Bronze Cory Disease

Question
Hi Nick,

I have had a long running issue with one of my bronze corrys, and unfotunately today he died.  He broke out with what looked like a covering of fungus(white dusting over body).  I treated with antifungus tratment and the fungus rduced but did not disapear.  I have treated again but still he has a light dusting.  Today he was hanging out at the top of tank for a few hours before he died. On inspection I could see no signs of desease.  Please can you offer any advise as now my other corries are now showing signs of rapid gill movement.

Background information on my tank, I have a planted 96 litre tank fitted with an external fluval 105 filter.  My tank is stocked with 4 cherry bard, 6 black skirt tetras, 4 emperor tetra and 4 bronze corries. I carry out a regular 10% water change each week, and thw water parameters are, Ph 8, Ammonia near zero, nitrite and nitrate levels are also normal.  

I have also read that coppersafe is an effective way of treating all external parasites but may effect bronze corries negatively, can this be used to treat?

Any advise would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Steve

Answer
It is not fungus, it is a very common disease called Ich.

Very contagious and fast spreading, ich will usually wipe out everything in the tank if one member gets it. On normal fish it is easy to treat, however on scaless fish like cories it is sometimes impossible to get rid off.

Add about a tablespoon of aquarium salt for every 10 gallons of water, and slowly raise the water temperature up to 82F.

Also, what do you mean when you say nitrates are normal? It shouldn't be over 20ppm for long periods of time. You should be doing 20% water changes twice a week anyways, especially when there is ich like this.

One more thing, ammonia should NEVER be near 0. It should ALWAYS, ALWAYS be exactly 0. No higher. Even 0.25ppm is much too high. If your ammonia even shows up on the test kit you are in trouble.

-Nick