Corydoras health problem

[madaboutfish]

G'day
I was wondering if anyone could help with a problem I have with one of my corydoras which is quite urgent

I have three corydoras, one of which has just started having a few problems. She is about 3 years old and has started having what seem to be small fits. It starts with her being vertical (head down, tail up) on the bottom of the tank. She spins for a few rotations on her head (which would be cool if she wasn't sick!) and then swims erratically around the tank for 1-2 seconds before losing her balance and lying on her side breathing heavily for another 1-2 seconds before righting herself and being fine again. She seems to be doing this about 4-5 times a day (but it could be more). Does anyone have any idea what it is? The rest of the time she's seems completely normal, doesn't lose her balance when swimming and is eating ok. The other two corydoras are fine.

My tank is 100 litres and has 2 large goldfish (the ones with the googly eyes), 4 small whitecloud and a bristle-nosed catfish. All of the other fish seem fine. I change 30% water every 2-3 weeks and the water quality is fine. The only addition I've recently added to the tank is a small lamp which heats the water a little (it's about 23-24oC) as its now winter in Queensland, Australia and the water gets a little bit chilly.

I look forward to hearing any suggestions that might help my little fish?

Cheers
Angie

 

[Mogo]

Hello Angie,

Sorry to hear that your fish is not doing so well. What is going on with your fish could be a result of many things. I'll try my best to help you out.

Swimming head down, rotating, flipping on it's side, the fishes general inability to maintain buoyancy is more than likely a problem with the swim bladder. Damage to the swim bladder can result from injury (fighting with other fish, getting stuck in a hose..etc), or a bacterial infection (ex: Dropsy). Loss of buoyancy can also be a sign of nervous system damage which is usually the result of some form of poisoning (ex: ammonia). The darting around could also be a sign of poisoning, but it could also be a sign of irritation due to ectoparasites. Gasping at the bottom could be a sign of oxygen starvation, either caused by inadequate oxygen levels in the aquarium, or possibly due to gill damage. As you can see, there is many possibilities here.

I can't really suggest any treatment, as the problem would need to be diagnosed first. However, I would suggest that you start doing water changes on a weekly basis. Two to three weeks is kind of long, especially with goldfish, as they are not the cleanest of the fish, they are little pooping machines. When you say that the water quality is fine, did you do the regular tests? IMO, I'm thinking this problem is stemming from ammonia poisoning, over the next week or so, I would probably do water changes every other day to drop the levels down. You may want to do all the regular tests and post them, might help sort out what is going on.

Hope this helped.

Mogo

 

[Graeme]

I could'nt of said it better!! Agreed with Mogo.








Graeme.

 

[HooDude]

Hi there,

This sounds like ectoparasites to me. Could also be ammonia. Do water changes every other day for a week to clean up the water, and from now on do them weekly, make sure to siphon your gravel too. If you ammonia levels go down to nil but this problem continues I would investigate parasitic treatment. Also, add some aquarium salt to your tank. Aquarium salt improves gill function, which will hopefully lessen the heavy breathing. Salt also helps recovery from illnesses. Don't just use tabel salt. Go out and get genuine aquarium salt, its not expensive, and follow the directions for dosage on it.

Good Luck!
HooDude

 

[pondfreak4365]

hi Angie,
How is your cory doing?

 

[bigfish]

I wouldn't add salt i was advised that salt burns the corys skin as they don't have scales like goldfish. Just thought i would mention that.

By the way how is he?

 

[gadazobe]

Yes, bigfish is right, salt is not advisable for cories. In fact it may well kill them. Your problem with the cory sounds like the problem I had some years ago with a sailfin mollie. She was about the same age as your cory and had exactly the same symtoms. I think it was a combination of things, injury, swim bladder problems and parasites. I separated her from the rest and treated her for internal parasites and swim bladder disease. She did make a partial recovery, but unfortunately her age was against her and she always seemed listless after that and she eventually died about 4 months later. Hope you will be able to save your cory.

 

[kevin007]

yo how r ur corys doin?