Barbel erosion treatment

[Beastije]

Hi, so back to this topic. I have seen many topics that cory has barbel erosion, fungus and it most often is fatal. I would say it may not be the case, as mine has been missing barbels for almost two months now, and it is even feeding and is still very much alive.

However, today I noticed, either it contracted fungus in the opened part or, the fact it is burrowing in the sand with its whole snout now is causing further erosion to the snout, not just the barbels.

I am contemplating moving it to a different place and do a quick treatment. I just am not sure where. I cant move it to any of my other tanks, cause one also has sand and semi aggressive bottom fish, and the other may be just shrimp and loads of algae, but it has some sort of black round sand of larger dimensions that has not been cleaned in forever and would not help with the treatment.
Bare bottom seems like the best option for me for now.

I can take some plastic box but that means it would have to be heater/less and judging by my other tanks that would put it at 21°C at this moment. The fish is currently at 27°C. I could also properly clean one of the empty tanks I inherited, which is 80cm long, 30cm wide but also only 30 cm tall. That one I could put a heater in as it is glass and wont break. I could either put in an air filter because I think i have a spare one with a new ish sponge. Or I can keep it filter less and do a 50% water change daily. I could add hornwort to keep excess nutrients in check.
The question is again, if I should add more cories, like 3 lets say, so it is not fully alone, or just keep the one in. I would put in some sort of cave/hiding space to prevent stress for sure.

Secondly, if I should do a salt treatment, or a fungus treatment, or instead dump in bunch of decaying leaves to release tanins to help heal. Also for how long should I separate it in order to achieve improvement. He is blind but feeding semi normally, no sunken belly, no sign of hunger either.

 

[Beastije]

made some (poor quality) pictures

 

[Byron]

Corydoras barbel erosio9n can be due to more than one thing, and treatment varies accordingly.

If it is the sharpness of the substrate material--and let me be very clear, this may be the issue even if in your hand it "seems" non-rough; I know, I destroyed the barbels on a group of 7 cories by using Flourite which to me felt very smooth. The substrate should always and only ever be sand, smooth aquarium sand or quality play sand. Nothing else.

Second cause can be bacterial. If the substrate is too large (larger than aquarium sand), food can get trapped where the cories can't get it. There are many cases of this being the issue.

Any and all so-called plant substrates should never be used with cories and other substrate feeding fish. These too have serious consequences bacteria-wise.

As for "healing," make sure the fish is over a suitable substrate, keep it clean, and hope for the best. Erosion due to roughness usually grows back, but not always; I've seen both. Bacterial damage sometimes regenerates, sometimes not.

Another thing here...this fish is highly social, and keeping them alone or in groups less than say 9+ is to be honest cruel. The fish "expects" a large group, this is programmed into the species genetic makeup. A group of 9-12 would by itself help. improve the barbel issue because the fish would be less stressed.

 

[Colin_T]

Aquarium heaters don't normally melt plastic containers. The heaters are set at less than 30C and you can rest them on driftwood or white filter matting if you are concerned.

The white bit on the nose could be excess mucous if the fish has run into something or scratched its nose. Cleaning the gravel, water and filter should help fix that. You can add some salt to the main tank where it is so you don't have to set up another tank for it.

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What to do now?
Wipe the inside of the glass down with a clean fish sponge. This removes the biofilm on the glass and the biofilm will contain lots of harmful bacteria, fungus, protozoans and various other microscopic life forms.

Do a 75% water change and gravel clean the substrate every day for a week. The water changes and gravel cleaning will reduce the number of disease organisms in the water and provide a cleaner environment for the fish to recover in.
Make sure any new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it is added to the tank.

Clean the filter if it hasn't been done in the last 2 weeks. Cleaning the filter means less gunk and cleaner water with fewer pathogens.

Increase surface turbulence/ aeration to maximise the dissolved oxygen in the water.

Add some salt if there's no improvement after a couple of big water changes, gravel cleaning and cleaning the filter.

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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.

 

[Beastije]

At this moment it is in group of 14 and others do not have any sign of erosion, so I am hoping it is not substrate. More likely bacterial infection and now likely fungus but that is secondary. Based on what you are saying, unless I can move all of them to a no substrate tank to help grow it back, I should not bother moving the fish at all and instead keep focusing on the cleaning of the tank and water changes and feeding them well to achieve healthy fish.

 

[Byron]

At this moment it is in group of 14 and others do not have any sign of erosion, so I am hoping it is not substrate. More likely bacterial infection and now likely fungus but that is secondary. Based on what you are saying, unless I can move all of them to a no substrate tank to help grow it back, I should not bother moving the fish at all and instead keep focusing on the cleaning of the tank and water changes and feeding them well to achieve healthy fish.

Do not move them to a no-substrate tank, that is going to exacerbate the problem. Glass-bottom tanks may seem to have a "smooth" surface, but they do not. Shards of the glass can seriously harm Corydoras, there are enough documented cases on CorydorasWorld.

 

[Beastije]

Oki, dropping the moving idea and will just focus on the cleaning regiment, up it again maybe and solve the possible wood issue. I started feeding live mosquito larvae from a safe location in my garden, should help too.