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Hi all,

One of my C. paleatus (female, 4.5 cm) suddenly has flatulence problem. Yesterday evening, I found her clinging to plants on the water surface, with head emerging from the water. At first I didn't know what the problem was, but after moving her to a quarantine tank, I realized that she passed quite a lot of bubbles from her cloaca and gills. I treated her with about 5 gr/l Epsom salt and it seemed to be working. After a few hours, no more bubbles went out and she seemed to have got better. I returned her to main tank afterwards.

Just this afternoon, I found her clinging to plants on the water surface again. I dont know how long she has been in this state, but when I moved her into the quarantine tank again, she seemed to have lost balance and couldn't swim properly. She looks worse than yesterday. Again, I treated her with 5 gr/l Epsom salt and I also massaged her belly a bit to help make the bubbles come out. There has been little improvement so far, but at least there's a bit of progress.

FYI, I also have a number of other Corys in the same tank, but they don't show any problems at all. Tank temperature is at 27C and pH is at 6.5.

Any help and advice on this matter please?

I'm no expert, but if she's stuck at the top of the tank and seems unbalanced, it sounds like she might have Swim Bladder Disease or gas in her gastrointestinal tract affecting her buoyancy. Neither are contagious so the other corys wouldn't be affected.

Lots of things can cause these symptoms including bacterial infections or tumours/cysts restricting the swim bladder, but if she's passing lots of bubbles it seems likely there might be gas in her gastrointestinal tract, which could be potentially caused by diet - particularly dried or freeze dried foods.

A trick my dad used to use with other fish was feeding a blanched pea to get digestion moving and get the gas producing food out of the tract, but I'm not sure if your cory would take something like this?

Thanks for the reply. Here's a little update. I am still isolating her in an emergency tank, but I lower the water level to 4 cm only. She doesn't seem to be having any problems under this condition (i.e. not clinging to water surface anymore), so now I'm trying to add the water level little by little, and now it's at 8 cm. She looks okay and stays at the bottom, but she still passes gas.

Still not sure why she doesnt cling to water surface while being isolated like this...

I don't think this is a swim bladder disorder because what cause her to be unbalanced is the air from the intestines that she gulp, not the swim bladder. After the air is out, the balance is back to normal.

I would step up your water-changes, feed very lightly for a week or two and if possible (might not be considering your location...) reduce the temp to mid 70s.

Occasionally, you can buy frozen live food from a bad batch. I was talking to a shop owner a few weeks ago and he remarked how he arrived at the shop one morning to find lots of fish had 'blown up' apparently due to dodgy bloodworm fed the night before.

In the quarantine tank right now, I changed the water everyday due to it's not have a filter at all about 50%. The temperature is about 25ºC(77ºF) in the quarantine tank and 27ºC(80ºF) in the main tank because I give fluorescent light due to having plants. Right now, I don't give any epsom salt to tank, because it didn't show any improvement so far. Just a plain tank with aerator..

About the food, I give her a little bit of Tetra Bits complete about 10granules a day, and about the daily feeding, I always give the main tank tetrabits and JBL tabis in the morning, and fresh live bloodworm in the evening. Of course I keep the bloodworm as lively as possible.
There's no sign of lethargy to the paleatus so far and other cories and plecos in main tank seems to be fine.

Edit:

Here's the pics of the patient:


and here's the tank:


I just realise that in her body near the right pectoral fins there's a small wound. I'm afraid that it might be a first symptom of internal parasite that cause ulceration? Last month, all of my Garra rufa and red finned shark were all dead beacause of ulceration. I suspected that all victims were attacked by some kind of internal parasite from my water source and just attacked that 2 species which is closely related in the taxonomy. But now I'm afraid that internal parasite maybe infecting this cory too.

That poor fish has multiple symptoms that can be seen in the photos. Bloat, popeye, discoloured, possibly lymphocystis, suspicious watery sacks all over - nematode infection or similar.

In light of what you've said about other fish you have lost recently, I think you should put this one out of its misery.

I found the disease, it's called Edwarsiella Septicemia, the description is matched with the symptoms so far. And right now it's devoloping a gas under the tissue debris.



You can see that there's a balloon like tissue in her back at the new photo.

The book I read suggest that I should give Oxytetracyclin orally, but right now she doesn't wanna eat at all

I think I'm too late to realize that..

About the bloated symptoms, it is because of the gas in her belly, she still passes gases right now.

oh that poor poor baby..

honestly, makes me cry.

I'm so so sorry.

