Cory Injury

[FCWonderer]

I've noticed that one of my bronze cory has a bit of a mouth injury. Seems like one side of his barbells and mouth have been damaged/missing. I have a smooth gravel substrate, although I'm very much regretting not getting sand, and the other corys seem to be in good health. He also is the only one that doesn't stay in the pack on the bottom. He swims back and forth in the mid to upper levels pressed on the front wall of the tank. Is there anything I can do to help him?

 

[eaglesaquarium]

More information would be helpful...
 
You need to keep the water pristine first...
 
 
But, what are the water parameters, etc. Tank size and other tank mates?

 

[FCWonderer]

More information would be helpful...
 
You need to keep the water pristine first...
 
 
But, what are the water parameters, etc. Tank size and other tank mates?

 
Currently it's a betta with 3 bronze and 3 peppered corys in a 10G. Yes, I know that isn't the ideal size tank for those fish but they are still juvenile and I'm working on getting a 20G, and I have 2 filters going Aquatech 10-20G filter along with a Aquatech 170 gph Powerhead so the tank is clean. The water parameters are 0 ammonia, 0 nitrite, 40 nitrate (just did a 50% water change though after I tested today). Should I change even more of the water?

 

[eaglesaquarium]

What's your tap conditions?
 
If your tap has 10-20ppm or less, then yes.  If not, then no. If yes, then another 30-50% couldn't hurt.
 
Have long have you had the cory in question?

 

[FCWonderer]

The tap is about 5 ppm. So I guess I could do another water change. I've had the cory for over a week now and I've never noticed this before.

 

[Sickbound]

You can start changing it to sand once the wound is all healed up. Just add a pound of gravel a week until all your substrate is gone.(take out a pound of rock at the same time.)

 

[FCWonderer]

That works. I'm more worried about the irratic swimming on the front of the tank though, what could that be?

 

[DoubleDutch]

Often these kind of wounds are due to bacterial problems and not to the substrate. I've different kinds of substrate.
Poolfiltersand and substrate with bigger grains. Though they like the sand to dig in aso the barbels are prefectly allright on the other substrate. What kind of substrate do you use ? Keeping the water pristine is important indeed.
The irratic swimming can be the start of spawning. Often they do that in pairs a few days before the actual spwaning.

 

[FCWonderer]

 
 
The poor thing. He was swimming with his pair like you said and I was able to catch a photo of him while he was being still. I'm using Aqua Culture Aquarium Gravel. I am in the middle of a bacterial bloom right now. Changing water like crazy to keep the nitrates down. They aren't at hazardous levels.

 

[DoubleDutch]

Awwww that's not a nice sight. The barbels of the one in the back seem to be perfectly allright.
What and how much / how often do you feed? Could the problem be that food will fall between the substrate and the fish can't reach it anymore : It's starting to rot and that's why nitrates are raising and you got bacterial bloom as well?
Is it bacterial bloom (white milky) or algae (greenish)??? Can you post a pic of your totall tank?

 

[FCWonderer]

Awwww that's not a nice sight. The barbels of the one in the back seem to be perfectly allright.
What and how much / how often do you feed? Could the problem be that food will fall between the substrate and the fish can't reach it anymore : It's starting to rot and that's why nitrates are raising and you got bacterial bloom as well?
Is it bacterial bloom (white milky) or algae (greenish)??? Can you post a pic of your totall tank?

 
I feed them once a day. 1-2 pellets of shrimp formula, some freeze dried brine shrimp once a week, frozen bloodworms once a month, and frozen brine shrimp once a month. I changed the temporary cartridge in my Aquatech 10-20 yesterday and the bloom (which was milky white btw) cleared up over night. I'm not ready to show off the tank yet because I'm currently in the middle of switching from fake plant to live plant and I need my nerite to clear up some of the algae. 

 I'll post a picture within a few weeks though!

 

[Wildbetta]

Did you totally remove the filter and replace it with new without leaving any of the old?  If so you will put yourself in a minicycle so start watching your levels to indicate when you need to do more water changes to fix it.  The problem with cories is that even over filtering the tank does not help keep them from having issues with dirty substrate.  Gravel is hard for cories because we as fishkeepers have a harder time keeping the substrate clean enough to avoid issues such as barbell loss and other problems associated with dirty substrate.  With gravel you really need to dig down into the rocks to get all the uneaten food and waste from between them.  Plus being overstocked is not going to help with things right now either so the sooner you can upgrade the better.  

 

[FCWonderer]

Did you totally remove the filter and replace it with new without leaving any of the old?  If so you will put yourself in a minicycle so start watching your levels to indicate when you need to do more water changes to fix it. The problem with cories is that even over filtering the tank does not help keep them from having issues with dirty substrate.  Gravel is hard for cories because we as fishkeepers have a harder time keeping the substrate clean enough to avoid issues such as barbell loss and other problems associated with dirty substrate.  With gravel you really need to dig down into the rocks to get all the uneaten food and waste from between them.  Plus being overstocked is not going to help with things right now either so the sooner you can upgrade the better.

 
No, I removed the temporary cartridge. There is another cartridge that stays in permanently to avoid the minicycle you're talking about. But I am doing the best I can with what I have. The transition to a larger tank is going to take some time but it will happen. I'm checking levels frequently and making sure they are as good as I can get them as well as gravel vacuuming during every water change. What I reallly would like to know is if there is anything I can do for him now that he has experienced barbell loss. Will he be able to live a healthy (as healthy as it can be with no barbells) life without them?

 

[DoubleDutch]

Think there is not much you can do at this stage. The problem for it surviving could lay in the substrate though. Will it find food fast enough before it will disappear between the stones or be eaten by the others. To be honest I think it's colour and bodyshape is already different from the other one in the background. Can be wrong though.