Rescued Cory, cotton mouth or barb infection?

Background: Rescued fish and tank in a really bad state a month ago. One Cory and one neon tetra in 30L tank.

I have been doing 30% conditioned water changes twice a week as advised by local aquarium shop. Plus gradually gravel cleaning one end of the tank at the same time, doing gradually to prevent ammonia spikes. ( Plan to removing gravel once clean and putting sand there for the cory.)

Tank looks much cleaner, but struggle with very hard /mineral rich water and keeping nitrates low due to lots of rotting poo/food accumulated on and under the gravel! Filter was washed out in bucket of aquarium water and looking healthier now, had hair algae flowing out of it!

Cory was doing better but noe looks unwell!

A few days ago spotted issue with Cory's mouth. Mouth looks wide open and he was opening it wide and closing it. Have good water flow, bubble stone and sponge filter and neon tetra who is in tank is very happy. So don't this oxygen is the issue, never seen him gulp air from the surface. I moved a plant a week about and it sadly disturbed the beds lots due to root system, filter did it's job and cleared it and I did a 40% water change as worried about amonia spoke. Worried that has a spike in some bad bacteria maybe?

Cory has also been hiding in pebble cave last three days, which worried me as usually more active. Aquarium place said looked like cotton mouth so treated with aqua care anti fungus and white spot.

To me his barbs look small so wonder if bruises or damaged on gravel? See photo.

Since treating yesterday afternoon though he has been active again. Been out of the pebble cave, sat in his new favourite spot at front of tank, and old fav spot behind some drift wood. Also investigating tank a bit more. Not seen him eat much though, wonder if I should put something flat at one end of tank with food in it tonight to see if he eats it?

On 7th day if still looks the same should I consider antibiotics and infected mouth? Or seeing that he perked up right after treatment continue with another 7 days if not better. Neon looks fine, nothing on him.

Also, worried about not doing water change during the 7 days treatment though!

I have also blacked out 1/3 tank, to help him feel happier while he mends.

Plans for getting tank and fish healthier: I have some floating plants on their way ( in floating ring to contain it) and java fern on its way to absorb some of the high nutrients in the water and help deal with algae and make tank more neon friendly. Also will be buying 25l of zero minerals water from local centre this weekend and using that with conditioned tap water to try during water changes to try and lower nutrient/nitrate levels. Can't wait to give the Cory his sand area too.

My plan is once tank levels are better and fish healthier to gradually add more neon tetras. Would like Cory to have buddies too to be happier but assuming I will need a bigger tank?

He has alway just been one Cory in tank apparently there were more tetras but they died.

If it's cotton mouth, an anti fungal won't work. I looked up the med (different country, different meds) and it's an ich treatment. It isn't a good idea for what you are describing. Okay, it's a bad idea. I think you have a shop clerk who is trying to help, but guessing. Cotton mouth is a bacterial disease needing antibiotics, and I don't believe you can get them there (you can't here).

I disagree with the advice on stabilizing the tank, too. I would net the two fish, put them in jars and do a quick over all gravel vacuum. If you change 70%, so be it. Or, keeping the filter and rocks etc most, change the gravel now. 100% new water, if properly treated for chlorine or chloramines, will do good. I'm assuming the tank has London tap, and you've done a couple of 30% changes already, so you won't have wild fluctuations in water chemistry.

Really, you can hope it isn't cotton mouth and is just an angry looking bump, keep the water clean and move on.

BTW - you want to see Corys going to the surface. They're air breathers. If your fish recovers over the next few weeks, identify the species, change out the gravel and try to find the same Cory species. A 30L tank is tiny for social fish like Corys, but you can't ethically rehome a fish suspected of Columnaris disease as it can lie dormant and flare up later if you beat it back.

Corys and neons need to be in groups, but there's no room for groups in a 30L. Hmmm.

Thanks Gary, really appreciate your advice.

After three days hiding he has perked up since the treatment, or do you think that might be coincidence?

Will watch levels and do another change within the 7 days if he needs to keep water as clean as possible for him.

I'm seriously toying with getting a larger tank. If he survives that will be the next plan and that will have a sand bed. Will set up new tank and cycle it and simply move them over and gradually add buddies. If he doesn't survive I will be really sad but will stick to just tetras in the current tank, say just 4 more buddies.

Here is a video..hope the Vimeo link works
Short video of cory

I can't watch the video as I have to create an account to view it. But looking at one of the photos you posted, the fish circled in red, is that the fish you call a cory? That's a loach rather than a cory, though I don't know which one.

Edit - possibly Botia almorhae aka Botia lohachata, the yoyo or Pakistani loach. The ID matters if you wish to keep the fish and need more of the same species.

I did not see that!
Old eyes - can't trust 'em. It is a loach.

Thank you @Essjay and @GaryE .

I'd been struggling to figure out what Cory he was, no wonder!

Will start reading up on loaches.

Have taken screen shot from video. To me mouth doesn't look 'cotton wooly' just stick open? See bottom of this post for photos.

I have just read that loaches like warmer temperatures. He often squeezes himself next to heater face down and has air bubbles flow over him. When I rescued him that was all he ever did, since doing water changes he has become more active.

I'm leaning towards catching the neon and loach and doing a big tank clean up, especially seeing that it seems unlikely to have been ich so meds yesterday not doing anything? Plus, if bacterial infection cleaner water would be better anyway.

Just don't want to stress them out too much, but figure tank perimeters might be doing that anyway, and lesser evil?

Aquariums centre said very high in minerals and nitrates and I'd just done 30% water change when I took them a sample. Plus decaying matter at bottom of tank adding to it.

