Cory with wound and fuzzy growth, worms in tank

Hello there. I hope that you might be able to assist me. This morning when I was tending to my aquariums I found a dark worm crawling along my substrate. I promptly plucked him out. Then I noticed that one of my Corydoras was hiding and had a wound on the side of her body and it has some stringy/cottony growth over it. I currently have her acclimating to my hospital tank and I'm trying to decide on what medication to use. I have API E.M, general cure, fin and body, pimafix and melafix. I also have some fritz fungal medicine to be delivered at some point today. After removing her I found a second worm that I plucked out and took pictures of. Can anyone help me find out what kind of worm it is and if it injured the Cory?

I've only found the two worms and I'm watching the tank like a hawk in case there's more.

29 g aquarium with aqueon 20 quiet flow (this tank is about 3-4 months old)
pH 7.4
0 ppm ammonia, 0 ppm nitrites, 5 ppm nitrates
Stocking: 1 endler guppy, 1 black neon tetra, 3 Corydoras catfish, 3 otocinclus catfish, 5 Kuhli Loaches and soon to be 5 platys
Moderately planted, added duckweed within the past 2 weeks from the pet store that I treated with an alum powder bath before adding

Forgot to add: gh 120 kh 80

I don't know pf a better id for the worm than "insect larva".
My belief is that that worm had nothing to do with the injury on the cory, and that most likely came with the plants which were recently added. Although undesirable and ugly looking, I doubt it is harmful as is.

Regarding the cory - There appears to be a secondary fungal infection upon a physical injury. I would do daily water changes and apply salt until the fungus recedes. The injury should heal with frequent wsater changes and pristine conditions.
Good luck!

Dosnt look like anything ive seen before...

FranciscoB said:

I don't know pf a better id for the worm than "insect larva".
My belief is that that worm had nothing to do with the injury on the cory, and that most likely came with the plants which were recently added. Although undesirable and ugly looking, I doubt it is harmful as is.

Regarding the cory - There appears to be a secondary fungal infection upon a physical injury. I would do daily water changes and apply salt until the fungus recedes. The injury should heal with frequent wsater changes and pristine conditions.
Good luck!

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About how much salt should I add? I contemplated adding salt when I did the 10% water change prior to acclimating her but I was concerned about how the Cory would react to the salt

connorlindeman said:

Dosnt look like anything ive seen before...

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It's all super strange. I've been keeping fish for about a year now but I still feel like such a novice.

That is 100% a fungal infection that developed on an open wound. I wouldn't dose the salt, cories are scaleless and don't have great salt tolerance. I would do frequent WCs and dose the qt tank with the fungal meds.

Valkyrie_Lips said:

That is 100% a fungal infection that developed on an open wound. I wouldn't dose the salt, cories are scaleless and don't have great salt tolerance. I would do frequent WCs and dose the qt tank with the fungal meds.

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Roger that, should I dose the pimafix or wait until my Fritz stuff comes in and medicate with that?

ChibiFish said:

Roger that, should I dose the pimafix or wait until my Fritz stuff comes in and medicate with that?

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I would just wait until you get your Fritz since you said it should be delivered today.

I agree with all advisement given.
But.... while cories may not be as salt tolerant as many other fish, most cories do take salt just fine, within reason, if needed.
What is critical is stopping ASAP all tissue degeneration from the fungal infection, and lower the fungal load in the tank (salt +water changes), and allow healing of old and production of new healthy tissue. Somer salt helps all that, and harms none. The requirement is that the cory is still in sufficiently good condition to eat, and otherwise live.

Lil Cory is in the 10g hospital tank now. I did add 2.5 tsp of aquarium salt to the water and I wanted her to get relief ASAP so I decided to treat with Pimafix and Melafix. I guess my question to the Pimafix and Melafix is how often to change the water? The instructions say dose daily. But should I be doing water changes in between doses?

She seems happy in the hospital tank right now. She's swimming around and exploring.

I just added my platies to my 29 gallon since they are finished with their quarantine so I want to wait at least a day or two before I do a water change in the big tank but I know it needs to have a change.

I figure if she doesn't show signs of improvement with the P/M treatment then we will do a water change and shift gears to using the Fritz.

Imo there's no point in dosing both melafix and pimafix. Melafix is geared towards treating minor bacterial infections not fungal. You don't want to throw a bunch of meds at the problem because it can be hard on the fish. Instead you want to use the medication that will be most effective to minimize the stress you put the fish through. In this case the most effective medication would be the Fritz. Once you get your fungal meds I would do a couple of big WCs to remove all the salt and meds currently in the tank and dose with that instead.

FranciscoB said:

I agree with all advisement given.
But.... while cories may not be as salt tolerant as many other fish, most cories do take salt just fine, within reason, if needed.
What is critical is stopping ASAP all tissue degeneration from the fungal infection, and lower the fungal load in the tank (salt +water changes), and allow healing of old and production of new healthy tissue. Somer salt helps all that, and harms none. The requirement is that the cory is still in sufficiently good condition to eat, and otherwise live.

Click to expand...

I know cories can tolerate some salt, but imo fungal meds are a better option since you would need a higher dose of salt to effectively treat it. When I used salt to treat a fungal infection on my betta I used 2 tablespoons per 5 gallons which is a concentration that a cory would not tolerate at all. OP has the fish in a hospital tank so there shouldn't be any fungal load in the new tank and they are getting better fungal meds delivered today.

Water change complete, charcoal filter back in place (instructions said to maintain normal filtration) and Fritz Maracyn Oxy added. Fingers crossed that she will be well on her way to healing. It would break my heart to lose her. Thank you guys so much for your responses and your help! I greatly appreciate it

The fish has Saprolegnia fungus on a wound. Salt would have been the treatment of choice but it's too late now.

In future if you see fungus, salt should treat it quickly and safely. Dose rates are below.

You need to find out how the fish was injured so it doesn't happen again.

You have a single tetra in the tank and it needs to be in a group of 10 or more.

Your GH is a bit low for platies. They do better with a GH around 200ppm.

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SALT
You can add rock salt (often sold as aquarium salt) or swimming pool salt to the aquarium at the dose rate of 1 heaped tablespoon per 20 litres of water. If there is no improvement after 48 hours you can double that dose rate so there is 2 heaped tablespoons of salt per 20 litres.

Keep the salt level like this for at least 2 weeks but no longer than 4 weeks otherwise kidney damage can occur. Kidney damage is more likely to occur in fish from soft water (tetras, Corydoras, angelfish, Bettas & gouramis, loaches) that are exposed to high levels of salt for an extended period of time, and is not an issue with livebearers, rainbowfish or other salt tolerant species.

The salt will not affect the beneficial filter bacteria, fish, plants, shrimp or snails.

After you use salt and the fish have recovered, you do a 10% water change each day for a week using only fresh water that has been dechlorinated. Then do a 20% water change each day for a week. Then you can do bigger water changes after that. This dilutes the salt out of the tank slowly so it doesn't harm the fish.

If you do water changes while using salt, you need to treat the new water with salt before adding it to the tank. This will keep the salt level stable in the tank and minimise stress on the fish.

When you first add salt, add the salt to a small bucket of tank water and dissolve the salt. Then slowly pour the salt water into the tank near the filter outlet. Add the salt over a couple of minutes.