#sick fish

Hopefully it clears up, he's lethargic and isn't his usual self. I'll keep you posted.

I’m happy to report that Jason has made a full recovery! About three weeks ago, I noticed his eyes were bulging ( also called pop-eye or popeye ) and his scales were close to pineconing ( a sign of dropsy ), and that he had these awful, transparent blister-like growths all along his back and dorsal fin.

I did some research, and figured out that he had what’s called protein blisters or protein bubbles, caused by over-feeding of protein-rich foods. I’d noticed that he was becoming pretty chubby the past few months, but most cories are naturally plump, so I thought nothing of it until the growths became visible.

I didn’t want to euthanize him if there was a chance he could be saved, so I immediately put him on a strict regimen of being fed only half of his usual food every two days, and eliminating the sinking algae wafers from his diet altogether. To make him healthy, I had to essentially starve him so that his body would absorb the external fat deposits, which were the protein bubbles.

I was on vacation last week, so I left Jason, his juvenile emerald green cory tankmate Angelica, and the three neon tetras, with a 14-day feeding brick, most of which was unfortunately eaten by the pest snails in the tank ( which I am in the process of removing by picking out anywhere from 10 to 50 every day ).

In just three weeks, Jason has gone from this:

To this:

Noticeably slimmed down, no pineconing, no protein bubbles, and no popeye!

I had no antibiotics or aquarium salts to put into the tank, so all I did was do three 10% water changes, change the filter out, and help him lose some of the extra chub!

It's still very subtle, but undeniable. I don't think he's actually eaten in about a week.

One of them died last week. This particular female was acting weird two days prior to their death, and started to hang in the skimmer stream the evening before she died.

A few of them breath harder than usual and some have slightly darker backs. They twitch much and their fins are a bit frayed.

No visible spots, no dusting no frantic scrubbing on stuff.

They're not showing thicker slime coats and no visible worms when looking at them with a magnifying glass.

I used a med that cover a broad range of sicknesses, and it seemed to slow the progression.

It contains malachite green, and that's why I thought it might be velvet.

But other symptoms fit better for gillworms. Hrm.

I guess I will treat for gillworms this evening when the meds arrive.

I put him in a temporary enclosure with methylene blue and a bubbler. I hope I didn't add too much :( it's been a couple hours (don't ask me how many iterations of holding tank I went through [4])

The scales seem to have settled back in place, or maybe fallen off? It's hard to tell. He's a blue fish in blue water.

I really hope he's ok :( if not, maybe it's for the best anyway. I noticed a small tumor on his head a couple weeks ago. But I thought with the location he would have a good QOL for quite some time.

I'll check on him throughout the night, assuming I'm up and down like normal. Plus this bubbler is really loud and it's in my bedroom.

Good luck little guy :( I'm sorry :(