Cory having difficulty breathing

[cryosi]

stop adding salt to the tank for astart! cories hate salf! read the other topic about cories before posting any reply about the salt! thankyou... this is why your cory is sick because u add salt, if cories lived in salt water then yes add salt, but seeing as they live infresh water then do not add salt, if u want to give your fish salt for treatment buy an other tank to do so, if u can not afford to buy a tank then do not add salt to a tank containing cories makes me angry

 

[Macquatic]

Hi javajo, it sounds like your cory does have debris in his gills. As cories are bottom dwellers they would have got the worst of the muck you stirred up. I don't know of anything in particular you can do apart from keeping water quality as high as possible, vacuum your gravel and do a few water changes without adding any salt Hope the little guy survives. Mac.

 

[javajo]

Thanks for the response! Is there anything I can do to clear out his gills?

Any help is much appreciated!

Thanks!

 

[Macquatic]

Apart from giving him clean water, no. It's like you having dirt in your eye, sometimes it comes out easy, sometimes not - only thing is you can't rinse a cories gills. Mac.

 

[Danny - the lost soul---]

Question? you are not adding salt to the tank i hope. Cories do not tolerate the salt.

Corydoras are also very dosile and sometimes fall the victim of aggression. They tend to preffer the company of other corydoras IME they do better with a friend / partner.

It does sound like a secondary infection if the gill area is discolored or redish. The chances it was caused by the debris is slim to non. Now, there is a poss. that it picked up some nasty stuff and it caused and infection. But I doubt something got stuck in his / her gills or gill plates.

If there is or was an amonia spike this would cause the discoloration and behavior. I have had corydoras in the past that out of the blue have come down with swim bladder problems. And in most cases that is or can be caused by a foul tank. In this case a tank that got foul while cleaning. Just a thought.

I would suggest not trying to move him at this time because anymore stress may do him in. But, do suggest getting him away from the rest till he recovers or till you can determine who if any fish is picking on him.
Hope this helps. As we speak i am looking through to see what it may be or what may have caused it. book #1, book #2 will keep trying.
Danny

 

[javajo]

Thanks for all your help -

Unfortunatley, my sick Cory didn't make it. Luckily, the other fish are doing fine (knock on wood).

I still am not sure what happened to him though.

Thanks again -