Sick Albino Cory Catfish

[asquirrel]

Hi folks,

I have what looks like to be a red mark / blood under the eye of my albino corycat. Not sure if it's an injury of an infection of some sort. I couldn't get a picture of it but his eye on the other side of his head is completely black in the pupil. Maybe something ruptured inside his eye? He also seems to be breathing hard (gills moving fast).

He's in a 20 gallon tank with an emerald corycat, about 14 cherry shrimp, 2 ghost shrimp, and a mystery snail. Temp is about 80F. Hagen 125watt heater. Fluval hang on back Aquaclear 50 filter (ceramic beads with two foam sponges + a sponge in the intake so that if the shrimp have more fry they won't get sucked up). Also running upflow algae scrubber. Have some cuttlebone in there which is probably driving the PH up, along with the UAS. I dose the tank 2x a week with seachem flourish and also excel. Water changes are every 7 days. Today (6/4) is water change day. I take out about 5 gallons 1x a week. Haven't checked the chemistry today but it's pretty consistent. Last week it was PH 7.6 (I bit high), ammonia 0, nitrites 0, and nitrates 0 (it fluctuates between 0-10 ppm max).

I was going to try a Methalyne Blue bath (1 tsp in 5 gallon bucket for 30 minutes). Then I was thinking what to do next. Move him to quarantine tank and float him on top of the 20 gallon for a few days? Or should I move him back to the main tank to keep his stress level down? Other meds I have on hand are API General Cure and Furan 2. Thanks for your advice!

[cichlidlife]

it may be an ammonia poisoning but i am not sure. whatever it is a similar thing happened to my blue-eyed pleco today. when i came home today i did my regular routine: i go wash my hands off and i feed my fish. That is when i noticed that a big swollen blood like red bruise under the left eye of my blue eyed pleco. unfortunately it was also dead when i found him with the red bruise. the bruise was not there yesterday or this morning so it could be anything related to interior blood or other fluid leakage. What i am saying is to check to make sure your cory cat is alive and that the red is not swelling up in size or getting a darker shade of red.