Green laser cory looks like it ate a marble

[zendog]

I got 10 green laser cories in the PVAS all day auction at Cat Con. It was 2 lots, each from a different seller.

I put them in a 20l by themselves and as soon as I poured them into the tank I noticed one of the cories looking lethargic and it had a really distended stomach as if it had eaten a marble. It survived the night and has even eaten, but I'm not sure whether to cull it at this point and keep up water changes in the hope that none of the others are effected or try to cure it separately or even if I should be worried enough to treat the whole tank.

One thought was to give it a short soak in a gallon of tank water with epsom salt (1/2 tsp per gallon?). The rest of them seem fine and if I can save it I'd like to, but I do want to be realistic if I'm compromising the other fish and/or dropsey or whatever it has is hard to cure and it will just suffer.

It is still a juvenile so I can't imagine it is just a mega load of eggs.

Thoughts?

 

[mchambers]

I don't think I've ever seen this. I'd be tempted to move it into some sort of quarantine tank, just to be safe, even if it's just a bucket with a filter. I might try feeding green peas. I'd be worried about the Epsom salts, just because you'd be putting this fish in water that's got a very different chemistry, and that could lead to osmotic shock.

If you do put it in a quarantine tank, I'd give it lots of cover.

I should add that the folks who were selling the green lasers are two of the most respected local breeders, so I think this is just an example of weird things happening.

 

[zendog]

Thanks for your suggestions Matt. I think I'll go ahead and move it to a 2 1/2 gallon I have here and see how it progresses.

Although I'm not sure these were from local breeders since there were a lot of last minute additions to the auction and I don't recognize the emails on the bags, I agree that anything can happen with them being in bags for while, being moved around etc. so I certainly am not blaming the sellers.

So how do I get it to eat the peas? Do I chop them up into little pieces?

 

[mchambers]

Yes, I'd chop them up and see what happens.

On the breeders, I think the sellers were two local breeders who were selling from their rooms on Friday night. For some reason, no one bought green lasers Friday, which is why (I think) a bunch were added in to the auction at the last minute.