Gina

Update:

I have looked Oxytetracyclin all over the city from this morning to afternoon only to realize that it is the same as Terramycin, something I have already had lying around in my cupboard.
So I injected her mouth with 0,1ml or same as 0,5mg Oxytetracyclin and she coughed and then collapsed instantly. I thought she was dead because she didnt seem to be breathing and moving at all and passed a large amount of gas from her mouth, cloaca, and operculum. About a minute later she moved a little bit in my hand and I aerated put her in very shallow water and put the aerator in front of her mouth. Then she had seizures every once in a while for about 10 minutes. After that her body seemed to be getting slimmer and she started to breath normally and tried to swim around, however she didn't seem to be balanced. After half an hour after the treatment, her condition seem to be improving and now she breathes and swims normally. Hopely she get better soon, I still keep her in the quarantine tank with very shallow water.

I based this treatment from The Textbook of Fish Health by dr. George Post, but it was very shocking when she fainted in my hand, and dropped down into the water like a dead fish.

In light of what you've said about other fish you have lost recently, I think you should put this one out of its misery.

Thankfully I hadn't given up and done an euthanasia.

Please keep us up to date as to how she's doing, yes?
I hope it all works out.

-Baba

If this fish gets better, it will set my new standard in the old phrase, "I've seen sicker horses get better." This will indeed be the sickest horse I've ever seen get better!

Good luck and I hope it does get better.

Scott

Today's update:

So I've injected her with another 0.1 mL of Terramycin this afternoon. It went pretty well today, she didn't collapse or anything, but after the injection she seemed a bit more passive than usual. She breathes and swims as usual, thankfully.

About her condition, in general it looks like she hasnt been improving. There are still a lot of gas-filled lesions on her dorsal fin and on several parts of her posterior. I haven't given her any food - should I be giving her any?

About Edwardsiella septicemia, here's what I've learned so far from http://microbewiki.kenyon.edu/index.php ... ella_tarda and the Textbook of Fish Health by Dr. George Post.

Edwardsiella septicemia is a blood poisoning disease that is caused by a bacterium called Edwardsiella tarda. E. tarda is a gram-negative anaerobic bacterium that can attack both fish and humans. Since its first discovery in 1969, there is little known about this bacterium. E. tarda is very dangerous for fish because it can attack the entire ecosystem of infected fish. When antibiotics are used to prevent diseases, E. tarda can create an immunity to that antibiotic so it becomes invulnerable to those drugs.

E. tarda usually lives in places with warm temperature. When the temperature drops down to at least 13C, they will die, but when the temperature reaches 30C, they will prosper. That's why with Indonesia's warm climate, it is very easy for E. tarda to multiply. Other species like snakes, birds, and even humans can become a host of this bacterium and release it to the water with their faeces. So when the water is contaminated, it is very easy for E. tarda to spread. When E. tarda infects a certain fish so the fish will have septicemia and on human, it can cause dysentery, gastroenteritis, and meningitis so we also need to be careful when treating. The infected fish can easily infect another fish in the same pond/tank so a proper quarantine of positively identified E. tarda infection is very recommended. Another thing that also helps E. tarda to spread is when iron level in the water is high, it will release Siderophore and Hemolysin. Siderophore will bind iron molecules on the host's cells, creating nutrition for the bacteria. Meanwhile, CAH (cell-associated hemolysin) fof E. tarda will split red blood cells and release the hemoglobins that are previously bound there. This hemoglobin comes out from the fish's epidermis, so that is why there are bubbles coming out of the fish.

E. tarda usually attacks catfishes that live in warm water and also Japanese eels. On my C. paleatus, the first symptom I noticed was when her belly was suddenly bloated and then she went up to the water surface to get more air. Coming up to water surface is usually a normal thing to do for a Cory, but in this case, the air she breathed made her bloated, causing her unable to return to the bottom of the tank. Her body became very light because of the air she kept on breathing. Why would she do this? Because apparantly E. tarda took out this oxygen. When the condition gets worse, the fish will start to release bubbles from the epidermis, hence the bubbles on her body, and we can see the epidermis tissues start to peel.

Treatment of this Edwardsiella septicemia is done with Oxytetracycline or Terramycin, taken orally by the fish by mixing it into their food. The recommended dosage is 55 mg per each kg of the fish once a day for 10 consecutive days. However, when the fish has stopped eating, we can try injecting the drug directly into the fish's mouth. After 48-72 hours of treatment, the mortality rate from this disease will gradually recede. Other antibiotics that can be used to weaken E. tarda are ampicillin, antifolates, chloramphenicol, ciprofloxacin, kanamycin, almost all β-lactams, and nitrofurantoin. Keep in mind that antibiotics such as colistin, glycopeptides, lincosamides, streptogramins, and rifampin have no effects on this bacterium.

Hopefully this little bit of information can help others out there when they face the same situation. The treatment I've done with my Cory here is yet to be succesful, so any advice, suggestions, and even corrections to what I've written here will be very much appreciated. Please help my Cory. Thanks.