Something is wrong with my cory

captmicha

captmicha

Le tired.
Dec 6, 2006
2,052
0
36
39
Maryland, USA
Within the last week, one of my pygmy corydoras has started acting odd. It keeps leaning to one side and some times I even find it upside down. It looks like it's making a conscientious effort to stay upright but keeps tipping over. Its breathing looks fine, there's no bloating (as far I can tell) and I don't see any odd colors in it's abdomen (I think). This all happens when it's resting on the bottom of the tank. In the same tank, all the other fish are acting fine, very active and displaying healthy appetities. I have one other pygmy cory in the same tank and as far as I saw (hard to keep track of in a planted tank), it's acting fine too. There have been no new livestock additions for a while.

I don't think it's swim bladder disease because it has no trouble with buoyancy, its able to regulate its depth and its swimming looks normal.

Any ideas? I don't want it to die!
 
water changes and a good substrate cleaning.
 
It's quite possible there's nothing wrong with the cory. Cories display some unusual behavior, doing some of the very things you've mentioned. What seems peculiar behavior to us is normal to them. They don't all do it so you do kinda worry when you just see one of them doing it. Mine actually do fall over sometimes!! And there's been times I've sworn one of them was dead, only to put my hand in the tank and have the cory wake up and scurry away. I recently had a sterbai that wanted to be by itself under a driftwood overhang, instead of with the other 10 in the tank. It didn't look ill, but after repeatedly catching him off by himself I was almost certain something must be wrong. The something that was wrong was ME!! The behavior stopped as quickly as it started and I have no clue which cory it is now! So just don't be hasty to think he is sick. And then of course as we all know all too well, sometimes fish just die for reasons we'll never know.
 
Update: There are external signs now. His gill area is red. Not on the outside really but you can see that it's on the inside. He also has his mouth open. I found him floating upside down at the top of the tank just now, getting moved around in the current made by the filter. I think it may be an internal bacterial infection. I'll probably be driving all around creation today to find something for it. I just hope he makes it until I can get home.

My favorite local fish store went out of business and I've kind of been lost without it. They had nearly everything.
 
Now that's worrysome! I would suggest treating with Maracyn Two or Maracyn TC for a full course in a hospital tank.
 
K, I'll set up a hospital tank now. Oh wait.. I have my ten gallon up! Sweet! But the problem is that I don't have a heater for it. Does it need to be heated? Isn't it good to keep the water on the cool side since it's probably bacterial? My house is about 72 most of the time.

Or maybe I'll just set up a hospital tank. I have a 1/2 gallon and a 2.5 gallon. I have a heater for those. I'll go with the 2.5 since I don't have to go looking for it. Um, if fill it half way with water from the tank he's in now, and then fill the rest with fresh water and if I dunk the sponge from a filter into the tank that he's in now, will I not have any problems with any toxic spikes?
 
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For some reason it's not letting me edit my previous posts so... I found some Maracyn 2 an it's expired this month so I'll get more when I go out but I put the first day's dose in. He's lying upside down... I hope it's not too late for him.

The air pump is too strong for that tank but I have this filter http://www.petco.com/product/13796/...aspx?CoreCat=LN_Shopping_FishSupplies_Filters

Should that provide sufficient aeration? I know some of these answers probably seem obvious but when I get really worried about my pets, I start doubting everything I know because I want everything to be exactly perfect.
 
That filter in the link should be fine. Don't apologize for a thing! When I think my fish are dying I get a bit hysterical along with the worry. Hopefully the little guy will pull through.
 
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