Bacterial Infection?

[ravekiss]

I've been noticing some wierd behavior from my Schwartz cory recently and upon taking a closer look I think he may have a bacterial infection around his barbel/ mouth area. Firstly I thought it maybe because I have gravel but he's been in the tank for about 2 weeks and this only now happens, all the other corys are fine. Could it be the gravel? I wish I could change to sand but right now I cant. Another thing is, he's always swimming mid level and only goes down for little periods and at feeding time. While he's at mid level he's mostly in one spot and doesnt really move around. I'm on my 2nd dose of Jungle Fungas Clear right now because my black mollies had a kind of white fungas. It disappeared after the first treatment but when I noticed this cory I decided to do one more treatment after changing 25% of the water. According to the fungas clear, it treats and prevents bacterial infections. On the last picture is one of my albino corys. If you look closely at his tail fin, it looks as if someone took a bite of the bottom. Its definitely not fin rot. I cant remember if it was there when I bought him last weekend or it happened within the last few days. I doubt it was there when I bought him though because I would have noticed it. What do you guys think happened there? Sorry for the long post but I wanted to explain in details. Help me figure out what happened with these 2 corys. Will the fungas clear help them both? (it says for fin rot too, just incase the albino does have fin rot). Thanks in advance for the help I know I'll get from the wonderful people at this forum.

Schwartz Cory Pics

Albino

 

[Miss Dib Dabs]

Can you give tank stats and residents? Looks like he's hurthimself or been hurt, hence not wanting to be on the bottom. Neither would we if we hurt there! I'd personally try melafix. Great for healing the fish up and should help the albino too. Remember to remove the carbon if there's some in the filter.
Is it possible one of the other residents has been picking on him and the albino? It's so easy to miss trouble (so I found out myself recently).
Good luck with them.
Hugs,
P.

 

[ravekiss]

Ammonia 0, Nitrites 0, Nitrates 30. the other inhabitants are mostly guppies, a few mollies, platys & swords, also a few other corys. I really cant see any of the livebearers picking at them.

 

[ravekiss]

I'm thinking about treating with an antibiotic after receiving some advice...should I isolate the corys and treat them or should I treat the entire tank? If I treat only the corys..I'll treat them all because I've been having cory trouble lately...

 

[Teelie]

Treat the whole tank. Better safe than sorry if the infection spreads.

 

[ravekiss]

I was told that antibiotics had an effect on bacteria and established systems...which antibiotic is best?

 

[Teelie]

I used Maracyn and Maracyn II on my cory tank with no ill effects to the bacteria or snails. It's safe to use without harming beneficial bacteria. Something to do with affecting only the type of bacteria that are harmful.

 

[WILDER]

It looks bad you could issolate the sick fish and add tetracycline so it won't wipe the bacteria colony out in your tank, and do some daily water changes on the main tank.

 

[ravekiss]

I also think it might be best to isolate the corys because right now I'm treating the mollies in the main tank with fungas clear and I only started the 2nd treatment yesterday. I only have a 1g tank to treat in...I dont have a hospital.

 

[WILDER]

It's not ideal, but that infection is bad and it needs a good antibiotic, as you don't want more problems of the antibiotic wiping your baceria colony out in the main tank, good luck.

 

[ravekiss]

He died during a water change..I guess it was too much for him.

 

[Elisabeth83]

I'm going through the same thing with my cories ravekiss although mines mouths arn't as bad as yours was

It starts off with chunks just missing from the fins..just like your albino in the last pic. At first I thought it was my other fish biting the cories but within a day (literally 1 day) they lost their barbels and more pieces of fin.

At the moment I'm treating mine with JBL furanol and today they are looking a lot better. Yesterday I was sure I was going to loose one of them.

Just make sure to keep the treatment going for awhile. This is actually my second time treating mine in the last 3 weeks. The first time I used JBL ektol fluid for about 8 days and their barbels were growing back and there fins were all grown back so I finished the treatment but then last week the bacterial infection struck again. Now I am hitting it hard with the Furanol and I'm going to treat for at least 8-12 days just to kill it good.

I'm sorry your one guy died...but I hope your other one pulls through

 

[ravekiss]

Unfortunately I cannot get Furanol here in the US...it sounds like a great product.

 

[WILDER]

R.I.P.little cory.