My corydora is sick, please help!

[Colin_T]

Good to hear the fish has recovered.

In case other people have a similar problem and read this, did you need to use a broad spectrum medication or was the salt sufficient, what did you do to fix the problem?

 

[Utar]

I am going to say something that is very unpopular and will put me in a bad light, but here goes. Fish get sick and die, so do people. That is a fact of life. If you have one fish in a school and others are good, get rid of it. If you have many that get sick then do something. All these treatments for one fish is just nuts and should not be done. Especially when a fish gets as bad as what your one fish sounds to be.

 

[Fushufish]

Good to hear the fish has recovered.

In case other people have a similar problem and read this, did you need to use a broad spectrum medication or was the salt sufficient, what did you do to fix the problem?

Good to hear the fish has recovered.

In case other people have a similar problem and read this, did you need to use a broad spectrum medication or was the salt sufficient, what did you do to fix the problem?

So the only medication used was in the first coupe days of treatment in the quarantine tank. After that, we did a big water change in the community tank, added aquarium salt, and put Haans back into the community tank. During the first few days of this, his mucous coat seemed to get a little worse so we did another little water change and added a little stress coat. About a week later Haans was looking much better but we noticed our angel had a couple white pimple-ish things in his head that looked like it COULD (possibly) be hexamita (hole in head). So we did one more water change with salt and I upped the temperature in the tank by 2 degrees per the online recommendation (didn’t want to go too warm since the catfish prefer cooler temps). After a couple days of this, his pimples have resolved and Haans is recovered as well. I am not sure if they were unrelated or if the same disease caused both ailments in the fish. I keep mulling my brain to try and figure out what caused this. My fish have always been on the same diet, balanced in meat and plant proteins, and Fushu is 3yo and never had any dietary issues. I haven’t added any new animals or plants to the tank. All water chemicals in the tank were perfect. The one thing I can think of is maybe something came from the frozen shrimps we give them as treats sometimes. They are a favorite of all the fish but I am hesitant to ever give them again. What are your thoughts? Do you think it could have been a parasite or disease from the shrimps?

 

[Colin_T]

What sort of frozen shrimp?
Was it frozen brineshrimp or frozen prawn/ shrimp that people eat?
Frozen brineshrimp and prawns from the ocean won't have parasites because they live in salt water. However, if they have been left out to defrost and then refrozen, they can have bad bacteria on them that can causing internal bacterial infections. The fish don't have an internal bacterial infection so the food is unlikely to be the cause.

External protozoan infections and diseases like hole in the head disease (caused by Hexamita) are caused by dirty environments (lack of water changes, dirty gravel, dirty filter). This can happen in tanks that get a lot of food or don't get cleaned enough.

 

[Fushufish]

What sort of frozen shrimp?
Was it frozen brineshrimp or frozen prawn/ shrimp that people eat?
Frozen brineshrimp and prawns from the ocean won't have parasites because they live in salt water. However, if they have been left out to defrost and then refrozen, they can have bad bacteria on them that can causing internal bacterial infections. The fish don't have an internal bacterial infection so the food is unlikely to be the cause.

External protozoan infections and diseases like hole in the head disease (caused by Hexamita) are caused by dirty environments (lack of water changes, dirty gravel, dirty filter). This can happen in tanks that get a lot of food or don't get cleaned enough.

Hikari frozen brine shrimps. I’ve never defrosted them, I always just take a piece off and defrost the small piece in a cup of their aquarium water before giving it to them. I was thinking maybe one of the times I took the package out I left it out a little too long or something but I don’t know lol I usually put it away right away. Maybe it’s just from the multiple times taking it in and out of the freezer? We’ve had the same package since October I think.

We are very good about the tank up-keep as far as consistent water changes and gravel rakes. We changed the filter on one of the first cleanings during this process JIC it was something on the filter.

I don’t THINK I over feed them, they get fed once an evening and they do a pretty good job of cleaning it all up pretty quickly, I’ll give some extra snacks to the angel sometimes cause he’s a big boy and likes to eat lol but it’s pretty minimal.

lol it’s all so strange, I feel like I’m pretty neurotic about them and I’ve never had an issue like this before. I don’t know! I’m just so happy they’re all better and I’m just going to keep doing my best to keep them healthy moving forward! Thank you for all your advice and help!!!

