Possible Fish TB

So at the beginning of my tumultuous disease-filled experience with keeping fish, I bought 3 cory cats and 6 black phantom tetras from Pet Supplies Plus, because it was close. I also got assorted angelfish, a pleco, and a glofish rainbow shark from PetSmart, again because of close proximity. So after my tank got ick which killed everyone (the meds did) except the pleco, shark, and cories, I started going to LFSs and even ordered online because I wanted a GBR. I ended up giving the pleco away in favor of another species because I couldn't get a bigger tank in time and he was growing so much bigger than his tank mates very fast. After I quarantined these fish and put the tank together everything was running relatively smoothly. This fight with disease has been going on very gradually over the past 2 months or so, so I didn't really notice it.
I posted in the forum before that one of my cory cats was experiencing fin rot and had some red spots on his underside where his fins met his body. One of the other cats had lesser fins as well. So I added him back and treated with Furan antibiotics. They were still quite lethargic and I assumed they were just recovering from the fin rot and they'll get better as their fins heal. Well I was wrong because the most damaged one died, but his red spots did heal mostly. I figured its no problem, they had a rough life and came from a questionable store. One weekend, within 2 weeks of the first death, I had to leave the feeding to my roommate. After I came back, I noticed that cory with moderate fin rot had either a missing eye, swelling around his eye, or some kind of cataract. Over the next few weeks, the white stuff around his eye receded slightly and I think he still had the eye under there. Anyway, I just assumed he was getting picked on my any number of potentially aggressive fish (GBR, angelfish, rainbow shark) although they were usually calm toward everyone else. That cory began hiding a lot and around this time I added 3 very young cories I bought weeks earlier and quarantined in anticipation of a die off when I saw his eye. So over thanksgiving, I went home and left the feeding to an automatic feeder. I left on Nov 25 and came back Nov 27 to make everyone was fine and no one unplugged them. I found the missing-eye fish floating at the top with some chunks taken out of his tail fin. I immediately removed him (my tank was cycled enough to handle a recent death). Anyway, I figured its just from his eye being gone. So when I came back to my apartment on Dec 1, this is where it gets odd.
I noticed the final of my original cories was being very reclusive. At first, he would occasionally come out and interact with other cories and eat. He also used to hang around in the cave my rainbow shark and pleco like but now he's always keeping to himself in the cave no one touches, just like the other sick cories. Well I finally figured something was wrong and took him out and put him in quarantine. I'm currently treating him with API General Cure. This was just last night, around 1 am on Dec 10.
Besides the hiding behavior, he also has a slight red underside where it's usually white, but I'm not sure if that's just a light effect. He also swims very erratically when he does swim especially the movements of his tail. His fins are messed up but I think he came like that, same with his barbels.
I did some reading last night and scared myself with talk of fish TB. The cories as a whole have some symptoms in common with fish TB like redness, hiding, not eating, gradual onset, long course of infection, long incubation period, labored swimming but that was only seen in the final cory. But there are still some symptoms which are different from fish TB like deformities of the spine.
What do you all think? Is this fish TB or just bad specimens? They did have a rough life with my at the beginning being put into buckets for 3-4 days while I bombed the tank with ick meds, I had no where else to put them, my quarantine tank was treating my shark and pleco. I know fish TB can come from contaminated water sources but I use tap water for my tank and I assume the fish store does as well, so I imagine if the tap water was infected with a disease humans could catch something would have been done about it.
Also the symptoms of the first cory didn't appear until ~2-2.5 months after I first got him in August. So its odd that the initial case was so long and then everything happened in rapid succession, one at a time.

