Help! My Bronze Cory Jumped Out Of His Tank

Hi everyone.
I'm sorry I haven't introduced myself here but I have an emergency and would appreciate some advice ASAP. On Tuesday my bronze cory jumped out of his tank. I opened the tank to feed my fish and the doorbell rang. I went to answer the door and came back about 20 minutes later. I walked into the room and there he was lying on the hard floor. I quickly picked him up by his tail and dropped him back into the tank. For the first 15 minutes he stayed upside down stuck in a plant. I thought he was dead and was about to take him out when he swam and landed on the bottom of the tank where he sat quivering. He sat there all evening. The next day I went to my LFS and told them what had happened. I also told them that my cory's fins looked all messed up and his tail had dropped off but he still came out from his little cave to eat some pellets. The assistant at the petshop gave me some melafix and couldn't help me any futher. Thursday morning I noticed he had become a darker colour but was still eating. Friday morning I saw he had become even darker and wasn't moving much but was still eating. Today he is still so sad looking and does eat if the food is very near him. The other bronze cory nudges him a bit but just leaves him alone . I have been using the melafix and it makes the water smell. It says on the bottle to use it every day for 7 days for wounds or disease and every 3 days if adding new fish. It also says to do a water change after 7 days. Can someone please tell me if this is the correct treatment to use for him and how much to use and if its safe to use as I have other fish in the tank also ? I would also like to know what else I should be doing to help him while he is injured and vunerable? I wish I could turn the clock back and change what has happened because my gorgeous little fish is suffering because I made a stupid mistake. My brother suggested euthanising him as he felt that my cory was suffering too much because parts of him had rotted and fallen off. I dont know what to do. I wake up every morning expecting him to be dead and floating around.
I had the tank water tested at the petshop and they said the PH was really high. I have had my tank for about 2 1/2 months now and have never had fish before so please please please help me save my fish.

So sorry to hear about your little Cory. Melafix won't harm anything in the tank, as it's basically tea tree oil, and is useful for wounds and infection. I would continue using it. I'm not sure there is anything else you can do right now, other than keep an eye on him. If he's still eating, he can't be feeling too bad....although the fact that he is turning darker is not a good sign. When you say his fins are messed up, and his tail has dropped off, do you mean that the tail is totally gone...sometimes tail fins can grow back if the injury has not gone to the bony area.

SharonCC said:

So sorry to hear about your little Cory. Melafix won't harm anything in the tank, as it's basically tea tree oil, and is useful for wounds and infection. I would continue using it. I'm not sure there is anything else you can do right now, other than keep an eye on him. If he's still eating, he can't be feeling too bad....although the fact that he is turning darker is not a good sign. When you say his fins are messed up, and his tail has dropped off, do you mean that the tail is totally gone...sometimes tail fins can grow back if the injury has not gone to the bony area.

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Hi SharonCC

Thanks for the reply. Yes his fins are messed up. They don't stand up and he cant use them to swim around the tank. His fins haven't dropped off but look as if they have dried up and yes his beautiful little tail has dropped off. He has been left with a little stub. I have to be very careful when syphoning the tank so i dont stress him too much. I cleaned the tank today and he started whizzing around all over the place. I am using stress zyme. Is that safe to use with melafix , king british safe water and king british safe guard ? Should I leave the tank light on or off ?

The best thing you can generally do for an injured fish is to make sure his water is clean so he has a better chance to heal himself. I would do daily 20% or larger water changes on the tank to improve the water condtions to even better than what the LFS told you were OK. It will give him a better chance to heal than staying in stale water that has had chemicals, even if they are medicines, added. I will not advise you not to treat but do it in clean water for the fish's sake.

Hi OldMan47

Your advice is definitely more logical than what the LFS told me. I hadn't done a water change until yesterday and the water was really smelly, not because it was dirty but with the melafix. That stuff is really strong.
My cory is still alive today and has tried swimming around. He swims really fast and then has a long rest. He stills shoots himselfs upwards towards the top of the tank. I havent seen him eat today and there are no signs of any fungus on him. I will try to put some pictures of him in my next post so anyone reading my post can analyse him and then give me some advice on wether he looks like he will survive or not.
Iv'e had such a hard time looking after my fish. I set up my tank about 2 1/2 months ago and after I had the tank running for about a month I put in 2 neon tetras, 1 coud minnow and 2 bronze cory's. The next day one of my tetras was dead. I had the water tested and everything was way too high but my fish survived and once the water was right I put in another neon tetra and a betta. I have always wanted a betta since the first time I saw them but didn't put one in as my first fish because the LFS didn't have any. My betta started attacking my other fish. I phoned the petshop and told them what was happening but they said the bullying will stop after the pecking order gets sorted out. The next day I had to take out a dead tetra that the betta had killed. I took the betta and dead tetra back to the petshop and demanded they sort this out. They replaced my tetra and I bought 2 more neon tetras, 3 minnows, 2 rummy noses and a panda cory. So far I have had no more fish loss but my water PH went up really high.
Now I have started to have lots of problems all in one go. Two of my minnows have started fighting over the other two minnows which have really fat bloated bellies. They circle around them and then chase them but when they face each other they flare their fins and nip each other. Both minnows have nipped fins and if the other two are females then I'm in trouble because my tank is 27lt and I don't have enough room for anymore fish. I phoned the petshop and asked them what to do. They said I could bring the two females back and get an exchange. I don't know if this will fix the problem. I don't want to stress the females by taking them back and what if I just bring back more females. Will the boys stop fighting if the females are gone?
The other problem I am having is I noticed that one of the rummynose had a blurry looking eye. I bought the rummynoses last week. His eye looks cloudy and white and I can barely see the black part of his eye. Will the melafix help with his eye and the nipped fins on the tetras or do I need a different treatment?
I also have some VIVO CARE which has some essential salts in it. Should I use it ? I am already using The treatments that I mentioned earlier and don't want to overdose my fish.