 

[Colin_T]

Brineshrimp didn't cause this.

When you say gravel rake the substrate, do you actually use a gravel cleaner like the one in the following link, or do you just suck the water out and not clean the gravel?

Aquarium Cleaning Made Easy

Aquarium cleaning should take 30 minutes every two weeks. Learn how the professionals do it in 18 easy steps.

www.about-goldfish.com

These types of problems are usually cased by dirty gravel, a dirty filter, lack of water changes and too much food. You can have clean water but if the filter or gravel is full of gunk, it will be a breeding ground for disease organisms that infect the fish.

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You mention changing the filter when this started.
What sort of filter do you have?
How do you normally clean it?

If you have a power filter, you should wash the filter media/ materials in a bucket of tank water at least once a month. You can re-use the media. If you have filter pads/ cartridges, these can be washed in a bucket of tank water and re-used too. If they start to fall apart, you can throw them away and replace them with a sponge. However, only replace one piece of media at a time and wait a couple of months before changing another piece of media.

If you replace all the filter media at the same time, you get rid of the beneficial filter bacteria and end up with ammonia and nitrite problems.

 

[Fushufish]

Brineshrimp didn't cause this.

When you say gravel rake the substrate, do you actually use a gravel cleaner like the one in the following link, or do you just suck the water out and not clean the gravel?

Aquarium Cleaning Made Easy

Aquarium cleaning should take 30 minutes every two weeks. Learn how the professionals do it in 18 easy steps.

www.about-goldfish.com

These types of problems are usually cased by dirty gravel, a dirty filter, lack of water changes and too much food. You can have clean water but if the filter or gravel is full of gunk, it will be a breeding ground for disease organisms that infect the fish.

---------------------
You mention changing the filter when this started.
What sort of filter do you have?
How do you normally clean it?

If you have a power filter, you should wash the filter media/ materials in a bucket of tank water at least once a month. You can re-use the media. If you have filter pads/ cartridges, these can be washed in a bucket of tank water and re-used too. If they start to fall apart, you can throw them away and replace them with a sponge. However, only replace one piece of media at a time and wait a couple of months before changing another piece of media.

If you replace all the filter media at the same time, you get rid of the beneficial filter bacteria and end up with ammonia and nitrite problems.

Yep that’s the gravel cleaner that we use.

As far as the filter, we have a power filter that we clean and replace the carbon filter inside about every 1 - 1 1/2 months I’d say. It’s not always the same cause we do it in between big water changes/gravel cleans. We never replace them during a big clean cause I was taught that kills too much good bacteria at once.

Sounds like this may be where I went wrong! I will increase the filter cleans to AT LEAST 1 month, I thought it was not meant to be cleaned out too much to preserve the good bacterias! ???

 

[Essjay]

Washing the filter media by squeezing it in old tank water won't remove the bacteria unless you scrub and scrub it. The bacteria live in the biofilm which is tightly bound to surfaces and it takes some pretty strenuous cleaning to dislodge it.

Are there any other filter media besides the carbon cartridges?

 

[Colin_T]

You don't clean new filters for the first 6-8 weeks because you can mess up the cycling process and get rid of the good bacteria that helps keep the water clean. However, when the filter is established, you can clean it once a week, once a fortnight or whenever and the good bacteria generally stays put because it's in the biolfilm (as mentioned by Essjay).

You can clean the filter once a month and that is fine but make sure it gets done once a month and not every couple of months. The idea is to try and have it free of gunk so the good bacteria can remove ammonia and nitrite from the water and not have to deal with thick gooey sludge covering the filter media/ materials.

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You don't need carbon in a filter unless you have chemicals/ heavy metals in the water. If that is the case, you should prefilter the tap water through carbon before drinking it or using it in the tank.

If you have carbon in the filter and don't have heavy metals or chemicals in the water, just replace the carbon with a sponge.