Corydora with injured pectoral fin and white area on his body?

[EmilyS]

My false julii corydora is injured on his left pectoral fin. About a week and a half ago he got both his pectoral fins/bones lodged in the aquarium background and couldn't move. He was so stuck that he couldn't even shake the shrimp off of himself and I had to pry his left fin free. His fin wasn't this bad when I freed him. Maybe it was the shrimp that hurt him while he was stuck, or maybe an injured area developed an infection and progressed to his body? His other side looks completely normal.

I didn't notice this until today because he likes to hide (even when he isn't injured) and I've been battling some pretty serious green water, making it even harder for me to check on him.

Is this beyond the capabilities of aquarium salt? Should I go buy some antibiotics? If so, which one? I have him in a breeder box so I can keep an eye on him, but I may release him into my 10 gallon so that he is a little less stressed but still easy to catch.

His tank is usually a planted 29 gallon stocked with 10 Threadfin Rainbowfish, 4 Peppered Corydora, and a ton of shrimp.

Thanks in advance!

 

[Colin_T]

The fish will need a broad spectrum fish medication that treats bacteria and fungus. If that doesn't help after a few days then look at anti-biotics.

If you have to treat the fish, then try to do it in a bare tank with minimal substrate and no wood or rocks. You can have plastic or glazed ceramic ornaments in there.

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Before you treat the tank, do the following things.

Work out the volume of water in the tank:
measure length x width x height in cm.
divide by 1000.
= volume in litres.

If you have big rocks or driftwood in the tank, remove these before measuring the height of the water level so you get a more accurate water volume.

When you measure the height, measure from the top of the substrate to the top of the water level.
You can use a permanent marker to draw a line on the tank at the water level and put down how many litres are in the tank at that level.

There is a calculator/ converter in the "FishForum.net Calculator" under "Useful Links" at the bottom of this page that will let you convert litres to gallons if you need it.

Remove carbon from the filter before treating or it will adsorb the medication and stop it working.

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. The water change and gravel cleaning will reduce the number of disease organisms in the water and provide a cleaner environment for the fish to recover in. It also removes a lot of the gunk and this means any medication can work on treating the fish instead of being wasted killing the pathogens in the gunk.
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. However, if the filter is less than 6 weeks old, do not clean it. Wash the filter materials/ media in a bucket of tank water and re-use them. Tip the bucket of dirty water on the garden/ lawn. Cleaning the filter means less gunk and cleaner water with fewer pathogens.

Increase surface turbulence/ aeration when using salt or medications because they reduce the dissolved oxygen in the water.

 

[EmilyS]

Thanks for the detailed answer! My LFS only had Erythromycin, which is an antibiotic. I dosed his tank with that this morning. Interestingly, he wasn't acting sick before the treatment so it's difficult for me to tell if he's feeling better. I might be able to get Pimafix soon and I'll try that if he doesn't get better.
I don't think the fin is going to grow back, either. It really looks like the bone is all that is left. I'll just have to watch that white spot for improvement.

 

[Colin_T]

don't mix medications. use one or the other but not both together.

 

[EmilyS]

Of course. I meant that I may switch, not do both at once.

 

[I Like Rare Fish]

The fish will need a broad spectrum fish medication that treats bacteria and fungus. If that doesn't help after a few days then look at anti-biotics.

If you have to treat the fish, then try to do it in a bare tank with minimal substrate and no wood or rocks. You can have plastic or glazed ceramic ornaments in there.

---------------------
Before you treat the tank, do the following things.

Work out the volume of water in the tank:
measure length x width x height in cm.
divide by 1000.
= volume in litres.

If you have big rocks or driftwood in the tank, remove these before measuring the height of the water level so you get a more accurate water volume.

When you measure the height, measure from the top of the substrate to the top of the water level.
You can use a permanent marker to draw a line on the tank at the water level and put down how many litres are in the tank at that level.

There is a calculator/ converter in the "FishForum.net Calculator" under "Useful Links" at the bottom of this page that will let you convert litres to gallons if you need it.

Remove carbon from the filter before treating or it will adsorb the medication and stop it working.

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. The water change and gravel cleaning will reduce the number of disease organisms in the water and provide a cleaner environment for the fish to recover in. It also removes a lot of the gunk and this means any medication can work on treating the fish instead of being wasted killing the pathogens in the gunk.
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. However, if the filter is less than 6 weeks old, do not clean it. Wash the filter materials/ media in a bucket of tank water and re-use them. Tip the bucket of dirty water on the garden/ lawn. Cleaning the filter means less gunk and cleaner water with fewer pathogens.

Increase surface turbulence/ aeration when using salt or medications because they reduce the dissolved oxygen in the water.

If I had this much time to write stuff…

 

[azvictoria]

I had a recent experience with a 7 year old cory and a wound left by a leech or some other large terrible parasite that came in on some nerites. I pulled the thing out of her, and she developed white fuzz around the wound. Medicated, isolated her in a quarantine tank, pulled the fuzz off her with tweezers and in the end, it always grew back. I tortured that poor fish and I think very unnecessarily. I don't think she had any bacteria or fungus. I think it was how she was healing. I saw lots of pics online of cory wounds, and many are white. I left her alone after weeks in a hospital tank, put her back in the main tank to be happy and the white fluff went away on its own gradually. She has a perfectly flesh colored scar now, but I think I created more of it than the parasite.

 

[Colin_T]

If I had this much time to write stuff…

A lot of it is copy & paste from stuff I have written previously. I just update it as needed.

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I had a recent experience with a 7 year old cory and a wound left by a leech or some other large terrible parasite that came in on some nerites. I pulled the thing out of her, and she developed white fuzz around the wound.

The white fuzz is Saprolegnia fungus and can be killed with salt. Add 1-2 heaped tablespoons of rock salt for every 20 litres of water and keep the salt in the tank for 2 weeks.

 

[I Like Rare Fish]

Sorry, I’m learning as well, but why rock salt?

 

[EmilyS]

Aquarium salt dehydrates fungus or parasites, causing them to die. It works because the fish is generally less sensitive to the salt than whatever is infecting them. I've never owed saltwater fish, but I believe you put them in freshwater when they get infected. This kills things by overhydration, exploding the cells of the fungus due to osmosis.
You use aquarium salt instead of table salt because table salt contains other additives like iodine. Not to be confused with Epsom salt, which is good for constipation and egg bound fish (if I remember correctly, anyhow) and is a different type of salt altogether.

 

[Colin_T]

Sorry, I’m learning as well, but why rock salt?

Use aquarium salt (aka rock salt) or some other type of non iodised salt, or a salt without the anti-caking agents added to it.

Normal table salt has iodine and or anti-caking agents added to it and these can harm fish. Rock salt or swimming pool salt does not have this added to it and is safer for fish.

 

[Bruce Leyland-Jones]

Aquarium Salt is actually quite cheap, especially when compared with other tank additives.

 

[EmilyS]

Update: My cory does seem to be healing slowly (black stripes coming back on the edges, more iridescent color in the white spot) . I'm no longer convinced that the wound was ever infected, but the antibiotics are at least keeping it from becoming infected. It's also becoming more and more obvious where he hurt himself. I could sort of see it a few days ago, though it was hard to see it in the pictures. Now it is easy both in person and in the pictures. I'm probably going to finish the 4 day treatment of the antibiotic, then acclimate him back to non-medicated water over a day or two and release him. I see no evidence of fungus or other infection, but I will keep a close eye on him to make sure it continues to heal.