injured cory

[cloudy_starlight]

Sorry if this in the wrong folder. I am not sure if he/she is an asian cory or not. We do live in Japan now and someone gave us a 55 gallon tank with 3 cory's (1 has no eyes) 2 pleco's; 1 is 14 inches the other is about 9 inches and some jellybean chiclids. The problem is:

Last night;
One of the suckers pulled the filter tube off and my black cory (no eyes) went up in it and by the time I noticed that the filer tube was laying in the bottom of the tank, my poor little blind guy was laying in the filter area. We thought he was dead so we put him in the toilet and he was still alive, I picked him up out of there and put him back in the 55 gallon for about a minute. He just sunk to the bottom and wouldnt swim around so we stuck him in our black moors tank, is this ok?

The cory is breathing normal and cant really swim like he use to, kinda side ways now when he tries. He mostly lays on the bottom of the tank now. When we got him with all the other stuff he was rough and still looks rough, his fins were here and there, etc. Is there anything I can do to help him out more? I was told on another forum his fins could grow back? Never heard of that. Since the accident last night, it looks like his dorsal fin is worse than it was. I am going to try and get a picture of what he looks like now. Any suggestions?
I do not have a good before picture of him since he was never still and always swimming every where.
Thank!!

[cichlidman16yearsold]

what does not kill him will only make him stronger.
i would just let him be and see how he is doing in a few days. his fins will grow back but it will take time. time heals all injuries. cory cats are strong. i have one that lost both of hers eyes. and she was a breeder no less. well a few week later she spawned for me to my surprise. just let the little guy be and if it does not die buy tomorrow i will probably live. a long time. i would put some stress coat in the tank and make sure that he is going up to the top of the tank to breath, they are air breathers.

[cloudy_starlight]

Thank you, last night I did see him make his way up to the top for a sec then of course fall back down to the bottom. So far today he has not gone to the top that I have seen, just hanging out on the bottom. I have noticed he will move to different places on the bottom but no swimming today. We decided to stick him in our black moor's tank, since we thought this would be the best way for him to rest. My black moor hasnt even bothered him at all. Should I get a breeding/fry box to put him in or is he ok just being in the tank. He has been eating some, we give the black moor sinking pellets and my husband said the cory ate some this morning. I just want to do whats best for the cory.

[cichlidman16yearsold]

you might get a fry box. and put it at the top of the tank so that theirs about 1 inch sticking out of the water . this will be better for the cory so it does not wear it self out going to the top of the tank to get air. it will be better all so because you don't have to worry about the cory being bother buy the moor's. and it is a good sing that the cory is eating to. keep me updated and post some pic. and i can help you more

[cloudy_starlight]

here are some pictures of him I just took. Now he is laying behind the filter stem and it was hard to get a good picture. If he moves to a better spot I will upload more.





He looked pretty much like this when we got him about 2 months ago. I am thinking the filter messed his fins up worse than they were in the first place.

[cloudy_starlight]

As you can see in the last picture he has moved some what away from the filter stem and is laying on his belly now.

Moved even more:


you may be able to see how bad his fins are, now that pretty much looked like this when we got him. Im thinking they are messed up more than they were though cause he usually is always swimming and never still.

[cloudy_starlight]

I can only see him breathing on his left side (his gills) His right is not moving at all, could this be bad?
Also could this be why he can only swim side ways when he actually does?

[cloudy_starlight]

Well, sadly he didnt make it *tears*, before I went upstairs I checked on him and he was still breathing. I was upstairs about 10 mins or so and as soon as I got back downstairs I checked on him again and he wasnt breathing at all. I feel terrible!! He went through a lot before we got him and now he just gave up. I guess with only breathing out of one of his gills was the problem.
Thank you for all the help.

[MatsP]

Sorry for your loss. Unfortunately, I think this is probably one of those cases where nothing really could have been done (other than the "fix in hindsight" of securing the airlift tube of the filter in a way that the large fish can't remove it).

I'm absolutely sure you did nothing wrong - it's just one of those things...

--
Mats

[cichlidman16yearsold]

like matsp said it is just one of those things