Deformed Cory

[phishphood]

I bought a new peppered cory the other day, and it wasn't until I got him home that I noticed that he is quite deformed. His body is elongated, with a slight upwards bend towards the tail, and his mouth is strange, it doesn't have the normal sucky bit and little whiskery bits that cories have, he has a mouth that is more similar to a human's mouth than a cory's and only has one short whisker thing on one side. He seems quite happy at the moment, but I'm not sure if his feeding is affected by his mouth as he looks thinner than th other cories I have, and doesn't seem to be able to dig in the gravel as the others do, but he picks flakes off the top of the gravel when they sink. I'm not going to take him back to the LFS cos I'd rather take care of him than have him sit in their tanks for the rest of his life. Do you think he will be ok?

 

[Cheese Specialist]

I think that as long as you are aware of it and makes sure he gets some food that he will be ok. I think it's really good that you wouldn't take him back.

 

[jayB]

I do hope so

Like all creatures with a deformity (birth defects do happen in fish), they tend to get left behind in the shop as no one is prepared to give them a chance cos they think that they might die or have some disease that could be introduced to their tank. Unfortunately if they dont sell they spend the rest of their days in the stressfull environment of the LFS tank (which tend to be over populated), or as does happen when the shop get new stock (disposed of - if you know what I mean!!)

Its good to see that you didnt take the little guy back (most would) especially as you hadnt chosen to take him on and had only noticed his problems after you had got him home. The LFS probably thought they had pulled a fast one - been trying to get shot of him for some time ??

I do wish you luck and hopefully his mouth defect will not hamper his feeding efforts!! (try to monitor him when feeding time to see if he gets his share ok)

If you have gravel to the bottom of the tank he is in - you could try Aquarian Catfish tablets - which slowly disperse and tend to sit clumped together above the gravel until any cory / loach / bottom feeder has sucked it up (only per day depending upon the number of bottom dwellers you have.

Regards

Jay

 

[phishphood]

I don't think they were trying to pull a fast one, the store is like a general pet store with a fish section, and the girl that served me had no idea about fish, I had to point out which particular species I wanted if there was more than one in a tank and I think she just caught the first one she could (she had just spent 15 minutes trying to catch the albino cories - nippy little buggers!). She even charged me for the wrong thing cos she didn't know which label belonged to which fish but I'm not complaining cos I ended up getting him for half the price!

 

[phishphood]

This is a closeup picture of him, he looks a lot different to all my other cories
Picture HERE

 

[Cheese Specialist]

WOW, I see what you mean!! He's a cutie! How is he doing? Is he eating?

 

[FanOFish]

He made it this far....I'm sure he will be ok with proper fish care

 

[phishphood]

He's getting better every day, more perky and a bit braver, he's interacting with the other cories as well now, thanx 4 your comments guys

 

[pebbles]

ahhh, its good of you to keep him , hope he does well. pebbles

 

[st.cichlid]

poor little guy man it was smart and kind of you not to take him back it would make him reeally happy if you put a female in with him

 

[phishphood]

I found him dead this morning He had blood under his skin just behind his anal fin, it looks like he bled internally or something, his skin wasn't broken and the rest of his body and fins were intact so it wasn't from the other fish eating him when he'd died. At least he got to spend some time in a nice tank instead of the LFS ones