Hello everyone! What a friendly forum. At present I'm from Abu Dhabi, UAE, formerly from Iraq.
Anyway, I'm new to this forum and got to it by searching for a solution to my corckscrewing cory!
I have been an aquarium hobbiest for 10 years and often made my own aquariums, all of them with an over 500 Liter capacity.
I have at the moment a 520 Liter freshwater planted community aquarium. Several days ago I noticed that my albino cory was swimming in a corkscrew fashion and could not keep a straight line nor could it dash to the surface and grab a gulp of fresh air. Only that fish was affected at first but 2 days later one of my 2 C. sterbai also started the same behaviour only more so. All the other fish were OK and the water parameters were normal. The albino could still "sniff" the substrate and seemed to be still capable of doing his job. The Sterbai however was in a very bad condition.
This did not look like swimbladder disease but I still tried the cooked pea treatment. I did not separate the sick fish because the aquarium is so heavily planted so I'm not sure who or what ate the peas. Anyway, the Sterbai died next day, but the Albino cory got gradually better and now, after 4 days he is back to his normal self, probably without the treatment!
As a side note, I could not find either my male or female Betta. I did find them dead and decayed 2 days later however. Thinking back, I think the cause of the sick corys was probably them feeding on the dead Bettas which were hidden under dense plants (might explain why the other fish were unaffected i.e. couldn't get at the dead fish?!). Just a thought.
Now as to what killed my Bettas and Dwarf Gouramies, I caught the Rosy Barbs and 1 (out of 9) Black Widow chasing the new Fighter! These were quickly sent back to the LFS and peace was restored!
Anyway, I'm new to this forum and got to it by searching for a solution to my corckscrewing cory!
I have been an aquarium hobbiest for 10 years and often made my own aquariums, all of them with an over 500 Liter capacity.
I have at the moment a 520 Liter freshwater planted community aquarium. Several days ago I noticed that my albino cory was swimming in a corkscrew fashion and could not keep a straight line nor could it dash to the surface and grab a gulp of fresh air. Only that fish was affected at first but 2 days later one of my 2 C. sterbai also started the same behaviour only more so. All the other fish were OK and the water parameters were normal. The albino could still "sniff" the substrate and seemed to be still capable of doing his job. The Sterbai however was in a very bad condition.
This did not look like swimbladder disease but I still tried the cooked pea treatment. I did not separate the sick fish because the aquarium is so heavily planted so I'm not sure who or what ate the peas. Anyway, the Sterbai died next day, but the Albino cory got gradually better and now, after 4 days he is back to his normal self, probably without the treatment!
As a side note, I could not find either my male or female Betta. I did find them dead and decayed 2 days later however. Thinking back, I think the cause of the sick corys was probably them feeding on the dead Bettas which were hidden under dense plants (might explain why the other fish were unaffected i.e. couldn't get at the dead fish?!). Just a thought.
Now as to what killed my Bettas and Dwarf Gouramies, I caught the Rosy Barbs and 1 (out of 9) Black Widow chasing the new Fighter! These were quickly sent back to the LFS and peace was restored!
