Pygmy Cory - Another Problem!

As per previous posts, I've had 6 pygmy cories since the end of Dec but have had 3 fatalities within the past 3 months.  Since the last fatality, and over the past week, the remaining 3 have actually become more lively and active than I’d anticipated, given their depletion in numbers and smaller size .v. the other 12.

Last night, however, I noticed that the liveliest fish seemed to have 1-2 white ‘bulges’ near its vent –hernia-like and/or as though the fish is constipated and having trouble passing the waste (although it doesn’t seem to be the waste itself on the outside of the body). This morning, the situation has been the same - 2 of these white, hernia-like protrusions/bulges at the base of the anal fins.  There is also a bit of redness in the area between the anal fins which looks as though it’s from the strain of these protrusions as it’s not raw / bloodstreak-like. I’m almost certain that this is the same fish that looked as though it had redness in exactly the same area recently (but which I put down to it having trouble passing its red micro pellets and which seemed to disappear once I stopped feeding the red micro pellets).

I’ve “googled” ‘swollen anal fins’ and it seems as though a couple of instances of this in other fish forums have occurred, each of which resolved themselves.  One suggestion was constipation – and, certainly, that is a possibility given that I only feed them dried food (flakes, micro-pellets), with a chopped pea once a week. I had been feeding them gelled daphnia (Tetra Delice) but, given the problems the cories had been having, and given problems which occurred many years ago with my goldfish after frozen food (I’d wondered if pathogens had been inadvertently introduced), I’ve been reluctant to go down that route. Given that this fish otherwise seems very contented, I’m reluctant to move it into the QT unless absolutely necessary.

Any suggestions of what to do, other than wait and see, and perhaps a pea in lieu of their dinner this evening, welcome; thanks.

I simply don't know what to make of the situation now!

This afternoon, I saw a harlequin chasing and taking a nip at the anal fin of one of the other two cories; he seemed to curl up for a half a minute or so, then resumed going about his business - but I noticed he'd lost his left anal fin, although is otherwise fine.

Now I've noticed that one of the two protrusions/bulges has come off the other cory (the one this post was originally about), leaving only a fragment of its left anal fin; whether this protrusion/bulge fell off of its own accord and tore off the anal fin with it, or whether another fish took a nip at it too or whether this happened during the mating-type behaviour that goes on between the pygmy cories, I don't know. I think any are plausible as the tetras and harlequins do have a tendency to swim up close behind the cories when they're foraging, to get any tiny morsels of food that come out of the substrate, and snap the food. Biting off the tail/part of the tail of another cory during mating-type behaviour was responsible for at least one, if not two, of the tail-less states of two previous cories. However, this cory is now left with one protrusion/bulge with the remaining anal fin looking slightly fungal.

I'll see what happens once the pea is eaten - all cories are busily foraging around its pieces.

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There you go fcmf 

Unfortunately the same fish looked as though one of its two anal fin 'stumps' was looking pink/red around/on the outside of it last night. [NB. It may be the pelvic fins as, looking closely at the pygmy cory, the fins towards the end of the torso area seem to be the second set of fins while the anal fins seem to be close to the caudal fin at the end of its long caudal peduncle. Anyway, it's the same fins as in this previous set of posts on this thread.] This morning, this pink/reddishness was still there, but additionally the fin 'stump' has got the same whitish swelling as it had before. It almost looks as though the fin 'stump' is pus-filled, with a slight fungus-type 'cloud' surround on it. This is identical to the last time.

As I had ultimately decided that this might be an anal prolapse, and it seemed to clear up just after I'd been feeding pea to the tank (coincidentally or not), I've been feeding chopped pea or courgette twice weekly recently, for preventative reasons. I'm less convinced that an anal prolapse is the correct diagnosis, now that I've seen the re-onset of this rather than only noticing it when it was at its most extreme. I will feed another pea to the tank today although I'm not hopeful that this will clear up the problem. The fish is otherwise happy and active so I'm reluctant to stress it out by moving it to the QT to treat with eSHa 2000, although I may review this later.

