Cory Bashing

[ilovemyplec]

Hello, I am new here and new to trop fish too....

I have 2 peppered and 1 (did have 2 the other died) bronze corys....

Recently the smaller of the 2 peppered has been randomly bashing itself against the bog wood and the slate that i have in the tank, also sometimes the plants its buzzing around....

none of the fish have white spot (i am led to believe cats dont suffer from this anyway, is that correct?) and none of the other fish corys or otherwise are bashing themselves... this is a bit of a puzzler...

any ideas what this could be?

Help really appreciated.

x

 

[jollysue]

The only time I have heard of this, it did turn out to be a parasite. ttnjfttt had a ram I think it was that would dart around and bang its head. It had an external parasite that was biting it. This was her discription:

He is a pretty mellow fish, usually just lurking near the top, and in between recovering from his head bangs, he is acting normal, maybe a little more skittish than usual. This evening if he is still calm, i will try a salt dip. If he freaks out, i will wait, maybe treat the tank.

Basically the behavior pattern is normal -> freaking out, darting, head banging -> lying on the ground gasping -> floating upright, gasping -> hiding -> back to normal. It is the weirdest thing i have ever seen. haven't tried to feed him, simply because everyone else gets fed while he is on the bottom of the tank, just to get them distracted and to give him a chance to rest and recover. They may get some extra food tonight.

This is a link for a diagnosis http/www.fishyfarmacy.com/Q&A/behavior.html

From National Pharmacy's pg.
Q: The fish look fine, but then suddenly jerk and dart around the tank or pond.
A: Your fish are affected by Parasites.

Treatment: Treat the fish with De-Los in freshwater tanks -or- Praziquantel. in marine tanks

Does this soind like what the Cory has?

Corys can get ich, btw, but it is rare.

 

[ilovemyplec]

Hiya, thanks for the response, he doesnt really dart around any more than the others but he does bash himself... I cannot see anything on him, his skin is nice and clear and its really quite infrequent that he bashes himself, maybe in a 2 hour period three or four times, its not a constant thing. He eats fine too


x

 

[SJ2K]

Maybe he's just insane? lol

 

[jollysue]

Yeah, I'm sorry, but I can see nothing infrequent about bashing into something a couple of times an hour.

He surely does not mean to bash into things, so that indicates a sudden startled movement or out of control swimming. You might try a magnfying glass for a closup.

The Ram would be just fine for some time then he would just go cockoo and swim maddly into something. ttnjfttt is a very experienced hobbyist if the parasites had been easy to diagnose she would not have been at a loss as to why her fish was ramming its head into the side of the tank and knocking itself silly.

Try PMing her and see if it is at all similar.

But whatever the cause, you are correct, it is not normal behavior and you are right to investigate.

 

[ilovemyplec]

I havent seen him do it all day and i have been watching intently for long periods of time.... how do you treat the parasites? would the treatment hurt the cobolt blue lobster and shrimps that i have? would it hurt to use the treatment to be on the safe side?

x