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Internal Parasites Ravaging a Cory


Demobanana
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Ph: 7.4

Hardness: 9-10

KH: 7-8 (the dropper was giving me half drops at some points)

Temp. : ~67 F

Ammonia: 0

Nitrite: 0

Nitrate: 0-5 ppm (All parameters from the QT tank)

Some backstory:

Friday I went to my LFS and got a couple pygmy cories. One of them was looking a little bad when the employee got them out of the tank (as in the others were swimming and that one was practically half-buried under the gravel in the breeder box). When I pointed this out, the guy gave me it for free. Fast forward that night, I could find everyone but him, and found him "resting" in the middle of a vallisneria crown, not moving an inch except slightly moving his tail. His fins were down and clamped when on the ground and looked absolutely terrible. And I mean terrible.

Of course, I panicked and set up a quarantine tank out of an old tank I had sitting around and popped an old sponge filter & some sponge from my HOB on the main tank. The QT tank is in the restroom which means its only about 65 F and I netted the very lethargic cory and dropped him in. I also put 2 tbs of aquarium salt in for good measure (the QT tank is 10 g) since I heard that those symptoms- skinny, lethargic- usually match internal parasites. The thing is the new fish really didn't eat that much so I never got to see any glimpse of white poop.

Right now I don't have access to anything online because Amazon's business days start on Monday so I went to my LFS to get some general cure but they were out. I ended up getting some frozen bloodworms instead, something I never fed my fish and figured the cory would take to. Unfortunately the cory now is just sitting in random spots, barely moving except his tail and pretty much discolored. He also sometimes just leans a little sideways. Doesn't help that the QT tank is cloudy but he really just looks terrible.

I want to get a medication but after hearing that general cure sometimes doesn't work, I really don't know what meds to get, there's so much. Praziquantel in Paracleanse, Levamisole in Expel-P, and god knows what else is out there. Also don't really expect him to recover. Anything you guys recommend doing?

 

also forgive me for the really bad quality pictures I have, this wouldn’t even allow me to post the video I have of the Cory wiggling. The top one is a relatively fine Cory I have compared to the bad one at the bottom.

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95D41AE9-B3A2-458A-8E63-446677D84F25.jpeg

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On 2/6/2022 at 10:29 PM, Colu said:

Your temperature on the low side for pygmy Cory's they like 72-79F I would raise the temperature he could be more lethargic due to the temperature being to low I would bring the temperature up to 72F gradually see if that helps

Upon closer inspection pretty sure he has ich too so that'll be fun to deal with. I was foolish to not get a heater in the first place, usually where I live it doesn't even get below 50 F. Probbaly should've waited and gotten the fish in summer. Any heater product you would recommend?

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On 2/7/2022 at 4:23 AM, Colu said:

Eheim jager heater are good quality if he has ich I would gradually increase the temperature to the 79F  and treat with ick x 

After hearing so many horror stories of boiled fish while you’re away on Amazon, I’m kinda wary, especially since it’s either 5 or 1 star reviews there but it’s not too expensive compared to the seemingly high quality ones going $50+ so I’ll probably just get one.

I’m assuming every fish in my main tank has ich too, will the gradual heat affect snails or plants?

also I got the heater and ich x on the way but what do I do about his appetite? Don’t think I’ve seen him eat once since I got him and I’m afraid he doesn’t have enough energy to go through the treatment. Is loss of appetite an internal parasite or ich thing?

 

 

Edited by Demobanana
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On 2/7/2022 at 4:28 PM, Demobanana said:

After hearing so many horror stories of boiled fish while you’re away on Amazon, I’m kinda wary, especially since it’s either 5 or 1 star reviews there but it’s not too expensive compared to the seemingly high quality ones going $50+ so I’ll probably just get one.

I’m assuming every fish in my main tank has ich too, will the gradual heat affect snails or plants?

also I got the heater and ich x on the way but what do I do about his appetite? Don’t think I’ve seen him eat once since I got him and I’m afraid he doesn’t have enough energy to go through the treatment. Is loss of appetite an internal parasite or ich thing?

 

 

The problem is while the temperature to low it will affect his appetite once you get the temperature up he might start eating you could also add some seachems garlic guard to his food to help stimulate his appetite if you worried about the heater cooking your fish you can get an ink bird controller also if your seeing no visible spots on your other fish I wouldn't treat them I would just monitor for now 

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On 2/7/2022 at 8:51 AM, Colu said:

The problem is while the temperature to low it will affect his appetite once you get the temperature up he might start eating you could also add some seachems garlic guard to his food to help stimulate his appetite if you worried about the heater cooking your fish you can get an ink bird controller also if your seeing no visible spots on your other fish I wouldn't treat them I would just monitor for now 

Ohhh ok thank you maybe it is the cold causing the appetite thing. Since my main tank is a couple degrees higher and my other cories eat fine I imagine it’s a mix of the sickness and temp. And is garlic guard just garlic? Have plenty of that at home, didn’t know fish were into it

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