Im sorry my posts are a bit long but I try to fit in as much info as possible so that whoever is reading can give me advice as accurate as possible.
I have just had a look at my bronze baby because I didn't get a good look this morning. He has been hiding all day. His fins do look like they have rotted away but he has come out and isn't hiding at the moment. I am waiting for my camera to charge so I can take some pictures of him.

Can someone tell me what size the pictures have to be to post on here?

hi aquababy

TBH it sounds like your tank is not cycled, if this is the case you really do need the extra water changes , an uncycled tank usually results in fish losses and unnatural behaviour from the fish, the cory may have even jumped out of the tank due to a high ammonia level for example.

A high ph will be ok as long as it isn't an extreme and it stays constant, the ammonia and nitrite are the important parameters to test for and you would benefit fom purchasing your own test kit to monitor these.

As for your cory, it sounds like it is still quite active and is still eating which are two good signs, melafix is great for healing wounds, although by just having clean water the fins should heal. I would perhaps add a dose of treatment every 2-3 days and make the water changes your priority as stated above.

For pictures if you go to www.imageshack.us you can upload the image and set the ending file size you want it to be, just select the one suitable for forums

Hi Davo86

I am so pleased with the advice I have recieved from this forum. I can't believe I wasted so much time on some other forums where I was begging for advice when my cory jumped out and got nothing , not even sympathy. I was scared to death and prayed so hard he would get better. As you said water changes are my priority now. I have managed to take some pictures and hopefully will be posting them very soon.
Could you please tell me what to do, and how to pick up and handle a fish when its jumped out its tank. Hopefully it might help others reading this post who may have had the same experiance.

Heres a picture of Stubby my brave bronze cory

And heres another of my baby

Sorry to hear about your fish. Im also sorry to say this but your tank is going to be way too small for that many fish, which may be leading to the water quality issues your having. As everyone else has said, water changes will help, as will adding melafix. Apart from the fins and tail the cory looks ok, considering whats happened to him.

You are going to have to start thinking about upgrading though. Bronze cories get quite large and require quite a bit of swimming room really. As do the other fish listed.

Just a guess but the activity you have mentioned about your minnows, could be breeding behaviour. The fat bloated bellies may be them swelling with eggs.

What is the tank temperature? If ou could also buy your own liquid test kit, it would be usefull and then you could give us the exact water stats, which should help a lot.

Hi Chris5787.

Thanks for taking a look at my fish. Youv'e lifted my spirits by saying he looks ok. I just did a water change and fed him and he started eating. I feel a lot better when I see him eating. I would like to know if his tail and fins will grow back and how long it could it take?
You said Bronze corys get big. How big do they get?
I will try to post some pictures of my minnows so you can tell me if they look like they may be carrying eggs.
my tank water temperature is about 27c 80f .
I am at the moment searching online for a good water testing kit . It should have been one of the first things I should have bought when I started fishkeeping.
I was looking at stubby and thinking how small he looks without his tail. I found his tail while i was doing the water change. I wish I could give it back to him.

aquababy said:

Hi Chris5787.

Thanks for taking a look at my fish. Youv'e lifted my spirits by saying he looks ok. I just did a water change and fed him and he started eating. I feel a lot better when I see him eating. I would like to know if his tail and fins will grow back and how long it could it take?
You said Bronze corys get big. How big do they get?
I will try to post some pictures of my minnows so you can tell me if they look like they may be carrying eggs.
my tank water temperature is about 27c 80f .
I am at the moment searching online for a good water testing kit . It should have been one of the first things I should have bought when I started fishkeeping.
I was looking at stubby and thinking how small he looks without his tail. I found his tail while i was doing the water change. I wish I could give it back to him.

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They can reach about 5-6cm but the females really bulk up. Ive got 6 in a 75 litre, and 3 of them are massive. Unsure how long it would take for his tail to grow back, just keep and eye on him to make sure it doesnt get infected. If your in the uk, a good testing kit is API master test kit. Are they white cloud minnows?

Hi Chris5787.

I had no idea that the bronze corys would get so big. I am going to start saving for a bigger tank. When I bought my fish I asked the shop assistant about how many fish I could put in a 27lt tank and she told me which fish I could put together and how many, Three days later I went back to the pet shop
and asked a different assistant the same question. I told him about the fish I had already bought and he said that was ok. I asked him if I had too many fish
in my tank, he replied no and suggested I add a few more rummynoses.!!!
Stubby still looks the same today. I had the tank water and tap water tested. The assistant that tested the water samples said the tap water ph was fine and my tank water was very good . The only thing that concerned her was the oxygen test . She said there wasnt enough oxygen in the water and suggested I buy an air pump, air stone, and non return valve. I have installed these in the tank and the fishies started playing in the air bubbles straight away.
This is a picture of my tetras and white cloud minows together. The one on the right is one of the minnows I suspect to be a female and I believe may be carrying eggs. I'll post some more pictures of her and the other female. Let me know what you think.

This is the other minnow