Red mouth

[Cikis]

Hi everyone,

I have some issues with one kind of my fish has a redness around its mouth. 2 of them died like 2 weeks ago for unknown reasons

one of cories I think has columnaris, The tank is second week with antibiotics

other fish are fine.

dead fishes was the same kind as this one

I have 120ltr tank
PH 7.2
Temp 23C
Very soft water
no nitrites, nitrates or ammonia

tank contains live plants, some tetras, fiew cories, shrimps and 2 plecos L010a
sub - fluval stratum + black sand very fine

 

[Colin_T]

The Corydoras sterbai has excess mucous on its face and back (mostly on the back). This is caused by something in the water irritating the fish and is normally ammonia, nitrite or nitrate but can also be caused by plant fertiliser, medications or chemicals or heavy metal contaminating the water. It can also be caused by external protozoa like Costia, Chilodonella and Trichodina.

You can use salt to treat the protozoa but wait until you finish the current treatment. Then do some water changes and clean the filter first and if it improves then it's just something bad in the water irritating the fish and you won't need to add salt.

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The red in the mouth, throat and gills of the Otocinclus catfish is very bad. It's either a physical injury or a bad infection. Is there any fish in the tank big enough to bite the Otocinclus? If not then something to treat a bacterial infection (like what you are doing) is probably the best option.

Antibiotics work best when used in bare containers with no substrate or filter. Any ornaments should be plastic. You want an airstone in the container. You wipe the inside of the container and change all the water in it before re-treating the fish.

If you are adding antibiotics to an aquarium, wipe the glass down, clean the filter, and do a huge 80-90% water change and gravel clean the substrate before re-treating the aquarium. The cleaner the tank is, the better the medication works on the fish.

 

[Cikis]

Update, Corries still have that mucous. 3 weeks of antibiotic did not done anything. but its not getting worse

For the Otocinclus gills looks fine, now, apparently as newbie I tried to harden my soft water bit to much, stupid I know now. (did 90% water change and waited ) they fine now. and shrimps started to spawn. Think its a good sign

 

[Colin_T]

Hard water doesn't cause the gills to bleed.

The antibacterial medication was for the Otocinclus.

Try salt for the Corydoras. If there's no improvement after a week, post more pictures of them.

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SALT
You can add rock salt (often sold as aquarium salt), swimming pool salt, or any non iodised salt (sodium chloride) to the aquarium at the dose rate of 1 heaped tablespoon per 20 litres (5 gallons) 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.