one of my corydoras has a hole in his side, another has a fungus?

Kanaplex may need to be half dosed for cories, ive not used it being in Canada without medications here. But I know its one of the easier to get antibiotics for fish in the USA which is why I recommended that one to try.

Ive had a cory with a similar scrape as the paleatus here, I opted to use Tetra Ich Guard at half dose... its Malachite green and acriflavine. Im very limited to medications, but acriflavine has antibacterial properties, so it was my best choice of what I have. For me it worked very well, but again Malachite green is what needs to be halved with scaleless fish. Malachite green will work for fungal and external parasites okay, but I used it for the acriflavine.

Kanaplex is a much better medication. You could do a dip bath 2x a day at half dose, monitor for signs of distress if you feel this is best.

You can alternatively find another antibiotic available to you.


I will also suggest you pick up some Indian almond leaves and alder cones. The tannins would be very beneficial towards cories healing as well. Both antibacterial properties and antifungal.

Fishiemang said:

I have had oto's in a.10 gallon. They were perfectly fine. They only get an inch long. They like heavily planted tanks.

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Fishiemang said:

I've not.found special care.needs...but....is what it is.

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Otos are one of my favourite fish, so it's a bit of a passion project for me. A planted ten gallon could work, I have my five in a 15 gallon right now, and plan to add some more otos soon, since I used to have eight in there, without problems.

Mainly, I didn't want OP to add any new fish while dealing with an illness, is all. Never good to bring new fish into a tank with a health issue. But even the smallest pleco needs larger than a ten gallon, which was my main concern.

If OP wanted otos, I'd go on at length about their needs and pros and cons etc, because they're one of the most mistreated fish in the hobby. Not accusing OP or you of any of this BTW, just that many people often buy them only as tank cleaners, only get one or two, many starve to death in brand new tanks, or because they've eaten all the available green algae they will eat, but the owner expects them to survive on black beard or hair algae, not knowing that otos won't eat those, so they don't supplement their diet. Many only buy one or two, when otos are a schooling fish, or they don't know how sensitive otos are to swings in water parameters.

Also that a lot of people buy some, and lose them almost immediately. Since all the otos in the trade are wild caught - often after being stunned with cyanide - then kept in big warehouse tanks with little available food, shipped without food, then go into clean store tanks without algae, only being fed once or twice a day, they're often incredibly stressed and half starved by the time someone buys them. Losses are common. I like to prepare people for that so they can cultivate some algae in a quarantine tank, have supplemental foods, and check the otos in the store for round tummies and healthy fins.

So no, they're not super difficult, but they deserve more than they frequently get. A well planted, stable and established tank and a decent sized group being most important.

AdoraBelle Dearheart said:

Otos are one of my favourite fish, so it's a bit of a passion project for me. A planted ten gallon could work, I have my five in a 15 gallon right now, and plan to add some more otos soon, since I used to have eight in there, without problems.

Mainly, I didn't want OP to add any new fish while dealing with an illness, is all. Never good to bring new fish into a tank with a health issue. But even the smallest pleco needs larger than a ten gallon, which was my main concern.

If OP wanted otos, I'd go on at length about their needs and pros and cons etc, because they're one of the most mistreated fish in the hobby. Not accusing OP or you of any of this BTW, just that many people often buy them only as tank cleaners, only get one or two, many starve to death in brand new tanks, or because they've eaten all the available green algae they will eat, but the owner expects them to survive on black beard or hair algae, not knowing that otos won't eat those, so they don't supplement their diet. Many only buy one or two, when otos are a schooling fish, or they don't know how sensitive otos are to swings in water parameters.

Also that a lot of people buy some, and lose them almost immediately. Since all the otos in the trade are wild caught - often after being stunned with cyanide - then kept in big warehouse tanks with little available food, shipped without food, then go into clean store tanks without algae, only being fed once or twice a day, they're often incredibly stressed and half starved by the time someone buys them. Losses are common. I like to prepare people for that so they can cultivate some algae in a quarantine tank, have supplemental foods, and check the otos in the store for round tummies and healthy fins.

So no, they're not super difficult, but they deserve more than they frequently get. A well planted, stable and established tank and a decent sized group being most important.

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i actually looked into otos and did the research, but i already don't have a great number of corydoras in the tank (going to get more and split the numbers up between 2 tanks) and don't want to overstock. also yeah i would never bring a new fish into a tank with a sick fish (now 2 sick fish ). it took like 2 minutes for me to use my algae scraper and scrape the algae off anyways so it's not even a huge deal for me. also, here are the pics of the one with the fungus (?). i think these are a bit better and hopefully you can make something out of them. thanks again!

NCaquatics said:

Kanaplex may need to be half dosed for cories, ive not used it being in Canada without medications here. But I know its one of the easier to get antibiotics for fish in the USA which is why I recommended that one to try.

Ive had a cory with a similar scrape as the paleatus here, I opted to use Tetra Ich Guard at half dose... its Malachite green and acriflavine. Im very limited to medications, but acriflavine has antibacterial properties, so it was my best choice of what I have. For me it worked very well, but again Malachite green is what needs to be halved with scaleless fish. Malachite green will work for fungal and external parasites okay, but I used it for the acriflavine.

Kanaplex is a much better medication. You could do a dip bath 2x a day at half dose, monitor for signs of distress if you feel this is best.

You can alternatively find another antibiotic available to you.


I will also suggest you pick up some Indian almond leaves and alder cones. The tannins would be very beneficial towards cories healing as well. Both antibacterial properties and antifungal.

Click to expand...

good tip with the botannicals. was looking to get some for my betta so i'll try to grab some. paraguard has the malachite green and aldehyde in it, not sure if that works but i'll think about the kanaplex. are there any other specific antibiotics you recommend (like furan 2, etc)? thanks so much

Id try whatever is easiest to get first and which is the safest for scaleless fish.

