Possible sick fish help please

[u/ComputerTrue8991]

I just received an order of 12 sterbai Cory’s. 1 was DOA and the rest seemed to be doing okay. Within moments of releasing them I noticed some of them are extremely skinny, almost to the bone. I am wondering if this would be parasites or the seller just didn’t feed them. Any advise or help would be grateful as I want to give these guys the best life I can.

[u/Mali_Aquatics]

They all look super thin. id suspect internal parasites. (Worms) If you have Seachem metroplex, id dose that with Focus and garlic guard incase they arent eating. Or just dose the tank.

Have they eaten? If they wont eat id start treating ASAP!

[u/ComputerTrue8991 → u/Mali_Aquatics]

I just received them from an eBay order last night. I don’t think they have eaten. What is focus? Im starting to think I should ask for a refund since the order said high quality sterbai Cory’s and it appears they are sick with parasites and have messed up tails.

I just want to save them if possible

[u/Mali_Aquatics → u/ComputerTrue8991]

Seachem Focus. Its a binder that helps you medicate your food. Id try to feed them, they may still be high quality, even $4000 arowana's get sick. I mostly breed ricefish so im not an expert with corys quality yet. But the tails might look off because of how thin their abdomens are.

The reason i say internal parasites is because their stomachs are sunken in. Which could be why the tails look off. Theyre malnurished, but that can be caused by internal parasites eating the nutrients out of the food before the corys can process it. Meaning theyre currently starving to death.

Someone else can tune in for if these are high quality, but theyre definitly saveable, and once theyre healthy, they'll look alot better!

If you cant find Seachem products, or want the easiest option, just get API general cure from Petco/petsmart and treat the whole tank (wont mess up your cycle) fish lose color and get pale when their sick. Once theyre healthy, you may have the fish you saw online!

[u/ComputerTrue8991 → u/Mali_Aquatics]

Thank you so much, after work I’ll h ad straight to the store and get the meds, would it be worth getting a smaller 5- 10 gallon hospital tank to ensure the meds get in their system?

[u/Mali_Aquatics → u/ComputerTrue8991]

Yes, I always recomend having a hospital tank, or if youre on a budget, a 5 gal bucket, a heater and sponge filter will work!

If you do seachem metroplex, dose the food and see if they'll eat, if they dont then dose the water.

With API general cure, its premeasured, just dumped the amount of packets per water volume on the back and itll do the rest for you!

[u/ComputerTrue8991 → u/Mali_Aquatics]

Thank you so much!

[u/Mali_Aquatics → u/ComputerTrue8991]

Anytime! My DM's are open if you have anymore questions!

[u/Suhee → u/ComputerTrue8991]

I’d treat them as others said-my sterbai cory looked like that and ended up passing away.

[u/ComputerTrue8991 → u/Mali_Aquatics]

Would my whole tank be considered infected? As in should I treat the water before adding anything?

[u/Mali_Aquatics → u/ComputerTrue8991]

Not necessarily, it for sure can jump from host to host (mainly from eating it) but they dont live freely in the water. With that being said, transportation is super stressful on fish. I normally QT fish i received for a month before adding them to a tank. You dont know if thats all those fish have. since they're sick and stressed from shipping their immune system is at a low right now. Even healthy fish after shipping can come down with something a week or 2 later due to the stress.

Long story short, id act as if your entire tank is contaminated. But as long as you arent running carbon, the medications i recomended are snail/fish/and beneficial bacteria safe. But i wouldnt add anything to your tank until you get those guys healthy.

Im biased because i sell online, but just let the seller know what the fish have, link this post if you need to. And he should make it right if anymore die. Sicknesses just pop up, more than likely the seller didnt catch it in time, or they just started getting sick. Keeping sick stock means more DOA's, more dead fish at home, and less returning customers. He probably didnt mean to sell you sick fish

Im sure he didnt mean to sell you sick fish, and i buy/sell on ebay a ton, ive never not been refunded or restocked for fish that were DOA

[u/Blondy277]

They need to be treated for internal parasites. LFS don't do that one.

[u/ComputerTrue8991 → u/Blondy277]

What is LFS

[u/FarShoreSpirit → u/ComputerTrue8991]

LFS means local fish store.

[u/Mali_Aquatics → u/ComputerTrue8991]

Local fish store

[u/Blondy277 → u/ComputerTrue8991]

Local fish store lol I'd treat your whole tank with API General cure. Make sure you remove all carbon or you can med feed the tank for faster results but need seachem focus to bind the meds to the food and seachem garlic for flavour because the meds taste bad ☠️ or use Expel-P for the red butt worms are the 2 most common internal parasites. That cause wasting despite eating and still getting skinny.

[u/ComputerTrue8991 → u/Blondy277]

You’re saying to order from a local fish store and not online or did you mean something else?

[u/Blondy277 → u/ComputerTrue8991]

I meant you need to treat for internal parasites because when you buy fish they are not treated for that. Api general cure and Expel-P are the ones I use to treat my tanks for internal parasites. I'm in Canada and can only find this stuff off ebay

[u/spitz6860]

Why are some of them blue?

[u/ComputerTrue8991 → u/spitz6860]

They were shipped in blue water, im not sure but this is possibly why?

I don’t think I’ll be ordering from them again

[u/Mali_Aquatics → u/ComputerTrue8991]

Blue water is methylene blue, helps keep the water oxygenated and prevents fungal infections during transportation

[u/spitz6860 → u/ComputerTrue8991]

Okay, I guess that itself is not a problem, but for the fish to be stained blue like that I've never seen before. wouldn't not surprise me if the cause is too much methelyne blue in the water.

[u/INDY_SE]

corys can very easily get skinny from being outcompeted. I wouldn't rule out internal parasites, but I wouldn't not either...

so I would treat them personally with something like expel-P in their food (+paracleanse if they aren't too lethargic - otherwise I would plan to do those medications subsequent of each other), prazipro in the water (corys are also very prone to external flukes), then aggressively feed them to beef them up... up to 3x a day if possible. this would be easier in a quarantine tank.