Does his mouth look normal apart from being open?

Look up Botia almorhae on these websites

These loaches are variable in their patterning but even if it's a different species, their requirements will be similar.

One thing which does stand out to me is that London usually had very hard water and both your adopted fish are soft water fish. Look on your water company's website. Searching for 'hardness' will give you something to compare the fish profiles with - look for a number and the unit of measurement as there are several and fish keeping uses just two of them. And look for your water quality report, and nitrate in that table. The tap water nitrate level is the lowest the tank nitrate can get by doing water changes.

Essjay said:

Look up Botia almorhae on these websites

Knowledge Base — Seriously Fish

www.seriouslyfish.com

Loaches Online - Community Edition — Loaches Online

www.loaches.com

These loaches are variable in their patterning but even if it's a different species, their requirements will be similar.

One thing which does stand out to me is that London usually had very hard water and both your adopted fish are soft water fish. Look on your water company's website. Searching for 'hardness' will give you something to compare the fish profiles with - look for a number and the unit of measurement as there are several and fish keeping uses just two of them. And look for your water quality report, and nitrate in that table. The tap water nitrate level is the lowest the tank nitrate can get by doing water changes.

Click to expand...

Thank you, the water is really hard plus also decaying matter bottom of tank adding to it.
I 'm going to get some of what the neutral water from the aquarium shop on Saturday ( need boyfriend and his car as mine broken) and start to regularly use that with 1/2 with conditioned tap water. Boyfriend just mentioned old flat mate use to have a white tank of water that he used to use, nice to have known that earlier!

Would you do tank clean water with conditioned tap water and say 30% old tank water so not too much of a shock for them level wise and then a few days later do say a 30% change using water from the aquarium to lower the hardness? Then every change after replace 30% changes with half of tap/half aquarium bought water?

Don't want to stress them by catching them, the tank changes and water perimeters all in one go!

Doing 30% water change today and then getting equipment / set up ready to catch them and do mega clean this Friday. Will set up sand area too at one end of tank while at it for the loach. Sand arrived in post today for him.


Thank you for your help, hoping a cleaner tank will result in happier healthier loach, then I can persuade the boyfriend to get a bigger tank and then go sand substrate and get them some more buddies. I'm reading up that they are happier with company and want to give them a better life.

There are some issues here (obviously). First, I agree with Gary on not taking your time getting the tank/water in good shape. There is only the issue of parameters (being GH, pH and temperature) and ammonia to fuss over. These parameters may well be significantly different, but you want to know what they are in the tank water and the tap water you will be using (including any "pure" water added in). Temperature you can obviously manage. But the GH and pH must be reasonably the same, and if yes, major water changes are OK--with one proviso. And that is ammonia. If there is ammonia in the tank water, the pH governs its toxicity. In low pH (below 7) it is ammonium which is relatively harmless; but in basic pH (above 7) it is ammonia which is deadly toxic depending upon the pH.

Nitrates if present should be reduced immediately, to as close to zero as you can. Nitrate is toxic to fish, it just acts slowly; but there is no value whatever in slowly reducing high nitrate. Just keep the parameter/amonia issue in mind here.

Dig into the substrate thoroughly during any water changes, and get the detritus out as fast as you can.

Looking to the future...the loach is probably Botia almorhae, commonly called Yo-Yo Loach. This must have a group of five or six minimum. However, there are issues and just adding more may not work. The present loach is highly stressed, that is clear. This means increased aggression is probable, and this species is a bit feisty to begin with. This loach may or may not welcome others. We can discuss this before you make any decisions, but the first thing is to get the tank in shape.

I did 30% tap water change (conditioned) and his mouth has now closed and he seems much happier. I think amonia spikes from filthy gravel is my ongoing issue.

Will take them out tank and do mega clean tomorrow afternoon now. Too much yuck will come up with them in there. Catching will be fun!

Nitrite is 0. Nitrate is 20. PH is between 7.5 and 8. Kh 120 GH 180.

Don't want to PH shock them so will use a small % of KO water in the future to bring down hardness once tank cleaned and amonia started to get sorted. Aim to try and do one small change at a time. Is it worth me getting an amonia alarm too perhaps?

Once sorted and happier levels will chat on here about getting bigger tank and perhaps more buddies and how to do that. Or look to re-home him perhaps if I can't persuade the boyfriend to let me get a bigger tank and explore how to add new buddies.

Appreciate everyone's support and no judgement, just want to move things gradually in a better direction for these poor guys. Had zero knowledge before but had a hunch the set up was not great, but realising more and more as I research and ask questions it is quite cruel and now on a mission to sort it.

Is it also worth me getting more bacteria? I found a bottle of stress zyme but it has expired!

Most bottled bacteria doesn't do much. Trust your filter since you only have 2 fish.

A 30 ltr is easy to clean...

Do all your work with tapwater, as buying water will get tedious, and get overlooked, and you will end up with bouncing water readings. That isn't good for fish.

Plain tap water is GH 30 KH 80, ph 7.5 0 nitrite and 20 nitrate

RescueNewbie said:

Is it also worth me getting more bacteria? I found a bottle of stress zyme but it has expired!

Click to expand...

The only bacterial supplements that are viable (= actually do work) are Dr. Tim's One and Only, and Tetra's SafeStart (this is Dr. Tim's formula). The SafeStart can be used with fish in the tank, but the other is intended for cycling without fish as you add ammonia.

RescueNewbie said:

Plain tap water is GH 30 KH 80

Click to expand...

What is the unit of measurement? In the two units used in fishkeeping, 30 ppm (also called mg/l calcium carbonate) = very soft while 30 dH (or German degrees) = very hard.