[ludachris]

Sort of a follow up to "what's wrong in this tank."

I got these pictures earlier of one of my pygmy cories:

As you can see, its abdomen appears swollen and it looks to me like its eyes are bulging.

I also spotted another early but failed to get a picture of one that seemed to have a deformed spine.

And one of my neon tetras also appears to be having some difficulty swimming and a strangely curved body as well.

I think I might have found the answer to "why are my pygmies so lethargic?"

I have barely been able to find the pygmies in the tank, and at this point I don't know how many remain.

On top of that, a lot of snails and likely all of the shrimp have died.

Does this sound like the tank is infected with Mycobacterium marinum?

 

[susankat]

Welcome. can you post parameters? Actual numbers Please. Sounds like water quality to me.
Ph
ammonia
nitrite
nitrate
Water change schedule and how much.

 

[ludachris]

Welcome. can you post parameters? Actual numbers Please. Sounds like water quality to me.
Ph
ammonia
nitrite
nitrate
Water change schedule and how much.

I posted all of this information in detail not long ago. Every time I test the water, the ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, and phosphate are all 0. pH is typically around 7.6-7.8, it's hard to tell exactly with the API test.

I do a 20% water change weekly and clean the canister filter about once a month.

EDIT: I decided to go test the parameters right now and got the following results:

• pH: ~8 (slightly higher than normal, but as I've mentioned, the pH is always pretty high)
• Ammonia: 0ppm
• Nitrite: 0ppm
• Nitrate: 0ppm

 

[susankat]

How long tank been set up. You should be showing nitrates.

 

[ludachris]

It's been set up for 6 months and having no nitrates is completely normal. The tank is very heavily planted; I have never seen nitrates over 5ppm.

To be clear, I can't say for sure there's literally 0 nitrate, as it's not like I tested on distilled water for comparison. But with the color matching test it's not really possible to get more accurate. I guess I can say it looks like between 0-5ppm, but just by the color, it looks like 0 or very close to 0.

I also run Purigen in my canister.

 

[ludachris]

Got a few more cory photos

The one lying on the Java moss / hair algae bed is the one with the curvy spine I mentioned.

 

[Gamegurl]

How are your fish doing? I was doing some reading on Mycobacterium marinum but have no personal experience with this or diagnosis of such.
I imagine you have done your research as well. The treatment recommended is a cycline type product.
Pulling for you 😕

 

[ludachris]

It doesn't feel like there's much I can do besides stay the course and try to keep the water clean, the filter clean, and keep running my UV sterilizer. I'm tentatively optimistic because I feel like I've seen my remaining snails being more active than they have been. Need to do a major plant trim as well... Part of me wants to pull everything out maybe completely replace the substrate.