If anyone has any further thoughts on what this might be, that would be much appreciated.

The problem is that so many medications or medicated food that are talked about on-line are not available in the UK. With antibiotics, it is to do with trying not to create medicine resistant bacteria.

I think I would move all three to the QT and dose them with eSHa 2000. There is something not right with this batch of fish. Moving them might stress them but as they seem to come down with things where they are (including the fish that is in hiding - that's not normal but it could be down to the small number of them) leaving them in the main tank will also be stressful.

As an update, I decided to let the fish unwind from any stress during the attempted move to the QT earlier in the week and kept a watchful eye on the situation. Hiding Cory remained hidden for most of the past few days although otherwise looked perfectly healthy on the few occasions he did emerge, but Strange Anal Finned Cory's anal fin looked on the verge of a flare-up last night and, this morning, the other side of the already-half-width caudal peduncle on Bent Spine Cory had developed a fungus-like growth while his spine also was looking bent again although he was lively, active and inquisitive. I felt I had no option but to move all 3 into the QT during today's water change. It was quite an effort to catch each of them, even with a larger net. They've been in the QT with the eSHa 2000 but not looking at all well, and, apart from the occasional swim along the sides of the tank, have squeezed themselves behind the filter to seek refuge there. I don't think there is any chance of them surviving through whatever is going on... Part of me wonders if the fish would be better in their usual environment (ie the stress of the capture/being in an unfamiliar environment has worsened the situation) but the prognosis wasn't looking good where they were.

Given that the water quality is always good, and wondering if there is something in the substrate that's to blame for all the cories' problems (eg some sort of micro-organism living in it) given that they are closer to it than the other fish, I gave the main tank a much deeper clean than usual. Ordinarily, I use a siphon with an insert/safetyguard in it to "mow" through the upper half of the substrate, but, today, I removed the insert and so ensured that the entire depth of the not-very-deep (1-2cm) substrate was given a thorough churn-up and clean. About half of the substrate came up the siphon and I gave it a thorough swish in the old tank water - there was a lot of debris and the water quite dirty. As a consequence of this "deep clean", the water change was about 60-70%. Hopefully this might help the main tank, if indeed the substrate had any part to play.

I think it's now a "waiting game" to see what happens, unless anyone else has any additional suggestions?

I'm probably just "clutching straws" ie desperate to find some sort of reason behind all of this.  6 harlequin rasboras and 6 x-ray tetras are in the main tank.

The situation has worsened considerably - poor Bent Spine Cory (who behaviourally was absolutely fine this morning although physically not in good shape) was breathing heavily this afternoon and is now completely upside down and floating on the surface of the QT; he's still twitching/moving slightly and trying to rectify his buoyancy.  The stress of the move from this morning absolutely must be to blame for this acute deterioration.  A couple of months ago, I moved him into the QT and he transformed from being lively (but with damage to his caudal peduncle) into an immediate catastrophic depression-type state but immediately sprang back to life when I decided he'd actually be better off in the main tank - I assume putting him back into the main tank now is unlikely to cause a complete and miracle-like reverse in symptoms?!

I can hardly bear to go back into the room with the tank in it as the situation is too distressing to look at...

If you do put them back in the main tank, look for them a few times a day. The most efficient way of passing a disease on is for the living fish to eat the dead ones. Any dead fish should be removed asap.

Hopefully it won't come to that though.

The hiding could well be due to there not being enough of them. But I quite understand if you have no intentions of getting more after what you've been through with the ones you have.



If you do decide that bent spine has suffered enough:

Put bent spine in a small tub with some tank water. Put 25 drops of clove oil in a container with a tight lid, add some water and shake well. Pour the clove oil mix into the tub and wait a few hours before disposing of the body. Clove oil is a fish anaesthetic; it knocks them out first, then kills them. You need to be absolutely sure it is dead before removing the body.

Clove oil stinks - you won't be able to use either container for anything else again. And you might want to use rubber gloves.