my cory died with his tail and fins rotting, what should i do to stop it from spreading? and what caused it?

Question

I have pairs of Pandas, bronzes, albinos, sterbais and 2 more i dont know the names. then i added a ghost knife, clown loaches, danios and tiretrack eel. all of this in a 50 gal aquarium. den i used a submersible power filter, is it ok?

Answer 1

I agree that you are overstocked. The tire track eel and the black ghost need to go soon and the clown loaches will eventually out grow the tank.

The fin rot was caused be a bacterial infection. Poor water quality probably made the fish a bit more likely to be unable to fight it off. To help prevent the problem, reduce the number of fish in the tank and be sure to do regular weekly water changes of at least 25% and clean the gravel as you do them with a gravel vacuum.

If you see indications of this problem with other fish in the tank you will need to treat with a good antibiotic. The two -fixes mentioned before might assist in slowing the spread of the disease, but aren't nearly powerful enough to treat the disease. I would suggest Maracyn for the treatment and treat for a full 7 days. This treatment will kill your cycle and with your current stock level you will need to do daily large water changes to keep ammonia from killing your fish.

MM

Answer 2

Firstly you are overstocked and severly underfiltered. I recomend a canister filter which will circulate at least 200 gal per hour. This will help maintain good water quailty which is likley the cause of the finrot.

Seconndly the Ghost knife and the clown loaches grow too large to be in that tank, i recomend you take those back, they will undoubtedly contribute to poor water quality. I've not heard of a fire track eel but shuld it grow excessivly large i'd recomend it's return also.

Lastly Cories are school fish and should be kept in groups of at least 6, same with danios and loaches. i'd recomend you choose some corries you like and keep them in groups instead of randomly selected individuals or pairs.

The fact that you don't know the name of some of your fish indicates you didn't do any research into fish keeping and then randomly selected some fish at the local pet store. I think you need to do a bit more study into the fish you like and go from there. If you have questions visit www.fishprofiles.com, they can help you.

Also as for helping any sick fish in the future, do 25% water change daily and add Mela-fix and prima-fix to the water (fish antifungals/bacterials) hopefully they will get beter.

Answer 3

Eventually the Eel & the Knife will eat everything you have! Get rid of them or the others before it's too late. I know because I used to have them along with an Asian Gar & a couple of Oscars. I got rid of them all because I was sick of buying feeder fish & the constant tank cleaning. Cool to watch grow, but they grow VERY quickly & eat anything that moves that is the least bit smaller than they are. Awsome though!

Answer 4

The biggest thing right now is to clean out your tank to get the contaminated water out. Also change the filter because it could also have whatever got your cory sick in it. If you see any more of your first getting sick at all, put them into a smaller separate tank to avoid getting the other fish sick.
I hope that helps, if not go to the local fish store and ask for their assistance. Sometimes they have a good medicine that you can put in the water to kill whatever is making your fish sick.