What Is My Rescued Cory's Id?

[PrincessKiara]

I found this Cory at school. Pretty sure that's a Cory, from the body shape, but what cory? I rescued him from a pretty traumatic existence. But what type is he? I want to know so I can get him some companions

A nice person I just met on here told me he might be a Longfin Peppered Cory, and I looked 'em up and think he might be, too, though he's really tiny and over a year old already...But I want to be sure to get him the right species of companions...
Thanks in advance!
~PK.

 

[Shaddex]

Long Fin Peppered gets my vote.

 

[frapadoodle]

+1 On the long finned peppered.
Get some more peppers. And congrats on the rescue.

 

[PrincessKiara]

He's scraping on the sand now, not always but occassionally. I think he might have ich, but is there a chance those white spots I saw on his body were grains of sand? He does after all spend a lot of time sticking his nose into it, plus all the big pieces are gone today and only tiny powder-like ones remain, mostly on his ventral fins. I don't want to medicate unnecessarily. All my fish are eating fine; he and the glo-fish especially seem desperate for food.
Now my glo-fish is scraping too, but no sign of anything unusual on his body. Could that just be stress? My 11 guppy fry (also in there with them) seem fine. Just to be safe, I bought 300g of aquarium salt, but I doubt that would be enough for my size tank, and I don't want to use it unless I have to. Will it hurt my Ramshorn snail or my Amazon Sword/Hornwort plants?
I don't have and can't get a test kit just at the moment, nor do they do water tests at my LFS, but I will buy one ASAP. Liquid is best, right? Anyway, when my parents give me some money I will be buying multiple live plants, probably next weekend, so that should help---right?
How do I use the salt, assuming I do have to use it? I don't want him to die, he's been through so much already...
 
Oh, and before I forget--what fruits/veggies can I feed him? He forages around the sand and rock constantly. I feel certain he isn't getting enough food with what my glo-fish allows to sink. I don't have zucchini. Will boiled chayote (a Mexican vegetable) be fine? Or watermelon? How about apple, lettuce or cucumber?
 
Thanks again!
~PK.

 

[snazy]

Nice cory. Well done for giving it a nice home. Just keep in mind that corys aren't vegeterians. They are omnivore and most of their diet should consist of meaty stuff. You should also feed your cory separately. Corys aren't scavengers. They are bottom feeders and if no food is given or your other fish are outcompeting it for food, then it's no good.
And the cory would love some friends of the same species if you can afford/find or have the room to house more fish in this tank.

 

[eaglesaquarium]

Long finned peppered seems accurate to me also.
 
Snazy is right.  You need to ensure that the fish is eating... Shrimp pellets is a nice option for cories... and adding it just after, or just before lights out is a good option.  The cories will find it at night.
 
 
 
The 'sand' concerns me.  Its more than likely ich if you are constantly seeing the sand on the fish.  If its 'flashing' then it may just be sand on the fish, but there is another problem from an external parasite... possibly gill flukes or similar.

 

[PrincessKiara]

My tank is 238L + 90L in the external filter, with Fideo, Figaro (my glofish), 11 guppy fry and a ramshorn snail. He is scraping against the sand occasionally, but not all the time...and yesterday he had big pieces of sand (or whatever that is). Now it's just little pieces, like powder, and mostly on the fins he keeps spread out. My glofish is also scratching, but shows nothing. I hope that isn't ich. Anyway, I was advised to raise the temp to 86 degrees till I can get enough aquarium salt, so I did that.
All fish acting normal. Tank isn't cycled, so I'm told I must do daily w/c's. But I couldn't leave Fideo where he was, my classmates would have killed him. I would think being neglected for almost a year in a tiny, icy cold tank without so much as feeding, being shoved in a dark vial (in which he barely fit) and getting an undechlorinated water change that didn't even get all the foam out of his tank after someone spilled tons of detergent in it would be more than enough for him. I'm sure he's much better off where he is, even if the tank isn't cycled. At least here he's warm and safe.
I try to moisten flake a little and form it into a ball so it will sink to the bottom for him, which is the best I can do since I have no way of getting any live food or any other type of food ATM. Any human foods with which I can safely supplement his diet for the time being?
When I get rid of this problem I will heavily plant the tank and buy 5 more longfin peppereds.
For now, my priority is to buy some fiber for a filter medium and to get live food. How can I breed my own brine shrimp or other live food? Should I get a bunch of pregnant guppies?