<-- The final cory in isolation

<--The cory with eye thing

<-- First infected cory with red spots

 

So at the beginning of my tumultuous disease-filled experience with keeping fish, I bought 3 cory cats and 6 black phantom tetras from Pet Supplies Plus, because it was close. I also got assorted angelfish, a pleco, and a glofish rainbow shark from PetSmart, again because of close proximity. So after my tank got ick which killed everyone (the meds did) except the pleco, shark, and cories, I started going to LFSs and even ordered online because I wanted a GBR. I ended up giving the pleco away in favor of another species because I couldn't get a bigger tank in time and he was growing so much bigger than his tank mates very fast. After I quarantined these fish and put the tank together everything was running relatively smoothly. This fight with disease has been going on very gradually over the past 2 months or so, so I didn't really notice it.
I posted in the forum before that one of my cory cats was experiencing fin rot and had some red spots on his underside where his fins met his body. One of the other cats had lesser fins as well. So I added him back and treated with Furan antibiotics. They were still quite lethargic and I assumed they were just recovering from the fin rot and they'll get better as their fins heal. Well I was wrong because the most damaged one died, but his red spots did heal mostly. I figured its no problem, they had a rough life and came from a questionable store. One weekend, within 2 weeks of the first death, I had to leave the feeding to my roommate. After I came back, I noticed that cory with moderate fin rot had either a missing eye, swelling around his eye, or some kind of cataract. Over the next few weeks, the white stuff around his eye receded slightly and I think he still had the eye under there. Anyway, I just assumed he was getting picked on my any number of potentially aggressive fish (GBR, angelfish, rainbow shark) although they were usually calm toward everyone else. That cory began hiding a lot and around this time I added 3 very young cories I bought weeks earlier and quarantined in anticipation of a die off when I saw his eye. So over thanksgiving, I went home and left the feeding to an automatic feeder. I left on Nov 25 and came back Nov 27 to make everyone was fine and no one unplugged them. I found the missing-eye fish floating at the top with some chunks taken out of his tail fin. I immediately removed him (my tank was cycled enough to handle a recent death). Anyway, I figured its just from his eye being gone. So when I came back to my apartment on Dec 1, this is where it gets odd.
I noticed the final of my original cories was being very reclusive. At first, he would occasionally come out and interact with other cories and eat. He also used to hang around in the cave my rainbow shark and pleco like but now he's always keeping to himself in the cave no one touches, just like the other sick cories. Well I finally figured something was wrong and took him out and put him in quarantine. I'm currently treating him with API General Cure. This was just last night, around 1 am on Dec 10.
Besides the hiding behavior, he also has a slight red underside where it's usually white, but I'm not sure if that's just a light effect. He also swims very erratically when he does swim especially the movements of his tail. His fins are messed up but I think he came like that, same with his barbels.
I did some reading last night and scared myself with talk of fish TB. The cories as a whole have some symptoms in common with fish TB like redness, hiding, not eating, gradual onset, long course of infection, long incubation period, labored swimming but that was only seen in the final cory. But there are still some symptoms which are different from fish TB like deformities of the spine.
What do you all think? Is this fish TB or just bad specimens? They did have a rough life with my at the beginning being put into buckets for 3-4 days while I bombed the tank with ick meds, I had no where else to put them, my quarantine tank was treating my shark and pleco. I know fish TB can come from contaminated water sources but I use tap water for my tank and I assume the fish store does as well, so I imagine if the tap water was infected with a disease humans could catch something would have been done about it.
Also the symptoms of the first cory didn't appear until ~2-2.5 months after I first got him in August. So its odd that the initial case was so long and then everything happened in rapid succession, one at a time.
View attachment 642850<-- The final cory in isolation
View attachment 642851<--The cory with eye thing
View attachment 642852<-- First infected cory with red spots

In all the threads you've posted since October I don't see where anyone has asked you what your water parameters are, how frequently you do water changes or how you cycled your tank so I guess I'll ask you those questions now. Since October, you have put a lot of 'stuff' in your tank- salt, antiparasitics, antibiotics- it's possible that something is out of whack in your tank causing all these problems. Can you answer the above questions and we'll go from there.

 

In all the threads you've posted since October I don't see where anyone has asked you what your water parameters are, how frequently you do water changes or how you cycled your tank so I guess I'll ask you those questions now. Since October, you have put a lot of 'stuff' in your tank- salt, antiparasitics, antibiotics- it's possible that something is out of whack in your tank causing all these problems. Can you answer the above questions and we'll go from there.

