HELP needed ASAP!!! My corycat dying!

[luvbrace]

Hi everyone, I had a new corycat in my community tank for about 2 weeks now, and today I noticed that he has a section of his tail missing... more of a clean cut than the finrot I've seen on other fish, but regardless, I took him out of the community tank and put him in a large bowl (1G) to treat him with Melafix... then, I was doing more research about corys and learned that they are scale-less and therefore do not take salt well.

I have a low dose of aquarium salt in my community tank and I also added some into the bowl I just placed him in, so I immediately removed half the water and added freshwater in it, thinking if I suddenly do a full waterchange from water with salt to water with no salt it might be too shocking of a change.

But, as I see him right now he's floating in the surface in an upright position, almost not breathing, and just when I start getting worried that I may have killed him with either the aquariumsalt or sudden lack-of, it will suddenly move, swim around, swim back to his original floating position and stop moving again. He's been repeating that for the last hour or so, and I am getting increasingly concerned. Is he dying? Can I do anything at this point to save him??? HELP!!!

:::UPDATE:::
He suddenly seems to be swimming around again, a bit more lively than he used to. I still don't feel totally safe about assuming that he's recovered completely, and even if he's ok he still has a tear in the tail to fix. I would still appreciate your input!!! thanks alot in advance

[corybreed]

Who are the other members of your community tank? Is it possible another fish took a chunk out of the Cory's tail? Although it has been said that Cory's do not tolorate salt well in my personal experience I have not found that to be completely true. I do not add salt to my Cory tanks but over the years on occasion I have used non-iodized salt as a remedy with no ill effects on the fish.

Mark

[luvbrace]

My tank is a 30L Biorb and has a betta & 3 platies in it. they all get along fine, with no sign of bullying or anything... but when I first introduced 3 platies into the tank, a similar tear has been noticed on one of my platy.

I had initially thought that it has got to be the betta that's bullying it, then the following day I saw some frays on the betta's fin too, and after careful observation I pinpointed out the bully to be one of the platy, if at all. However, My aquarium store guy told me that non of the species in my tank are strong enough to pose that kind of damage to eachother. He believed that most likely it's an acute case of finrot... although, I've seen finrots on fish before and they don't quite look like the tear on his tail. I then introduced an albino corycat, which I found dead on the bottom of the aquarium. My aquarium guy explained that chances are it was weak or sick to begin with and that since the bottom of the aquarium has a tendency to be dirtier than the top, fish that tend to crawl around on the bottom gets more affected. Since my tank was relatively new at that point, I gave it another month to cycle, and in the meantime I put back the platy with damaged tail back in the tank once it healed... since then, they've been fine and totally healthy.

So, now, the same kind of tear is on my new corycat. He's been fine for about 2 weeks in the tank until yesterday. I've had the tank for about 4 months now, I think. And I tend to change about 50% of the water when I change the filter. It has a lot of live plants now.

As of now, he's swimming around fine in his quarantine/asylum fishbowl (1 gallon). I don't have a separate tank so I am forced to cure him in a bowl and do frequent water changes.

Would you recommend that I slowly bring down the salt level in the tank/fishbowl nonetheless?

[akvahenrik]

hi you cant have corys in a 30L tank , they like big areas were they can swim free. actually i dont think one should have an aquarium less the 60L. in my 5 years experience i have never used salt.

[Deb]

Is it too late to post and do any good on this topic? I hope not. This is what I think:

The Betta is the problem. Bettas donâ??t like to share small spaces with companions, and active all-over-the-tank platies would be both annoying and intimidating to the slow-moving, territorial Betta. Especially, in what is essentially an 8 gallon bowl.

Clean fin tears are not fin rot, but may lead to it if water quality deteriorates. Right now, Iâ??d say the tears are damage from fighting â?? whether you have seen them fight or not, they are â?? and stress. The Betta is more than likely being harassed, and retaliating. I could tell you a lot more about how Bettas act when they feel "cornered" â?? yes, even in a round tank! â?? and what they do to relieve their stress. Bettas are very much individuals, and each of them has their own way of reacting to tankmates. There is no formula with Bettas.

The cory is a victim of tension in the tank, and violence from the Betta. 30L seems small for the community you describe, and a Biorb strikes me as hard to keep clean. Is it? And why are you adding salt to your Biorb water? Ideally, you should have several corys in a much larger tank.

If you ask me, Iâ??d leave the Biorb to the Betta by himself â?? with some easy care Java ferns, and maybe a few snails â?? and get something bigger for a community of platies and corys.
Deborah

PS: I don't know what your fish store guy is on about - Bettas and platies can inflict damage to each other very easily. I've seen Bettas go at it with tiny African dwarf frogs, hammer and tongs; the Betta tearing loose skin from the frogs, and the frogs shredding the Betta's fins. In a small space, this can happen.

[kim m]

hi you cant have corys in a 30L tank , they like big areas were they can swim free. actually i dont think one should have an aquarium less the 60L. in my 5 years experience i have never used salt.

Depends on a lot of things... my cory-tanks are 12-160 litres depending on species (from C. pygmaeus to C. pantanalensis in my case) And if you have good filtration, keep up the waterchanges and don't overstock the tanks then it's fine.

[arc200uk]

Good luck with your fish. I think that the Cory and the Platies would need rehoming. Bowls arent ideal, and especially not for a fish which spends its life on the bottom of a tank. I dont like Bio Orbs...the makers make it seem as if they are helping goldfish out with larger tanks, but keep making smaller and smaller versions.

The Interpet AQ3 is a great small tank. Its cube shaped and is as wide as it is long (45cm?). It has about the same volume as a bio orb 60 but has a lot more substrate. I bought one for a quarentine tank:



Good lighting too! (2x 15 watts?) The entire lid is on a hinge aswell for incredibly easy access.