Corydoras acting strange & flipping?

April_ht

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Just over a week ago, I bought 4 bronze corydoras from a pet shop. I would've got more, but that's all they had. Along with these, I bought 4 more WCMM to add to the existing school, but I didn't get to quarantine them as I do not have another tank set up and they came from the same tank anyways. All water parameters are perfectly fine and stable, no ammonia or nitrite spikes, but lately the corydoras seem to be doing random little flips sideways or a spin. The movements are jerky and sudden, does not look natural. I don't know if this means anything, but they also don't often school and tend to do their own thing, and sometimes they just sit in the same place for a few minutes. All of the WCMM are acting normal and look very healthy, exploring, shoaling and flaring and eating their food. I feed the WCMM pellets and drop a small part of an algae wafer for the corydoras, they seem to love it, and they eat the excess pellets and dead plant matter. About once or twice a week they get fed frozen food, which is a mix of bloodworms, daphnia, mysis shrimp and I'm not sure what else. Water changes are done weekly of about 30-40%. Let me know if you need any more information and if you know what could be wrong with the corydoras, and if they need immediate treatment.
 
Just over a week ago, I bought 4 bronze corydoras from a pet shop. I would've got more, but that's all they had. Along with these, I bought 4 more WCMM to add to the existing school, but I didn't get to quarantine them as I do not have another tank set up and they came from the same tank anyways. All water parameters are perfectly fine and stable, no ammonia or nitrite spikes, but lately the corydoras seem to be doing random little flips sideways or a spin. The movements are jerky and sudden, does not look natural. I don't know if this means anything, but they also don't often school and tend to do their own thing, and sometimes they just sit in the same place for a few minutes. All of the WCMM are acting normal and look very healthy, exploring, shoaling and flaring and eating their food. I feed the WCMM pellets and drop a small part of an algae wafer for the corydoras, they seem to love it, and they eat the excess pellets and dead plant matter. About once or twice a week they get fed frozen food, which is a mix of bloodworms, daphnia, mysis shrimp and I'm not sure what else. Water changes are done weekly of about 30-40%. Let me know if you need any more information and if you know what could be wrong with the corydoras, and if they need immediate treatment.
I also own some as well. As far as I know I wouldn’t worry about it. For them to stay in the same spot for a bit is totally normal same or then jerking it’s just what they do
 
Is it like they are suddenly trying to rub their sides on something? Sounds like they might be "flashing", they will normally do this when they have Whitespot.
 
It would help to have a video, but I agree with those who suggest that given the description this is likely flashing. The most common reason for this is ich, which first attacks fish in the gills where we cannot see it, and the flashing is the fish attempting to dislodge the irritant. It is very likely the ich came in with the new fish. However, if given good conditions--water parameters, water conditions, no stressful problems--the fish will most often overcome this without incident.
 
Thanks for the advice and sorry for the late reply, I can't get a video anymore as they have stopped the flashing behaviour and everything seems to be well. Could have been Ich, but luckily didn't seem to spread so all is well (for a while, at least). Thank you for the advice and I'll get a video next time if it reappears.
 
There are of course many more things that can cause fish to flash. Any irritating stuff in the water besides parasites as Ich will.
Also worms can cause this behaviour.

So now you're out of the woods about Ich, please keep a close eye on things !
 
my fish do this when i dont do water changes and they are itchy, do a nice big water change and they will be fine
 

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