None of the other tank mates are upset by the water, even my GBR which is notoriously fragile. Everything is 0 and nitrate was 5 or 6 last night but I did a small water change this morning. I do a 33-50% water change usually alternating weeks like one week I'll do 33 the next I'll do 50 to clean fake plants and such. And I treated for ick with salt in my quarantine, only ick meds were in the tank but that was in September or early October. The tank has since rebounded from antibiotics, the cycle to recover the tank from those had fish in it.
The sick catfish may or may not have eaten today but he did react to food in isolation. Not sure if that's a causation thing.

 

None of the other tank mates are upset by the water, even my GBR which is notoriously fragile. Everything is 0 and nitrate was 5 or 6 last night but I did a small water change this morning. I do a 33-50% water change usually alternating weeks like one week I'll do 33 the next I'll do 50 to clean fake plants and such. And I treated for ick with salt in my quarantine, only ick meds were in the tank but that was in September or early October. The tank has since rebounded from antibiotics, the cycle to recover the tank from those had fish in it.
The sick catfish may or may not have eaten today but he did react to food in isolation. Not sure if that's a causation thing.

What is your pH? On Sept 10, you listed a number of fish that were, or had been previously, in the tank. Were those the first fish you had put in the tank? Are any of those fish still alive and healthy in the tank? Do you have a recent photo of your entire tank? What test kit/ strips do you test with?

 

What is your pH? On Sept 10, you listed a number of fish that were, or had been previously, in the tank. Were those the first fish you had put in the tank? Are any of those fish still alive and healthy in the tank? Do you have a recent photo of your entire tank? What test kit/ strips do you test with?

pH is 6.8 and the only original fish are the rainbow shark and that one catfish. The pleco that was original was also healthy before I gave him away. I use the API 5 in 1 strips, will probably be upgrading but thought those were good for the time being when I started. Also water temp is 80 F. I have one Java fern among the decorations.

 

pH is 6.8 and the only original fish are the rainbow shark and that one catfish. The pleco that was original was also healthy before I gave him away. I use the API 5 in 1 strips, will probably be upgrading but thought those were good for the time being when I started. Also water temp is 80 F. I have one Java fern among the decorations.

View attachment 643015

Nice tank! So you have platys and a couple of angels in there now too? Okay, first my observations. The gravel you have in there is pretty but extremely unfriendly to bottom feeders barbels, belly's and fins. It's jagged, and large pebbled. Corys tend to 'move things around' when they're foraging and rough gravel can really do some damage to them. Same goes for the shark. I'd suggest switching to a smooth river gravel or soft medium grain sand. That may be all that's wrong with your cory.
I doubt that your fish had/ have fish TB, one of the primary symptoms of that disease is open ulcerated skin or sores, none of your fish have that. The other symptom that can occur frequently because of internal organ enlargement and other causes is the spinal deformity and as you said, none of your fish had that either. I think what happened is you bought a bunch of fish from questionable sources, probably didn't quarantine them long enough, may have had an ammonia spike some time after putting all those fish in there and that started all the problems: ammonia->stress->suppressed immune system->disease. My suggestions:
Get a good test kit that tests pH, nitrites, nitrates and ammonia and test your water weekly, before water changes for a month or more.
Don't get any more fish until all these current fish have been healthy for at least 3 months, and get a friendlier substrate (as mentioned above).
In the future, quarantine all new fish for at least 2 weeks in a bare bottomed heated, filtered tank and monitor the parameters in that tank closely, do water changes to keep all levels at 0.
I think you're over the worst of it now and I honestly think your remaining cory would do much better with a different substrate. I hope some of that helped, I think you just had a run of bad luck. Let us know how the cory does.

 

