Urgent - Sick Panda Cory

[alex1232]

Our panda cory cat looks really sick. I just checked one everyone and his gills look bloody and red and his fins look bad too. I'll try and post a picture soon if I can find a camera. He's in a 10 gallon tank (sand and minimal gravel substrate) with 3 male guppies, one leopard cory, a snail, and two peppered cories. The temperature is 78F and constant, ammonia 0, nitrate 3, nitrite 0 at the last test a few days ago but I'll test again just to make sure. We change the water every five-seven days. The tank has been set up for 3 months and is completely cycled. Does anyone have any ideas? His gill on the other side looks completely normal and he was fine yesterday.

[medaka]

Looks like some type of bacterial infection.

Try dosing with Melafix. I have seen similar bacterial infections like the ones on your panda that have cleared up using this treatment.
Use the right dose for you aquaria and follow the instructions; but at the same time I would advise increasing the amount of air that flows into your tank when using Melafix. Although the manufacturers say that this is not needed; along with myself, I know a lot of people who do this, as it is our experience that the fish in a Melafix treated aquaria seem to require a higher amount of dissolved oxygen in the water.

[alex1232]

Okay, thank you for the advice.

[Richard B]

Good advice from Medaka, but a quick question - when you change the water, how much do you change each time?

[skaskankerbr]

this can also be caused by excessive amounts of salt added to the water.. Did you happened to add salt when you changed the water?