Is this normal for a cory cat

[16gallontanker]

For some reason one of my corys is vertical gasping for air at the surface. I did a water change and added a sponge filter for oxygen but she is still doing it .should I test the water?

 

[Naughts]

.should I test the water?

Yes.
A healthy cory will take on air at the surface then return to the lower levels. The fact that she is gasping is a bad sign.

 

[16gallontanker]

Heres the parameters

 

[16gallontanker]

Do yall think adding the sponge filter for oxygen will eventually help or is there something else that I need to do?

 

[Morasea]

If you find your fish are gasping for air then you should add aeration as soon as possible.
This could be in the form of a sponge filter or an air stone but when a fish is gasping at the surface it means the oxygen content of your water is too low, (usually caused by little or no surface agitation).
I have had this happen in my tanks once and caught it after it was too late and I lost fish as it can and will be lethal if oxygen is the problem.
I agree with people like Cory from Aquarium Co-op that air is hugely beneficial, especially after seeing what it can do in my tanks.

 

[16gallontanker]

Would removing some of the fish help and putting them in another tank with a female hpmk betta because I got 4 peppered corys 3 otos 2 adult dalmatian mollys and some baby mollys and I also got 9 albino corys I'm thinking of removing tge 4 peppered corys into the ten that has my female betta if It doesn't improve

 

[Morasea]

If you see this repeated activity throughout the other fish it’s a telltale sign that oxygen is the problem.
I would focus on getting aeration in your current tank rather than switching them simply because if you have a problem in aeration in this tank, then without me seeing either of your tanks it’s possible your betta tank could have the exact same problem. Since bettas are labyrinth fish they don’t need to pull oxygen out of the water entirely and they can breathe at the surface when oxygen levels are low so you might just have the same thing going on in that tank.

If you switch out your fish you risk stressing out the fish more which could lead to it again being lethal. My advice is to find a way to aerate the water (via sponge filter or an air stone) and see if it changes anything because you take next steps.

 

[16gallontanker]

They seem alot happier since I put the peppered corys in my betta tanks I'll watch them closely and I turned up the betta filter a Lil bit she has stopped doing it for now but I'm going to keep a eye on all of them

 

[Morasea]

Best of luck to you!