Odd corrie behaviour

[boxman]

Ever since my LFS has moved their tanks from individual tanks with a central ariation system requiring regular physical water changes to 80 tanks (3' tanks split in 3) with a main sump system for a column of 3 disease and the quality of fish has gone right down.

In the last month I've lost 6 cardinals, 5 ottos, 3 corries, 1 molly but all the fish that have been in the tank are fine and there a few individuals bought at the same time as those who have died and they're fine.

Anyway, my question

I bought 3 fully grown panda cories and 3 young, after a spate of random deaths I now have 2 young and 1 adult remaining.

Last week I noticed one of the adults swimming upside down, floating on the surface on it's belly, then next minute flapping around the tank like a mad thing then sitting on a plant on it's side, then a few minutes later back the right way up searching for a tasty snack! It was about 2 days after this I found him dead - no signs of swollen belly, ich etc...

The other fish had been fine until last night when the last remaining adult started to do the same, going upside down, acting odd.

Has anyone experienced this and if so is this going to end up the same way or can I treat the tank?

Thanks

 

[Def]

Yes, I've experienced something similar. If you search back my previous posts (last 2 weeks) in this Catfish forum I started a zombie cory post. Basically my cories started shooting up to the surface, flipping on their back and floating back down apparently dead. Leave them for a few mins and they right themselves and carry on.

Since then I lost 5 adolfi cories in the same way - they just never righted themselves after shooting to the surface. I have 2 left from a different batch, they seem ok at the moment but I'm waiting a few weeks before I know for sure...

 

[newfishies]

this is really weird. i just came home to one of my peppereds doing the "float upside-down on the surface, then zip down to the bottom, only to float right back up!!!"
i got them 2 weeks ago, and was about to take them out of the quarentine tank tonight, now i don't know what to do.

so, i'll be lurking here in your thread looking for an answer!

 

[SirMinion]

I doubt that anyone's ever seen Cories in any African river!
(think about it )

Seriously though this is very strange, one of our peppers was doing the exact same thing yesterday- floating as if dead at the surface.
I toughed him and he returned to his fellows as if nothing had happened and has seemed fine since.

I did a big water change anyway, just in case.

very strange.

 

[Fiori]

I lost 3 bandit cories earlier this summer to the same thing - it was the mad dash to the surface that caught my eye and then one after another, they turned over on their backs, and could'nt seem to right themselves. They would struggle along for a bit and then die. Very quick overall and no time to actually do anything to try and help.

 

[boxman]

The little guy is still going strong so he outlived the other ones.

I thought it could be something to do with oxygen they couldn't release hence the floating around thing - probably not, just a guess.

It is very disconcerting as people coming around seeing this fish being moved by the current upside down think I mistreat the fish - I'm VERY glad it isn't just me!

I've had cories on and off for years and it was only this batch it's done it with - I only had bronze and peppered before, these are all pandas.

 

[big mick]

I have a selection of different types of corrie and once in a while one will go up the surface then just float back the bottom doing corkscrews, landing on leaves and rolling off all the way to the bottom and land on its side.....then within seconds its up and about acting perfectly normally.

Also sometimes they play dead, especially my albino corrie. My discus love prawns (as to all my fish) but one of my discus is very passionate and will gladly steal one from another fishes mouth but whenever he does it to the albino corrie he rolls onto his side and plays dead......then swims off as happy as a sand boy.

He has always done it.....has anyone else experienced that?

 

[kevin007]

I have

8 sterbais
3 elegans
5/6 julli
10 peppered
10 skunk

total of 37 cories and NONE have done this...

 

[Teelie]

I have almost 20 and none of them do that either.

 

[newfishies]

well, my guy lasted less than a day after i first saw this crazy behavior. this means another week in quarantine for the rest... RIP peppered cory.

 

[OohFeeshy]

Yup, the last cory died last week after exibiting very odd behaviour for quite a while. It happened to some of the other of the group too. They pretty much stopped moving, just lolled on their side all day. When you poked them, they swam away, but very awkwardly. They gradually died off, apart from the last one who lasted quite a while, still not moving much, but he died last week.

 

[Def]

Well a few weeks on and all my cories except one have died. This is kinda frustrating as there's no apparent reason for them dying. I'm gonna chalk it up to a bad batch, get some more and see what happens. £100's worth of cories gone

 

[mattbeau]

I have a reticulated cory that seems to just want to hover above the sand I'm not sure if he is having boyancy problems but I wonder if he did the same thing

I have had water issues due to filter failures lately so I just hope he hasnt cought anything instead.

for those that excibited off behavior, did they also hover above substrate swiming in place?

my other two cories are acting normal for now

 

[bunjiweb]

You should really check where your supplier gets their corys from, bad quality corys can lead to all kinds of internal problems.

The other possible cause could well be oxygen, Corys will dart to the surface for air to aid their digestion and it has a similar effect as to when a human yawns.
It is probable that the corys simply arent getting enough oxygen in the warm weather and the oxygen level in the tank is dropping because of it.

Just my thoughts...

Ben

 

[jollysue]

If you don't have one in, might try some air stones??? See if that helps the dearies.