Given a read, I'd go furan.

Maracyn and maracyn 2 are also options.

lavathebetta said:

i actually looked into otos and did the research, but i already don't have a great number of corydoras in the tank (going to get more and split the numbers up between 2 tanks) and don't want to overstock. also yeah i would never bring a new fish into a tank with a sick fish (now 2 sick fish ). it took like 2 minutes for me to use my algae scraper and scrape the algae off anyways so it's not even a huge deal for me. also, here are the pics of the one with the fungus (?). i think these are a bit better and hopefully you can make something out of them. thanks again!

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Yeah, still doesn't look fungal, I'd say it's either a scrape with some excess slime coat where she's healing over, or it's potentially the same bacterial problem the other one has. Hopefully whichever meds you choose will help them both. Keep an eye and keep us updated, see how they improve or worsten over the next few days.

Keep up with large daily changes and gravel vac-ing the substrate over the next few days, lots of fresh water is the main key to improving fish health, it gives them the best conditions for their own immune system to kick in and fight off infections. Feed good quality food too, some live or frozen food would help build them up.

Good luck! And please do keep us updated

NCaquatics said:

Id try whatever is easiest to get first and which is the safest for scaleless fish.

Given a read, I'd go furan.

Maracyn and maracyn 2 are also options.

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everything will arrive the same day (saturday) so i honestly might just get both. i hate spending all this money but really want to save my fish. also, i added in some pictures in the thread in another comment about the corydora who i think has a fungus. what would you recommend doing for that? furan 2 doesn't treat fungus but kanaplex does. that's my last question i promise, i really appreciate all the help

AdoraBelle Dearheart said:

Yeah, still doesn't look fungal, I'd say it's either a scrape with some excess slime coat where she's healing over, or it's potentially the same bacterial problem the other one has. Hopefully whichever meds you choose will help them both. Keep an eye and keep us updated, see how they improve or worsten over the next few days.

Keep up with large daily changes and gravel vac-ing the substrate over the next few days, lots of fresh water is the main key to improving fish health, it gives them the best conditions for their own immune system to kick in and fight off infections. Feed good quality food too, some live or frozen food would help build them up.

Good luck! And please do keep us updated

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thank you so much, i'll be sure to update you guys. and i'll follow your advice about the water changes. i'll add in some aquarium salt as well. i really appreciate all the help, thank you! i can't get frozen food right now but i'll feed more of my new life spectrum pellets which i know are better (i have some bottom feeder pellets that aren't too good so maybe i'll cut those out for now). thanks again!

edit: what made me think it was a fungus is that it started out small and grew. not sure if that means anything

lavathebetta said:

thank you so much, i'll be sure to update you guys. and i'll follow your advice about the water changes. i'll add in some aquarium salt as well. i really appreciate all the help, thank you! i can't get frozen food right now but i'll feed more of my new life spectrum pellets which i know are better (i have some bottom feeder pellets that aren't too good so maybe i'll cut those out for now). thanks again!

edit: what made me think it was a fungus is that it started out small and grew. not sure if that means anything

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Understandable! It can be hard to tell sometimes But bacterial infections can spread too, and fungal infections tend to happen on a wound or injury, and look distinctively fluffy. If you google image search for fish fungal infections, you'll see the difference.

I hope they show signs of improvement soon!

Ask as many questions as you want, if you feel its important, its always good to ask.

And tbh that one scrape is exactly what my paleatus cory had, its bacterial.

Tannins from the leaves and an antibiotic should clear it up pretty good.
The other guy is worse off, but he's the one I think tannins alone aren't enough in his case. So best to treat both with an antibiotic

NCaquatics said:

Ask as many questions as you want, if you feel its important, its always good to ask.

And tbh that one scrape is exactly what my paleatus cory had, its bacterial.

Tannins from the leaves and an antibiotic should clear it up pretty good.
The other guy is worse off, but he's the one I think tannins alone aren't enough in his case. So best to treat both with an antibiotic

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ordering some indian almond leaves off of etsy, they should get here next week. going to either get the furan 2 or the kanaplex (leaning towards the furan 2).

would you recommend doing baths, mixing the meds in with food, treating the whole tank, or a mix? thanks again

edit: got IAL off of amazon so they can get here quicker, they get here on sat

Id treat the tank, since the one is so severe.

But save some of your filter media separately so you can re-seed it. You may get a mini cycle but its better than fully losing it.

Alternatively you can move the affected fish to a hospital tank and treat that instead

NCaquatics said:

Id treat the tank, since the one is so severe.

But save some of your filter media separately so you can re-seed it. You may get a mini cycle but its better than fully losing it.

Alternatively you can move the affected fish to a hospital tank and treat that instead

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yep, i got a pack of airline connectors so that i can remove some of the media, then i'm going to put it in a separate tank and put an airstone in that (i only have one airpump that is in use in my betta tank so i just got some connectors). going to put old tank water in that tank so the bb has some food. hopefully that will keep the bb going, and i have a bottle of seachem stability on hand as well. thanks so much!

Don't use anti-biotics at half dose. Always follow the directions exactly.

Improper use and mis-use (including under dosing) of anti-biotics has lead to drug resistant bacteria that kill birds, fish, people, animals and reptiles.

Colin_T said:

Don't use anti-biotics at half dose. Always follow the directions exactly.

Improper use and mis-use (including under dosing) of anti-biotics has lead to drug resistant bacteria that kill birds, fish, people, animals and reptiles.

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good to know, i'll follow the directions to a T. thanks again, you have been super helpful and hopefully my fish can be saved. he is a bit inactive but still eating, i hope he can hold on until the meds come in (Saturday). thanks again!