HELP! I think my cory cats have Velvet!!!

[jazzguitar1980]

HELP!

My cory is breathing really heavy (gills moving fast) and has some kind of a coating on him (started as white spots). He is very lethargic. This is my third corycat to act this way and I know what is going to happen if I don't do something quick! I am new to the fish world and need all the advice I can get. I am afraid to use aquarium salt b/c I don't want to hurt my cory cats. As of now my tetras are all acting fine.

I just did a 30% water change and tested all my levels at the fish store (they said they are all great). The water is 78 degrees.

HELP!

- Jason

 

[captaincrampton]

did u use a water additive to get rid of chlorine because it could be chlorine poisoning. It could also be white spot, or it could be skin and gill flukes. or it could be velvet like you think. What other symptoms does he have? Does he demonstrate any irregular behaviors?

 

[ct-death]

Do you have salt in your tank? Added any fish lately?

Without knowing too much I would guess Ich. Are the white spots granular, more like salt grains, or fuzzy? How is his behavior now?

See here for a great writeup on Ich (also has pics!): http://www.aquariacentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=88601

What exactly 'were' your water readings? Is your tank cycled?

Thanks

 

[hellocatfish]

OMG, that's awful. Well you know what, I have just had really great luck with Jungle Buddy Anti Parasite tablets. I had gotten a very infested Betta who had Velvet, Anchor Worm, and Dropsy all develop into a full blown infestation a few hours after I got her home. It was my daughter's pet which is why I couldn't return it, plus we had too much other stuff going on to make a trip back to the LFS. The Betta was in a different tank but because I have a limited space to work with, there was some cross-contamination of equipment and my cories all started flashing against gravel and acting sick. I immediately dosed the tanks with Jungle Buddies. The fish quickly recovered. The betta's velvet and anchor worm cleared up quickly and completely, but the dropsy was insurmountable and it did die, unfortunately.

Follow the directions on dosage level. I let it stay in my tank at least 6 hours, usually I just let it dose overnight, and then use carbon in the filter and water changes to get it all out. If you are afraid of hurting your biological filter, you can take your filter media out and let it sit in a bucket of tank water and dose for just about 3 hours before doing a change.

Take out all of your decorations and wash thoroughly with hot tap water and soak them in a bucket with the Jungle Buddy tablet. Live plants can be left in the treated tank with no harm done.

Salt should not harm cories at all, according to importers I have talked to on another forum who use it as part of their anti-parasite regimen...I have added salt to my tanks at various times while adding new fish to combat the effects of transport stress and it's worked wonders, so long as I remove the salt via water change within a day or two.

Jungle Buddies also makes an Anti-Ich tablet that should be safe for your cories, too. I have bought this but not used it yet.

I forgot to mention that the other times I had used Jungle Buddies was because I suspected some cories came in with internal parasites. One of the cories was too far gone to help but Jungle Buddies at least kept it from spreading to the other cories in the quarantine tank.

Good luck with your fish.

 

[feemia]

Jungle Parasite Clear tablets didn't bother my Corys at all, but when I used the Ich Clear tablets at 1/2 dosage they hid under a piece of driftwood and stopped eating. They perked back up again after a a few days and two large water changes.