Only ONE Cory Cat keeps going to surfscr

[bivalvelover]

Sorry to keep coming in with questions but I’ve noticed one of my albino Cory cats (and it’s ALWAYS the same one) keeps coming up to the top of the tank.

I know this can be a sign of a lot of things but has anyone else ever had it just.. be the same, single fish doing this? My other 2 Albinos and 2 jullis happily chill at the bottom where they belong- driftinf up every so often. I’m just so stressed I’ve done something wrong and I don’t want to see these guys die lol

 

[Ram419]

Hi! How long have you had the tank running for? Can you get the water parameters for us? I've seen my green emerald cory do it sometimes but not that often.

 

[bivalvelover]

Hi! How long have you had the tank running for? Can you get the water parameters for us? I've seen my green emerald cory do it sometimes but not that often.

It’s a really new tank- they entered it Saturday. I have an ammonia tester- I’m getting a nitrite tomorrow (I wasn’t aware I needed one >_> totally my fault though. Initial research made it seem like just ammoni was needed! I didn’t realize this forum was a thing until today!). Anything else do I need to test often? I will pick that up tomorrow.

He isn’t constantly up there but he has bursts of activity (like, fish zoomies but I have no idea if they’re due to stress!). I don’t see him gulping, gasping, etc.

 

[Ram419]

Make sure you are following the cycling process for new tanks --> https://www.fishforums.net/threads/cycle-your-tank-a-complete-guide-for-beginners.475055/

Initially you will see ammonia which then converts to nitrites, and then those convert to nitrates. You generally want below 40ppm nitrates and 0ppm ammonia and nitrites. But the less nitrates you can get the better. It all starts with ammonia though and both ammonia and nitrites are not good for fish.

If you see ammonia or nitrites you will want to do more frequent water changes, if there are live fish in the tank, until the cycle completes and the ammonia and nitrites are at 0ppm.

It can initially take up to a month, but sometimes more, to cycle a tank completely before it's safe for fish to be in it.

 

[bivalvelover]

Make sure you are following the cycling process for new tanks --> https://www.fishforums.net/threads/cycle-your-tank-a-complete-guide-for-beginners.475055/

Initially you will see ammonia which then converts to nitrites, and then those convert to nitrates. You generally want below 40ppm nitrates and 0ppm ammonia and nitrites. But the less nitrates you can get the better. It all starts with ammonia though and both ammonia and nitrites are not good for fish.

If you see ammonia or nitrites you will want to do more frequent water changes, if there are live fish in the tank, until the cycle completes and the ammonia and nitrites are at 0ppm.

It can initially take up to a month, but sometimes more, to cycle a tank completely before it's safe for fish to be in it.

Great. I was planning to get a nitrite testing kit, so I will also get a nitrate.

Do I need to worry about water changes causing stress at this plaint over keeping ammonia and such down? Also, I understand that 0 ammonia is the amount we wante. Do you know why some people feel under .50ppm or .25 is acceptable for new tanks?

Tyia!

 

[Ram419]

I believe it depends on the type of fish you are using for the fish-in cycle. There are more hardy fish like guppies that can deal with the cycle however they still get stressed out from the process as well, so it's usually advised to do a fishless cycle. If you have established filter media that you can use in the new tank then you can usually skip, or quicken, the cycle however I've seen it not work on a recent tank I tried it on. I did have success with using estalished filter media on a tank that had a lot of plants however.