Are My Panda Cories Ok?

[doraemon213]

I have a 20 gallon tank with 2 guppies and 6 panda cories, while 2 pandas were added for a few months with no problems, and 4 were added last week. A few questions I have:
 

1. I have noticed 2 pandas have been swimming up and down against the side of the aquarium glass A LOT. Is that abnormal? Are they being really agitated? I have even seen one of them "hopping" on the bottom occasionally too (I use sand substrate).
    
2. Also, when I put in sinking food, there's one (not the 2 mentioned above) that don't seem to join the others. He does seem to search on the wood in the tank for food though, but has never touched the food I fed. Is it because he doesn't recognize the "food"? Do I need to worry about him not eating enough?
    
3. Some of them seems to have white "specular" scale  (like, it looks like it could reflect light?) on a portion of their bodies, but not all of them, is that an indication of some kind of disease?

 
 I am very new to having cories (or just aquarium in general) so any insights would be appreciated! Thanks!

 

[KieranBoyne]

Hi. What temp is your tank at? Because cories prefer cooler temperatures. And is there a chance the guppies have been nipping them?? I saw clown loach do that a lot in my lfs. Thought it was just their thing. But it seems a bit weird to just do that you know? And what cories do is randomly shoot to the top of the tank randomly and take a *breath* so that could be it. Is the fish that's not eating off colour? If so, you should be worried. If you have noticed a bloated belly, red streaks, or ulcers on any of the fish that could be a sign of internal parasites. So look out for that...

if its been a week and he hasn't eaten, then there is a possibility he would be dead. Although fish can go a long time without food, a week is a very long time. What food do you feed? I reccommend hikari algae wafers. Good for all bottom feeders. Do get the small ones though, easier to digest....

And where are the white specs?? All over? Look up white spot and ich. Any cotton-like stuff on any of them? Or is it like grains of salt?

Hope this helped. Just answer my questions and i will try to assist you further.
I forgot about these:
do you have a test kit?
is your tank cycled? Do you know about the nitrogen cycle?
What is your ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, ph, kh and gh?
ammonia and nitrite should be 0. Nitrate, well fish can SURVIVE up to 20. But the lower the better really.
How well planted is your tank? Cories appreciate heavily planted setups i believe

 

[Lillefishy]

Corys swimming up & down the glass can be a precursor to spawning or sometimes they do it it just after a water change for fun.
Corys are not algae eaters, they get no nutrition from it, they need live or frozen food & a good catfish pellet, they're more active in the evening & at night so unless the lone one looks thin it's most likely it's feeding when lights are out.
The reflection you mention is probably just when the light catches them a certain way, mine often look like that

 

[doraemon213]

Hi. What temp is your tank at? Because cories prefer cooler temperatures. And is there a chance the guppies have been nipping them?? I saw clown loach do that a lot in my lfs. Thought it was just their thing. But it seems a bit weird to just do that you know? And what cories do is randomly shoot to the top of the tank randomly and take a *breath* so that could be it. Is the fish that's not eating off colour? If so, you should be worried. If you have noticed a bloated belly, red streaks, or ulcers on any of the fish that could be a sign of internal parasites. So look out for that...

if its been a week and he hasn't eaten, then there is a possibility he would be dead. Although fish can go a long time without food, a week is a very long time. What food do you feed? I reccommend hikari algae wafers. Good for all bottom feeders. Do get the small ones though, easier to digest....

And where are the white specs?? All over? Look up white spot and ich. Any cotton-like stuff on any of them? Or is it like grains of salt?

Hope this helped. Just answer my questions and i will try to assist you further.
I forgot about these:
do you have a test kit?
is your tank cycled? Do you know about the nitrogen cycle?
What is your ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, ph, kh and gh?
ammonia and nitrite should be 0. Nitrate, well fish can SURVIVE up to 20. But the lower the better really.
How well planted is your tank? Cories appreciate heavily planted setups i believe

 

• Temperature is at 78F. It is higher than I wanted because of the weather here is getting really hot these days. My heater is set to 75F but obviously that wouldn't do anything to help cool down the water.
• I haven't seen the guppies nipping them, at least whenever I watch them, so I don't think that's an issue.
• The white specs are on the body around the pectoral fins, they don't look like white spots / ich to me, and don't really look like ulcers either. Honestly I don't remember if they already came with those scales when I got them, so I wonder if it's any kind of disease or is it just some panda cories look like that.
• I feed them Hikari sinking wafers, sounds like what you are recommending! And I feed like 3 wafers every 2 days.
• I do know what nitrogen cycle and do have a test kit. pH is 7.6, ammonia, nitrite and nitrate are all 0. What are kh and gh?
• The tank is lightly planted with just one java fern. 1 piece of wood and 1 big rock, 1 small rock.
• The lone one that is not eating doesn't look like it is off color, and I don't know if he eats when lights are out.

 
Here is a link to the video I just took from the side of the tank that they kept swimming against.
 
Thanks for all the replies! More help is appreciated!

 

[KieranBoyne]

Hi again and thanks for the update. I agree totally with what the previous answerer said. Sorry to confuse you. And i have no experience with any corydoras species soo.... Anyways, are that sinking catfish wafers or algae wafers? And as cories are nocturnal like many bottom feeders, they prefer to feed when the lights are off. So what i would do is just pop the food for the cories in first, and then turn the lights off straight away. That's just my opinion but hey ho.

Gh and kh are general hardness and carbonate hardness respectively. I don't believe they are as lethal as others such as ammonia and nitrite, but it must be the correct hard/softness if you want your fish to thrive i believe. It doesn't have to be spot on, just there abouts lol

3 wafers every 2 days?? Umm.... I THINK that they could do with feeding daily. Your not doing it wrong, just regular feeding is recommended.
I think more plants would do the world of good to them. So yeah. Hope this helped

And what they are doing in the glass is normal and abnormal... Normal because that's what they do, but abnormal because they are doing it so much. How is the filtration?

 

[Lillefishy]

The video looks like quite normal behaviour, though 78F is at the very top range for pandas, at higher temps there's less oxygen in the water so they will go to the top more often for a gulp of air.
If the Hikari wafers you're feeding are algae wafers then stop using them & get a catfsh pellet, new era or tetra tabimin are good & feed live or frozen food at least 4/5 times a week

 

[DoubleDutch]

Sounds like stess(reduction) cause of their new environment. They'll settle down soon. As Lillefishy says : Mainfood should be "meaty" : They are 95% carnivorious. I'd crumble the wafers/pellets so it's devided over the substrate. They'll get some if/when hungry ! Maybe scales are a bit dislocated by catching, transport aso. Drop of Melafix / Indian Almondleaf could prevent any further infection aso.