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Corydora health

swyftfeet

Member
Joined
29 Oct 2021
Messages
166
Location
WNY
So two of my little juvenile Corys were/are missing barbels.

I didn’t change the water for 3 weeks then then there was a 2 week break before I got to it again, I’ve been doing a ton of morning to night work at my mother in laws getting her house ready to sell, painted 4 rooms/ceilings and completely redid two bathrooms on weekends, replaced every outlet and light switch in the house. I haven’t really had a weekend day to myself for 5 weeks.

I feel shame and only did 2 water change in a five week span and did top offs. I cut my ferts to zero this whole time.

I noticed there were some floaters which started showing blue green Alge and couldn’t ignore it any more

Yesterday I did 50% water change and completely replaced the poly fill in my canister filter.

When I turned it back on a metric ton of debris came shooting out the pipe,

This happened the last time I tried to deal with a small leak in the canister. But after it did I lost a fish.

Now today I lost one of the juvenile Corys.

None of the mature ones are having any issues with barbels and of all the wierd things I found a baby nerite snail in a freshwater setup. I’ve not introduced anything new to the tank in 4/5 months so I don’t think it could be a hitchhiker. thought those egs wouldnt hatch in anything but brackish water... Is that really a nerite?

But to the main question, one of my mature ones has a blister look on its underside but appears otherwise healthy doing his normal thing. Any ideas what this is?
 

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Last edited:
So two of my little juvenile Corys were/are missing barbels.

I didn’t change the water for 3 weeks then then there was a 2 week break before I got to it again, I’ve been doing a ton of morning to night work at my mother in laws getting her house ready to sell, painted 4 rooms/ceilings and completely redid two bathrooms on weekends, replaced every outlet and light switch in the house. I haven’t really had a weekend day to myself for 5 weeks.

I feel shame and only did 2 water change in a five week span and did top offs. I cut my ferts to zero this whole time.

I noticed there were some floaters which started showing blue green Alge and couldn’t ignore it any more

Yesterday I did 50% water change and completely replaced the poly fill in my canister filter.

When I turned it back on a metric ton of debris came shooting out the pipe,

This happened the last time I tried to deal with a small leak in the canister. But after it did I lost a fish.

Now today I lost one of the juvenile Corys.

None of the mature ones are having any issues with barbels and of all the wierd things I found a baby nerite snail in a freshwater setup. I’ve not introduced anything new to the tank in 4/5 months so I don’t think it could be a hitchhiker. thought those egs wouldnt hatch in anything but brackish water... Is that really a nerite?

But to the main question, one of my mature ones has a blister look on its underside but appears otherwise healthy doing his normal thing. Any ideas what this is?
As above, Cory's need a sand substrate, anything else, as youve found out, can and will damage there barbels.
Before anybody buys a fish they should check on its requirements first, if you can't meet the requirements then simply don't buy it.
 
My thought is that your substrate might have accumulated a lot of dirt and debris and the decomposition of these has lead to a bad environment for the corydoras.
Since they spend the majority of their time right on the substrate.
I would do some thorough gravel vacuuming and a few water changes in between when time allows, and see if that helps things.
They wouldnt say no to a finer substrate to sift, but I think the main issue with most gravels is that it traps so much gunk.

Your snail looks like Physella acuta or a similar species, what do you think?
These often show up unannounced, but do a good job as tank janitors. They dont eat live plants
 
As @Hufsa says I don't think you NEED sand but it helps in a couple of ways. The corys can sift it, which a natural behaviour and helps to disturb any detritus. The smaller grain size makes for a tighter packed substrate, preventing detritus getting between the grains and keeping it on the surface of the substrate where it's more likely to get pulled in by the filter or failing that, easier to see and vacuum up manually.
I'd say your substrate doesn't look too sharp so the barbel erosion is probably accumulation of bacteria caused by detritus in the substrate as Hufsa says. Younger corys (and I'd guess most organisms) are going to be more delicate, which is probably why it's only a problem with them at the moment but if left it most likely will cause barbell erosion in the adults. It's a really tricky one to resolve because they normally stop eating if they have eroded barbells and their condition quickly drops off, so best to get ahead of it.
 
That is white sand and black diamond sand. It’s just a close zoom.

You mean regular pool filter sand?
 
Is that actual sand or one of the weird hybrids made by crushing minerals or glass or whatever? We mean "real" sand, which is available from a number of suppliers. I think once anyone has kept corys on real sand they'll never use anything else. I got the unipac.
 
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