available oxygen so adding an air stone / bubbler can help, or lower the water level if there is a hang on back filter, so the water will splash more.
 
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