what are these spots on my corydora? what is the best course of action to cure him of whatever these white spots are (fungus?)?

so i have one bronze corydora that seems to be suffering from a fungus or some kind of white spot. there are two white spots on the side of his head. i thought maybe it was a physical injury, so i kept an eye on it but it has now been around a week and he still has the white spots. maybe it could be a scar but i'm not totally sure and would like to err on the side of caution. they have only slightly increased in size (if anything), and none of the other fish in the tank (2 other corydoras and 3 male endlers) have the spots. the corydora is not rubbing against anything or trying to remove it, he's acting normal, eating, etc.

i dosed some pimafix for a couple days but no changes occurred, then i had to go away for the weekend (could not cancel this trip), and came back today and it looks about the same, it has looked about the same for a week like i said. so i'm not sure if i should start pimafix again or not.

so my question is what do i do to cure him? i have heard good things about paraguard by seachem but i'm unsure if it will harm my plants or if it's okay for corydoras. i also have heard to do a water change every day to keep the water quality good so i just started that today, doing a 20% daily water change for however long i need to, unless someone thinks i should do otherwise. or maybe it is just a scar, but i would love some second opinions.

the first photo is what he looked like a week ago and the second is from today.
please help, and TIA!

Looks to be a bit fungal or excess mucus. If it was columnaris you would know about it as the rest would have it and not just him? What are your water parameters?

Aussie_Bristle said:

Looks to be a bit fungal or excess mucus. If it was columnaris you would know about it as the rest would have it and not just him? What are your water parameters?

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thanks so much for the relpy, and my apologies for not including water parameters, totally forgot.

0 ammonia 0 nitrite and around 5 nitrate

should i try out treating with pimafix again? or should i go for something like paraguard by seachem

edit: and how do i solve the mucus issue? i have heard that aloe vera can cause this, so i'm going to stop using API stresscoat + to condition that tank's water

Do a 75% water change and add salt. Don’t use chemicals if you don’t have too. Because you have cories you will need to do the low dose rate which is 2 heap tablespoons per 5 G (20 litres) of aquarium Salt, pool salt for 2 weeks. You will need to water change daily to keep the water clean, adding the salt of what you have water changed back in. After 2 weeks you will do a 10% daily water change to slowly dilute the salt from the aquarium so you don’t shock the fish.

Aussie_Bristle said:

Do a 75% water change and add salt. Don’t use chemicals if you don’t have too. Because you have cories you will need to do the low dose rate which is 2 heap tablespoons per 5 G (20 litres) of aquarium Salt, pool salt for 2 weeks. You will need to water change daily to keep the water clean, adding the salt of what you have water changed back in. After 2 weeks you will do a 10% daily water change to slowly dilute the salt from the aquarium so you don’t shock the fish.

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thank you so much, this is super appreciated and i will start everything tomorrow. i just have a couple questions to make sure that i do everything right. i do have aquarium salt on hand but not pool salt, can i just use that? and my normal water changes are like 25-30%, should i do that daily once the salt is added? finally, when you say adding the salt of the water i have changed back in, do you mean compensating for the salt removed by water changes? so for example, 2 teaspoons go into the tank the first day, i remove 25% of the water daily so i add in half a teaspoon of salt every day? or am i misinterpreting what you said.

also i have live plants and endlers in the tank, will the salt impact my plants or the other fish? i do not have a hospital tank right now so i can't really remove the cory but can do baths in the salt if that is a better option. what do you think could be causing the mucus?

again, thank you so much. sorry for so many questions

Aussie_Bristle said:

Do a 75% water change and add salt. Don’t use chemicals if you don’t have too. Because you have cories you will need to do the low dose rate which is 2 heap tablespoons per 5 G (20 litres) of aquarium Salt, pool salt for 2 weeks. You will need to water change daily to keep the water clean, adding the salt of what you have water changed back in. After 2 weeks you will do a 10% daily water change to slowly dilute the salt from the aquarium so you don’t shock the fish.

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Standard dose is only 1 tablespoon per 5 gallons of water. @Aussie_Bristle are you sure about 2 tablespoons? I’ve only had cories since April but when My fish had ich I only did 1/2 tablespoon per 5 gallons and some of my cories were still uncomfortable. I hate to question anybody but just want to be sure.
Aquarium salt is better than pool salt and in my opinion, should be what is put in a tank. It is cleaner than pool salt as it is dug from a different part of mines. Colin will argue with me but it’s true. You are correct in how to replace the salt the 2nd day. Only replace what you took out. If fungus doesn’t not improve in a few days then use an anti fungal med such as Jungle Lifesaver or Fungus Cure.

