Cory can't stay upright - swim bladder maybe?? Need advice.

[Belltrain]

Sounds like swim bladder. If its old age im sorry but your corys time on this earth is up. BUT if its not I would feed lots of algae based food such as spurlina 20(should be part of thier normal diet). Only thing you can do is hope that she works it out her self, or meds. Corys are interesting and I do think this is swim bladder. because they scan the bottom with thier barbels maintaning an upright position using thier swim bladder.

 

[KarlTh]

Sounds like swim bladder. If its old age im sorry but your corys time on this earth is up. BUT if its not I would feed lots of algae based food such as spurlina 20(should be part of thier normal diet). Only thing you can do is hope that she works it out her self, or meds. Corys are interesting and I do think this is swim bladder. because they scan the bottom with thier barbels maintaning an upright position using thier swim bladder.

It's like I didn't bother. Swim bladders do not keep fish upright. They keep them at the desired level in the water. They maintain their orientation with their fins.

 

[Belltrain]

They thrust with thier Caudal Fin and steer with thier pectoral fins. The swim bladder is in affect the whole time helping keep the fish at the exact level of the water column that they want to be. It also helps maintain balance.

 

[KarlTh]

They thrust with thier Caudal Fin and steer with thier pectoral fins. The swim bladder is in affect the whole time helping keep the fish at the exact level of the water column that they want to be. It also helps maintain balance.

Not according to any fish physiology source I've read.

 

[rainbowcharmer]

Guys it doesn't much matter as the fish keeled over a couple days ago. It wedged itself (upright) between a rock and the side of the tank and probably couldn't get itself back out. Or maybe it just wanted to die upright. Anyhow, it's gone. But thanks for trying to help.

 

[Jannika]

Sorry to hear. It was puzzling since you said he was swimming normally and only experienced balance problems when resting on the bottom. If their swim bladder was impaired, it's unlikely they could be swimming normally.

The swim bladder is an air sack similar to a lung and controls buoyancy. Try sinking to the bottom of a body of water, even weighted down with 50 pounds of gear. Can't be done without relaxing and letting out most of the air in our lungs.

 

[Belltrain]

Perhaps it was only a minor infection or problem with the swim bladder resulting in this wierd keeling over. Swim bladder infections impair fish in many different ways.

 

[KarlTh]

They always result in either floating at the top or being stuck at the bottom. That is what swim bladders do; they maintain the fish's bouyancy. Keeling over like this can have lots of causes, so I don't know why you'd want to blame the swim bladder when the most obvious symptoms of swim bladder infections are absent.