Nice tank! So you have platys and a couple of angels in there now too? Okay, first my observations. The gravel you have in there is pretty but extremely unfriendly to bottom feeders barbels, belly's and fins. It's jagged, and large pebbled. Corys tend to 'move things around' when they're foraging and rough gravel can really do some damage to them. Same goes for the shark. I'd suggest switching to a smooth river gravel or soft medium grain sand. That may be all that's wrong with your cory.
I doubt that your fish had/ have fish TB, one of the primary symptoms of that disease is open ulcerated skin or sores, none of your fish have that. The other symptom that can occur frequently because of internal organ enlargement and other causes is the spinal deformity and as you said, none of your fish had that either. I think what happened is you bought a bunch of fish from questionable sources, probably didn't quarantine them long enough, may have had an ammonia spike some time after putting all those fish in there and that started all the problems: ammonia->stress->suppressed immune system->disease. My suggestions:
Get a good test kit that tests pH, nitrites, nitrates and ammonia and test your water weekly, before water changes for a month or more.
Don't get any more fish until all these current fish have been healthy for at least 3 months, and get a friendlier substrate (as mentioned above).
In the future, quarantine all new fish for at least 2 weeks in a bare bottomed heated, filtered tank and monitor the parameters in that tank closely, do water changes to keep all levels at 0.
I think you're over the worst of it now and I honestly think your remaining cory would do much better with a different substrate. I hope some of that helped, I think you just had a run of bad luck. Let us know how the cory does.

thanks! I don't plan on getting any more fish, I always quarantine for 2 weeks in a tank like you said, I really did not want to risk ick again. The quarantine tank I have my cory in now has some gravel but a lot of bare space for him. As for substrate, I have been mulling over getting a finer substrate but my biggest fear is messing up my cycle. How would I go about switching substrate without messing that up?
The cory seems to be doing better but not sure if that's just a temporary thing but he seems to be moving more and it appears he ate the food from the bare area of the tank at least. Not sure how fast general cure works or if that was a reason. His barbels were always small and I never really noticed until I got my new batch of cories.

 

thanks! I don't plan on getting any more fish, I always quarantine for 2 weeks in a tank like you said, I really did not want to risk ick again. The quarantine tank I have my cory in now has some gravel but a lot of bare space for him. As for substrate, I have been mulling over getting a finer substrate but my biggest fear is messing up my cycle. How would I go about switching substrate without messing that up?
The cory seems to be doing better but not sure if that's just a temporary thing but he seems to be moving more and it appears he ate the food from the bare area of the tank at least. Not sure how fast general cure works or if that was a reason. His barbels were always small and I never really noticed until I got my new batch of cories.

Your substrate holds just a small fraction of the working bacteria in a tank. The vast majority is in the filter media where it gets lots of oxygen and water flow. The way I've switched out substrate in tanks is to remove half of the substrate one week, watch parameters closely (every other day) and if everything remains stable, then I remove the other half the next week and add the new substrate. If after the first half is removed I have any ammonia/nitrite problems, I start dosing the tank with Seachem Prime every other day, increase water changes if necessary, and wait for the bacteria to catch up -- then remove the second half of the substrate, add new substrate and monitor for another week.

 

I think that gravel is probably part of the reason your having problems. It hides a lot of nasty stuff, and very little good bacteria. I don't know your water change schedule but I do a lot of them and ive not had problems lately since going bare bottom. Doubt its TB. Plenty of other types of bacteria that are bad and live in the gravel. Especially if there were dying fish in that tank before!!!

 

alright so after his time in quarantine, along with some general cure, the cory isn't hiding anymore but he's doing this weird thing where he lays on his side for a while almost like a clown loach or he'll start to float a bit but then right himself. Also I've seen some corkscrew like swimming behavior. I've heard of whirling disease but I doubt this is it since that behavior has stopped. This has happened from Saturday-Sunday morning and I haven't seen this behavior today or last night. is it worth adding him back, should I wait more, or is all hope lost?

 

alright so after his time in quarantine, along with some general cure, the cory isn't hiding anymore but he's doing this weird thing where he lays on his side for a while almost like a clown loach or he'll start to float a bit but then right himself. Also I've seen some corkscrew like swimming behavior. I've heard of whirling disease but I doubt this is it since that behavior has stopped. This has happened from Saturday-Sunday morning and I haven't seen this behavior today or last night. is it worth adding him back, should I wait more, or is all hope lost?

I'd say, before you do anything else, go get an API Master test kit (or Sera) that tests pH, ammonia, nitrites and nitrates and test all your tanks- bad water is probably what started all these problems in the first place. I wouldn't put a fish that's acting weird back with healthy fish tho. Keep him in quarantine and keep doing water changes every other day until he's acting normal. Get a good test kit....My recommendation.