Sick cories

[loachmom]

Hi,

I have been having some trouble with my Corydoras pygmaeus. Several weeks ago, I found one that was missing its tail. I thought it was a natural deformity, but then the cory died. Now I have two more that are missing their whole tail, and two that are missing just the lower half of their tail. The two that are missing their whole tail are lethargic and breathing quickly.

I'm starting to think that I have skin or gill flukes in my tanks since I have a platy in another tank that had small grey patches on her skin, and now she is breathing heavily and it looks like her gill filaments are hanging down from her gills. It's some kind of clear strings that are hanging from her gills. Anyway, I'm adding salt to the tanks, and I've also started treating the cory tank with Jungle Anti-External Parasite med. As a precaution, I bought some Jungle Anti-Bacteria Medicated Fish Food to feed to the cories.
Hopefully, I won't lose any more fish. I've been doing lots of water changes in the cory tank since I want them to spawn, so I don't think this tail rot is due to poor water quality. There are a few baby platies in the same tank that seem unaffected, also there are about 6 cories that seem perfectly healthy.
Thanks for listening. Also, I welcome any advice.

[mistergreen]

hey,
Hope the cories do better. Just curious, did you introduced something new to the tank when the tails started to disappear?

[loachmom]

Thanks mistergreen.

When I first noticed that one was missing a tail, he was in my 30 gallon with kuhli loaches, harlequin rasboras, one lone habrosus cory, cherry shrimp and a mystery snail. All those fish had been together for some time. Now the cories are in a 10 gallon with just shrimp, snails, and a few 1/2" platy babies. The tails still disappeared.

The harlequins are still very healthy and so are the kuhlis.

Well, actually, now that I think about it, I did lose the P. anguillaris that was in with the cories in the 30 gallon. He was breathing rapidly shortly before he died.

[bevans]

I think I may have something similar in the skin fluke line in my 125. Flashing and small grey patches on some of my guppies. The cories look all right so far. Is there some antiparasitic medicine I can try? I've got java fern in this tank too, so I need to know how plants react to whatever I try.

[loachmom]

Hi Brenda,

I'm not sure what to tell you. I used Prazipro once, and it did not hurt any of my plants. I think it may have helped with the flukes I was treating for at the time. I wish I had some now, but I can only order it online.

I added Jungle Parasite Guard to my tank yesterday, and I don't recommend it. The fish look terribly stressed and some have died. Also, I've just lost all the shrimp in that tank, which didn't happen with the Prazipro even though the package says that it is not safe for inverts. I just did a huge water change, and I'm hoping for the best.

Hope your fish come through this OK.

[bevans]

Thanks, loachmom! I'll look for it. If I have to go online, I will. It sounds like the way to go.