cory upside down and dying!?!

[saturday]

One of my four green corys is laying on his back on the bottom breathing very rapidly. He is sorta bloated, but was for the past couple days but acted fine until tonight. All the other fish including the other corys are all acting normal. I don't know how long this cory has been doing this as I just got home and happened to see him like that behind the driftwood. I've had these corys for about two months now with no problems and no previous deaths. What do you think it is? What should I do about him now?
tested two weeks ago:
p.h 7.1
ammo 0
nitrite 0
nitrate 5

 

[Holly9937]

Hmmm... do you have a qt tank you could put him in? have you double checked all your water conditions? You haven't had them for long, so maybe you just got a bad one, but I would do a large water change just to be safe, you might get better suggestions than that, sorry I couldn't be more helpful
Also, what do you feed them, anything different?

 

[saturday]

cory dead :sad
I started adding Flouish Excel a few days ago- the past few days I have been dosing 1/2 cap every other day- its a 38gal tank. Maybe did this stress/kill cory?

(I feed them bottom feeder wafers and sometimes algae wafers, yesterday I put in a green bean from a can but nobody seemed to touch it and I took it out whole today. I also have a green pleco in there that I'm trying to make sure gets enough food)

 

[Holly9937]

Not familiar with that product... What is it for? What other fish do you have? And do they still look alright?

 

[saturday]

Flouish Excel is "Organic Carbon for the Planted Aquarium". It is made by Seachem and was recommended on the plant forum. My tank is a 38gal and I have 2 angels, 6 phantom tetras, 1 lemon spotted green pleco, 3 (now) green corys, and 1 ghost shrimp, plus water onion plants, dwarf onion plants and some common aquarium plant that I don't know the name of. I also have started using Excel in my 20gal which I have 2 (adult though) bronze cories in, so if anybody knows if this stuff is bad for cories please tell me!!

 

[Holly9937]

I haven't ventured into the plant keeping yet, but I know that corys can be kind of sensitive. I would make sure you aren't using more than recommended and post this question in the plant section, those folks are pretty good. In the meantime, do a water change everyday, other day or so, and make sure all your water levels are good, hope it works out

 

[jenny cookie]

I keep plants, and cories. I use pretty much the same stuff as you for it, but I have never had a problem, Not a single one has died in my tank since i started using it about 3 months ago. I do use only half- three quarter doses, but still, they are great (they even gave me babies which are doing alright) But it almost does sound like a "poisining" with a type of chemical. I had that happen a long time ago with maracide or something like that.

 

[Beeker]

If it is just one cory, I can't believe that it is poisoning. If it were the other fish would be affected too. Maybe it is one bad one you got from the store. If the other fish are showing signs maybe you should lessen the dosage of the florish but the florish is not harmful to fish.

 

[benedictj]

A single cap of Excel every third day is way below the recommended dose. I think you can definitely rule it out. (I use about that much in my planted Nannacara 10g every three days with light co2 injection. No problems).

My guess is that it was a pre-exsisting thing with the cory. Also, sounds like it could possibly have been swim bladder disease, though it's hard to tell. Also sounds like it could have been gas bubble...do you use any aerosol pr spray cleaning products near the tank? Have you ever done a wc without dechlorination (I've done this once or twice)?

 

[saturday]

What is "gas bubble"? I don't use areosol near the tank nor have I done a water change withour declor. It seems like he should've died sooner if it was something he came with , but the only other time I've had fish die is some pencil fish within two days after I got them, so I don't know too much about it. I just want to make sure that if it is something I am doing, I figure it out before more die. -All the rest of my fish still seem fine this morning.