Substrate Problem???

Booswalia

Booswalia

AC Members
Apr 16, 2003
183
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Prince Edward Island
www.sonnys.ca
Hi,
I've had two cories in my tank for about 5 or 6 years and they've always done well. They usually hang around the bottom and occationally make a dart for the surface, but not very often.
Lately, they've been hanging around the surface almost constantly. They don't appear to be sick or anything.

It's a planted tank and the only thing that has changed is that I added a few new plants; some cabomba, and some ludwigia. Ph is 6.8, nitrates are 20 and the other fish seem fine.

They seem to almost stick their heads right out of the water at times as if they were gasping for oxygen, but there's plenty in the tank, I'm sure with it being heavily planted.

Any ideas what might be happening to them? Could it be my substrate?

Thanks for any ideas.

Shirley
 
Your nitrates, at 20 are high. Do they always run that high? Most people try to keep them in the 5-10ppm area, making sure that there is N available for the plants, but protecting the fish.
If this is a Nitrate spike, I would suggest that you do a 50% water change and keep an eye on it cause the water change will alleviate the situation(unless you have a high level of nitrates in your tap water), but doesn't explain the high nitrate level.
Len
 
no, dont worry about your substrate, its got nothing to do wit htat as any chemicals coming from that will spread evenly through the water column. firstly id see if putting more oxygen i nthe water helps, ie adding a few airators, i know if its a planted tank, you dont want this adjitation, but it will be good to try and see, if this doesnt work then you can know that it is somehting wrong with your water, or maybe the temp of the water.
i you dont have the test kits required to test your water, take it to your lfs and get them to test it for you
BiG EaRs
 
The nitrates in my tap water come out at about 10ppm, but I will try a partial water change this evening. I would think if it was oxygen, the other fish would be gulping as well, but they're not.

The temp. Hmmmm, I haven't checked that........

At first I thought they were just happy. :confused:

I'll check out the temp this evening.

Thanks.
 
I moved one of them to my other tank which has been set up for about 3 months and he is still hanging around at the surface.

What ever it is.....the other fish are not being affected. That's why I thought the substrate might be causing a problem.
 
Just a thought.....isn't 5 or 6 years getting UP THERE in years for corys? I would think it weird for both of them to be experiencing gill problems at the same time from old age, but who knows.

Maybe the plant had some unknown pathogen?
 
I moved the two of them into a temporary tank. They seem to be exhausted from swimming at the top.

Guess I'll just have to wait and see now.

s
 
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