CORY WITH 'COTTON MOUTH' TYPE SYMPTOMS

[1mysterygirl]

Hi guys,

Yesterday morning I found one of my Sterbai Cories to have a very swollen eye, and a small pea-sized area of skin in front of it was red with a stream of white 'cotton'. Breathing also looked rapid. 

I gave him a 30 min. bath in METHYLENE BLUE and got him into a 2g hospital tank (tank water with 25% wc), and started treatment with KANAPLEX + FURAN-2.

Very quickly the cottony mass bloomed and spread, also engulfing the eye. I had put in an air stone and a few hours later wondered if this is flexobacter col. bacteria then maybe the air was helping it along, so I pulled it. He didn't seem worse for that.

In the evening I did a METH. BLUE SWAB just on the face avoiding the eye. This pulled away much of the mass and the remaining seemed less white and more greyish after. The skin became much less red.

This morning the face was still clearer .. skin normal colour.. but the whole cottony mass seemed renewed.. whiter and full especially on the eye. Size of the eye was reduced.

I did another METH. BLUE SWAB followed by a METH. BLUE BATH. He then got a 25% WC and the 2nd dose of FURAN-2.  

(I also gently swabbed the eye with a clean wet Q-tip but no meth. blue hoping to remove some matter but it didn't really)

The pics attached were taken at this point.

I'm thinking I'm on the right track..... but wanted to ask:

 Can I swab right on the eye with Methylene Blue? or is there something else i can do to help remove the matter?

And any other advice you might have for me would be very appreciated,  and thanks so much

Attachments:

[Carl]

This looks like a true fungus.

If you can post parameters that might be helpful too since fungus is opportunistic and often starts in decaying mater or dead tissue (including on the fish)

AAP Wound Control (Merbromin) is a much better choice for a swab than Methylene Blue

Resource:
www.americanaquariumproducts.com/Aquatronics.html#wound

Also AAP Bettamax might be a better choice for a fish bath in this case:
www.americanaquariumproducts.com/Aquatronics.html#betta

Further Reading:
www.americanaquariumproducts.com/Columnaris.html#fungus
www.aquarium-pond-answers.com/2016/09/how-to-treat-sick-fish.html

Carl

[1mysterygirl]

Thanks Carl.

The little guy actually didn't make it through the night. 

You're right though, this does look more like a true fungus. If you had seen at the onset it wasn't; it was a very white stream of 'cotton' attached to the middle of the face, with a red periphery. It was only after treatment started that it took on this look.. and even after the swab did clear the other and the redness improved, this bloomed and on the eye. I should have twigged to that, so it must have been multiple woes - ugh.  

The thing that preceded this happening was that I had added a sand area to the main tank the day before. The fish, including (then 6) sterbais are in a 20g planted but with a small gravel substrate. I'd noticed 2 of the sterbais had worn down barbels, so while I'm working on building a stand for a 54g corner tank with a plan to move all there and have  a sand substrate, I decided to clear an area in the current tank and create a 'beach', try to feed there and hopefully prevent too much further damage to their barbels before they get into the new tank.  These guys mostly hide and this one especially, but if he came out at night and started sifting etc, could he do damage ? I hope this isn't a concern for sand generally. The sand I've used is Carib Sea Naturals (even says safe for bottom dwellers etc). I believe this fish was 3-4 yrs old too, if that's a factor.

Thanks for the article links, I have read all and always wind up revisiting when trouble starts.

[1mysterygirl]

One other question.. Is there something you'd have switched to for in-tank treatment over the Kanaplex+Furan-2?

[Carl]

Aug 26, 2019 19:45:09 GMT -5 1mysterygirl said:

One other question.. Is there something you'd have switched to for in-tank treatment over the Kanaplex+Furan-2?

Sorry you lost your Cory

While related in ingredients; AAP Spectrograms contains both ingredients in a synergistic and pharmaceutical grade combination that is much more effective and can also be safely overdosed (unlike the separate combination which also cannot be used 100% concurrently which is necessary for best results)

Resource:
www.americanaquariumproducts.com/Aquatronics.html#spectrogram

Carl