JK, I'd never kill fry like that!
Thanks again!

 

[eaglesaquarium]

DON'T USE SALT WITH CORIES!!!
 
Salt is dangerous to all scaleless fish, like cories.

 

[PrincessKiara]

Then how can I treat him if he does have ich!?!?! *freaks out* I can't lose him!

 

[eaglesaquarium]

Heat and ich meds at half-dose.  You can actually treat ich with heat only... but only if you raise the temp high enough.  Personally, I'd go with the half-dose of meds and just keep up the gravel vacs to remove as many of the tomites (or trophonts, can't remember which is which) as possible on the substrate.  The free swimming form of the parasite is the only one that can be killed by meds (trophont, I think). 
 
 
Salt is just one method.
 
The next thing that you need to do is try to relax.  Look at the fish, if you ALWAYS see 'sand grains' on the fish, then you have ich.

 

[snazy]

Then how can I treat him if he does have ich!?!?! *freaks out* I can't lose him!
 

 
How do you know it's ich? Corys can occassionally scrape themselves if they get sand in their gills. Other reasons are as Eagles mentioned earlier, gill flukes or other external parasites. Corys are highly unlikely to get ich, they are usually immune to it but regardless ich on a black fish like this will be well easy to spot so give the cory a second look. White sand grains will get caught on the body, my fish constantly get that and the platies even eat the sand and poop white sand grains. So it may not be ich your cory is suffering from and if you ever treat a cory with salt you've got to go very low dose if at all using that. They are also sensitive to a lot of medications too so you have to be careful with corys.

 

[PrincessKiara]

I was hoping it was sand, the 'grains' change position/size very quickly...My danio was also scraping, but should I raise the temp just to be safe? I have no idea where the ich could have come from, the cory certainly didn't have it and had been alone for over a year when I took him home, and the danio and guppy fry were perfectly healthy. No sign of spots on danio. Anything that might be causing the danio to 'itch' against the sand (other than ich)?

 

[snazy]

It could be ich, it could be another sort of external parasite but not ich. Raising the temperature for ich works, but raising the temperature for other sorts of parasites can kill the fish because the parasites will multiply faster but not die like ich does in high temperature, leading to killing the fish. So its hard making a choice. Have a look if you can at the fish with a flash light in case its velvet instead because corys can have that. Also, try to have a look for broad spectrum antiparasitic medication suitable for corydoras. Seachem Paraguard is also effective against ich but needs longer treatment of 2-3 weeks from what I can remember. Its very mild on the fish.
All I can think of on your side of the world now is Seachem Paraguard. It's effective against external parasites, but also effective against ich. However, it needs longer treatment of 2-3 weeks from what I can remember. Its very mild on the fish but there may be some local meds safe for scaless fish?

 

[PrincessKiara]

I can't get anything now My parents won't take me...
All of my fish are scratching now but I think what's on the cory is just sand...because no other fish have spots...
If it were ich I could see the spots now couldn't I?
Lowered the heater to 78 again.

 

[snazy]

If you can't get anything, then try with salt and heat maybe but at reduced salt amount(research on that part). This is a decision you need to make, sorry but I am not sure what your fish have.
 If it's ich, the spots will appear at some stage soon enough.  If not, it could be another sort of parasite and heat and salt won't work and could be a bad move as it will make it worse.  It's really hard to diagnose fish even if you see them daily.