Deanasue said:

Whoa! Standard dose is only 1 tablespoon per 5 gallons of water. @Aussie_Bristle are you sure about 2 tablespoons? I’ve only had cories since April but when I My fish had ich I only did 1/2 tablespoon per 5 gallons and some of my cories were still uncomfortable. I hate to question anybody but just want to be sure.

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going to get as many opinions as i can before i commit to an actual medication plan, so thank you for your input! would you recommend this plan for the mucus (do you agree it's mucus?)? and also what do you mean by uncomfortable, could you see a difference in behavior when you added the salt? i'm just trying to make sure i dose a safe but obviously correct medication for the problem. i had another person on a different platform tell me it was mucus so i'm leaning towards it as it really doesn't seem to be bothering the corydora like a parasite or look like fungus or disease. thanks again!

edit: my first edits didn't go through so i'm editing this again haha
i will go with the aquarium salt, i've never heard of pool salt being used but then again i am relatively new to the hobby. and thanks for the clarification on the salt replacing thing. i'm not sure if it's a fungus, but i'm also not sure why the mucus would be there. i tried dosing with pimafix but nothing happened so i stopped (i also had to go away). granted i did not do a full course of the pimafix, but i had used it before in the past for only a couple of days and it did work, making me think it's not a fungus.

I’ve always done the low rate as Colin has suggested and never had a problem @Deanasue but hey if you suggest 1 table spoon then lets go with that.

lavathebetta said:

going to get as many opinions as i can before i commit to an actual medication plan, so thank you for your input! would you recommend this plan for the mucus (do you agree it's mucus?)? and also what do you mean by uncomfortable, could you see a difference in behavior when you added the salt? i'm just trying to make sure i dose a safe but obviously correct medication for the problem. i had another person on a different platform tell me it was mucus so i'm leaning towards it as it really doesn't seem to be bothering the corydora like a parasite or look like fungus or disease. thanks again!

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. In all of my years, I have never dealt with a mucous problem but it seems to be getting popular on this forum. I assume it means excess slime coat. Salt promotes slime coat so I’m confused on this one. I’m not going to be much help with that diagnosis. I was just concerned with the salt doseage. I’m going to let Aussie_Bristle help you with that. My apologies.

Deanasue said:

. In all of my years, I have never dealt with a mucous problem but it seems to be getting popular on this forum. I assume it means excess slime coat. Salt promotes slime coat so I’m confused on this one. I’m not going to be much help with that diagnosis. I was just concerned with the salt doseage. I’m going to let Aussie_Bristle help you with that. My apologies.

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no problem, thank you for your input on the salt thing tho, don't want to make my fish uncomfy!
have you seen other treatments for the extra mucus recommended recently?

I have no experience at all with this. Never had to deal with it and not familiar with it. I’m sorry.

Deanasue said:

I have no experience at all with this. Never had to with it and not familiar with it. I’m sorry.

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no problem! and sorry for all the questions, this is the last one i promise
are the two fungal meds you recommended plant safe? i saw some other pics of fish with extra mucus and it looked more see thru than what my corydora has, so maybe it's just weird fungus.

I really don’t want to step in where someone else has been helping you. Salt should help fungus too. If not then yes, my plants do fine with these meds. Give it a few days and follow Aussies instructions other than doseage. There is a Slime Dsease which is parasitic but your fish don’t have it. Some good news.

Sometimes these guys can get scorched off the heater in your tank. I have had this when the heater is lying across the back of the tank near the bottom and it comes on. Just like a little burn. Nothing to worry about will go away on its own.

itiwhetu said:

Sometimes these guys can get scorched off the heater in your tank. I have had this when the heater is lying across the back of the tank near the bottom and it comes on. Just like a little burn. Nothing to worry about will go away on its own.

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good to know, i did put the heater in the tank (didn't need it before bc summer made the house warm enough to not need it) around the same time that i noticed the white spots, so it certainly is a possibility. the only thing is why has it not healed in a week? and it seems to be mildly worse, but maybe that is how burns work on fish? i've never had a fish burned before so i am unsure.

regardless i am going to go ahead with the salt treatment but cut the dose in half and monitor it closely. i know salt can be beneficial for all sorts of things (like physical injuries and fungus) so it hopefully will deal with whatever those weird marks are. thanks so much for the info and reply!