Melini Corycat - Red Streaks On Body

Hello folks,

My MelinI / Bandit Corycat has developed red streaks on his body (see attached pictures). Wondering what he's got and what to dose him with. I have both Kanplex and Furan 2.

Tank information -

Temperature - I had the temperature down to 75F because the fish were sluggish at 80F. I am bringing it back up to 80 now because I had heard that lower temperatures make them more susceptive to diseases. However, they seem more active with the lower temp. This is what I found online for acceptable temperatures ranges for all my fish:

Emerald Cory - 68 to 82F
Bandit Cory - 72 to 79F
Albino Cory - 72 to 79F
Rubber Lipped Pleco - 72 to 82F

What do you think I should keep the temperature at?

Water quality – water was last changed on 5/27. Before change: PH – 6.6, Ammonia – 0 ppm, Nitrite – 0 ppm, Nitrate – 5.0 ppm. Time between changes is about 10 days.
Used API Freshwater test kit.

Tank size – 20 gallons.

Water change - I do a 50% water change in the tank each week. First I vacuum the tank with a powered gravel vac (doesn’t take water out. Detritus goes into three layers of pantyhose. Gets the big stuff – food, fish poop, and decayed vegetation). Then I do a manual gravel vac (takes the water out).
I do not test phosphate, GH or KH.

Other cleaning - Running an upflow algae scrubber in the tank. Keeps the nitrates in check and gives some fresh green algae for my pleco to eat. I clean the scrubber once in between each water change.

I use a Fluval 50 Aquaclear hang on back filter.

I have a 100 Watt Eheim Jager Submersible Aquarium Heater heating the water.

I also have some garlic with the roots dangling into the water and that seemed to make them more active. Yesterday I put in a lemon seed that is germinating.

Cycled tank has been running since 2014.

Fish Food – Omega one veggie rounds and API bottom feeder shimp pellets – They get ½ round and three pellets during the day. At night they get a whole round and three pellets.


I'm thinking MelinI might have hemorrhagic Septicemia.

Looks like Furan-2 will treat that but I've been told that Furan-2 only treats stuff on the surface of the fish. The Kanplex is a broad spectum antibiotc and will work both inside and outside of the fish.
I normally go to the Kanaplex but I lost a Powder Blue Gourami about 4 months ago even after using the Kanaplex. Horrible to see the fish die. The bottm of his gill under his mouth was swollen and he couldn't swim normally. Like he had swim bladder. I read it might have been Dward Gourami disease (not sure what that is exactly). Untreatable. Anyway, it was really sad to see him die.

So, what do you folks think I should do with treatment? Put MelinI in a three gallon tank and treat him with Furan 2? Three gallon and Kanaplex? Use the 20 gallon and treat everyone? Do both treatments simultaneously? Thanks for your input!

 

I would use the Furan-2 and Kanaplex together.
We need CindiL to look at this.

 

Hi, I think I'd start with just the Furan-2, it should be all you need as it looks like this just started. Are there streaks in the fins or tail also? Or just this sore I see on his side? If he has streaks in the tail then go ahead and also add in the Kanaplex from the beginning.

If you don't see an improvement within 48 hours I'd add in the kanaplex. Furan-2 will treat infections like this.

 

I guess I need to remember that not everyone's pH is 8.0

 

Thanks folks for your responses! He doesn't have any streaks on his tail. Just on one side of his body as far as I can see. Yes, I just noticed it this morning. He's had this before but it was a few years ago and I treated it with Kanaplex. Dosed the whole tank with Furan-2 today. I've only got enough for one more dose (2 packets for the 20 gallon tank). If the streaks don't disappear after the second dose I'll dose the tank with Kanaplex. The PH in my tank starts out at 7.0 and then gradually goes down as time goes by. Sometimes I'll add baking soda to bring it up if it gets bad but usually it's time for the scheduled water change so that solves the problem.

What do you folks think of the temperature? Should I bring it back down to 75F? My emerald and abino corey were doing laps around the tank last night and seemed to be really active with the lower temps. I think it was due to more oxygen staying in the tank. It could also be the addition of the garlic stems touching the water (maybe some residual garlic oil getting in there and helping boost their health). Or it could be that I got the algae scrubber to really start blowing out bubbles and it's increasing the o2 level in the tank.

I guess I'm just curious what brought this disease on (whatever it might be) and would like to stop it from happening again.

 

Your pH is fine for the treatment. I just have to take into consideration that the nitrofurazone does not work as well at my pH. I have had to do back to back treatments.
75*F is in everyone's comfort zone so that should have been okay. The usual culprit with septicema is water quality which would seem unlikely with your tank.

 

Thanks Cindy and everyone else for your help! I turned the temp back down to 75F. So far no improvement but it's only been about 9 hours since I dosed the tank. Hopefully the little guy will be feeling better tomorrow.