panda cory with fin rot

JayByrd · Post by **JayByrd** » 07 Jun 2006, 16:41

Hello everyone, forgive me for introducing myself this way. This morning I discovered one of my 1" panda corys has a case of fin rot, about 1/4 of the caudal fin is shredded. I won't bother going into my tank parameters; my tank is cycled but my pH is higher than I'd like it to be, and this may well be the culprit here. My question is in regards to treatment. I've never treated a catfish for disease before, and most of what I've read suggests using 1/2 the prescribed dose of most meds, due to the sensitivity of these scaleless fishes. Is this generally the accepted course? I've removed the fish to a 10g hospital tank and I'm using Furanase. Also, in regards to salt; I know cory cats are fairly sensitive to it, should I even bother? Thanks in advance for your input.

christopher · Post by **christopher** » 07 Jun 2006, 20:14

Corys are no where near as sensitive to salt as other cats. Go ahead and add a little bit. Other meds at half dose should be fine.

Also, please be aware that C. panda like the water on the cool side, they start to weaken as the temperature rises. If you can, try 77 degrees (22 celcius). The temp is more important than the pH or hardness.

JayByrd · Post by **JayByrd** » 08 Jun 2006, 06:14

The little guy passed away tonight, barely 12 hrs after I noticed he was sick. This tank is falling apart, we've lost two fish in the last week, and have another c. panda with what appears to be dropsy. When it rains, it pours.

MatsP · Post by **MatsP** » 08 Jun 2006, 10:12

I'd check the water values if I were you... Tanks "falling apart" is usually a sign of either filter-breakdown (i.e. the tank is NO LONGER cycled) or high levels of nitrate - which of course may be caused by relatively high levels in your tap-water, not necessarily by bad water change regime - although the only two possible fixes if you DO have high incoming nitrate is either more water changes, or getting something like an RO unit to remove the nitrate...

--
Mats

JayByrd · Post by **JayByrd** » 08 Jun 2006, 14:38

I would agree. I checked the tested the water parameters last night (I usually test weekly) and ammonia and nitrite were zero, nitrate was around 20 ppm as it usually is. pH is higher than I'd like it to be, at 8.0...but it's always been that high. That's the only parameter that's out of whack.

The only thing my three sick/dead fish had in common is that they were all fairly new editions, tho I've had the newest for about two months now. As I mentioned, the pH in my tank is higher than I'd like it to be, but I don't suspect it's high enough to outright cause illness and death, unless the stock was weak to begin with.

MatsP · Post by **MatsP** » 08 Jun 2006, 15:27

How long have you had the nitrate test? I agree that those values are fine - but without you telling us, I couldn't know, of course...

pH 8 is "fine" (ok, it's not ideal, but it's nothing to be worried about either).

Fish surviving for two months is beyond the point of illness brought with them - usually if the fish aren't well when you receive them, it will show up within a few days, no more than a couple of weeks at the most. Quarantine is usually meant to be a month, and anything that hasn't broken out then, will not show up.

So it's either:
Internal parasites or similar longer term illness.
General conditions - such as high temperature or pH - I don't think the latter is a problem - most commonly available Cory's are quite tolerant to high pH, as long as they don't get shocked by moving from low pH to high pH all of a sudden of course... But that's almost immediately noticable, and pH 8 is usually indicating fairly hard and well buffered water, so it's unliikely that you've had a pH crash that causes problems (as indicated by your pH being in your normal range).

Sorry, but I can't really help much here...

--
Mats

JayByrd · Post by **JayByrd** » 08 Jun 2006, 18:59

Thanks for your reply, Mats. I'm not sure exactly how old my nitrate test kit is, but it's well within it's expiry date, and I've had it less than a year.

I'm fairly confident my water isn't killing my fish, I'm hoping this is just a run of bad luck. I know there's not much anyone else can do to help, I was mainly just venting in that last post. And to make matters worse, my betta passed away this morning. Anyways, thanks for listening and take care.

JayByrd · Post by **JayByrd** » 08 Jun 2006, 19:42

More thoughts on this...all my remaining stock appear fine. Do you think I should medicate for parasites, just in case? I'm not inclined to medicate if there's no apparent illness, but I also don't like the idea of just sitting here doing nothing while my fish drop off.

CoryCatLover · Post by **CoryCatLover** » 15 Aug 2006, 20:14

Are any of your fish slimmer than usual?

CoryCatLover · Post by **CoryCatLover** » 15 Aug 2006, 20:26

or Losing thier colr?, and your c.panda with Dropsy is best euthinized