HELP!! Cory w/Fin Rot and Cotton Wool, I think!

Andyandsue

Ok, one of my albino cory cats had what I thought was a wound on one of its dorsal fins. I used some melafix and was hoping everything would be ok. Two days ago I noticed the other dorsal fin is looking really bad too. I don't see any other fins looking bad, and his behavior is ok, no clamped fins, etc. Continued with the melafix and last night increased the tank temperature to 80.

Last night I also noticed a little something on those dorsal fins. I removed him from the tank and was able to gently remove what I now think is cotton wool. I put him back in the tank and he seemed fine again, until tonight when I noticed another tiny bit of white stuff just on those dorsal fins. It's very slight, but it's there whatever it is.

I do not have a hospital/quarantine tank so I don't know what to do! Please HELP!!

Thanks.

Andyandsue

Update:

Since I had no replies I had to put him back into the tank, for fear of losing him overnight.

Just in case, I checked my parameters and they are perfect (A=0 Ni=0 Na<5) but I did a water change, added melafix again and put a tiny bit of salt in.

I know I am overstocked-but maintenance is not neglected. Water changes are always done & parameters are always perfect. My pleco was to go to a friend, but now I don't want to give her a fish with an infection looming.

Could someone please reply? I'm not sure what to do with my cory.

Falina

The cotton wool could be a fungus. This can occur if there is a wound and it gets infected, for whatever reason. If you think he had a wound before then this may well have caused it. Melafix should help it, but if not then therre are many medications available for fungus.

A while back I had a molly who hurt himself and then it went fungusy and I used "Anti-fungus and finrot" medication and it cleared up nicely.

I wouldn't have removed the fungus. Not sure it would do any harm but I'd be worried in case I further aggrevated the problem as it will go away on it's own when the infection clears up, and removing the fungus, if indeed it is an infected wound, won't make the infection go away, it'll just make it look like it's gone away.

I hope your cory will be alright.

Andyandsue

Thank you for the reply!

The cotton wool was very easy to remove, it came right off. I am more worried about having to put him back into my tank with everyone else... on a positive note he looks better this morning. No cottony growth, at least for now. I'm going to post in the maintaining forum in hopes of getting more response.

Falina

If it is fugus from an injury then it's not infectious so your other fish wouldn't catch it. The only problem is that you then have to medicate your entire tank.

Hopefully you'll get more responses in the other section.

fish_4_all

I do have a couple questions that might help to figure this out.

First is how old is the cory? It might be something that it is older than the others and just a little more sesceptible to things.

The second is does it look like the fine was ripped off in any way? If there has been any breeding in rescent days it could have been from the male grabbing a fin and being a little too rough. I actually isolated a male that was a little too aggresive toward the female when mating and did tear off the membrane between the fins rays.

Andyandsue

I don't think it's from mating. I'm pretty sure this one is the male. It's a young fish, or so I thought. I bought it at the same time (about 4 months ago) as my other cory, and that one is getting huge but this guy is staying small.

I do think the fin was injured in some way, not sure if it was my female betta or something else. I then think it just got worse and I couldn't tell-I don't know honestly. They like to hide during the day so I'm not sure what was going on until it seemed a little too late.

He isn't doing worse, but I am removing the cottony growth every couple of days by removing him from the tank into a "betta cup" size bowl and I am able to gently get it off. I'm not sure if that is a good thing to do or not though!