[thendeathsaid]

Hi,

I have 7 pygmy corys in a quarantine tank. They've been in there since Wednesday. Just now I noticed that one of them has lost its tail fin; it practically has no more tail. The other fins look fine.

I cannot say for certain when this happened, because I haven't been looking at each of them very closely, but the cory's lack of a tail was so obvious when I looked at the tank just now that I find it hard to believe that I could have missed it over the past two days. I know at least that when I got them all from the fish store, they all had tails.

I have changed their water more than 50% twice since Wednesday, as the tank they're in isn't cycled and it's a bit small for that number (5.5 gal).

Anyway I don't have a spare tank on hand, so I put her in a plastic container with a low water level since she seems to be having trouble swimming. It's a very small container, though.

How do I go about treating this? Could it be anything else besides tail rot? Should I do anything to the larger tank with the rest of them?

 

[NeonFlux]

Hmm.. I think you should just go ahead and put her back in the tank. Are the other cories bothering him/her? I think it's okay to leave the cory back in to recover along with the other cories. Just keep up with the daily water changes and it should be fine. Good luck.

 

[thendeathsaid]

They're not bothering her, I think. She seems otherwise completely fine, just that she can't swim as well, so I was worrying that she might not be able to reach the surface to gulp air. But I turned my airstone up on high and they like playing in the bubbles so I think it should be ok. Thanks! So there's no need for any treatment, and the tail will grow back on its own?

 

[NeonFlux]

Yep, the tail should be able to grow back in time with clean water.

 

[jimscott]

If it is a bacterial infection, you can treat the fish in the hospital tank with Tetracycline. That works very well and arrests bacterial infections within a day or two. And then you do water changes to get things back to normal.

 

[Flint]

Clean water is always the best treatment for fin rot. Meds are almost never necessary unless it produces a secondary infection.

 

[thendeathsaid]

Okay, thanks for the help!