HELP!!!! Floating upside down cories!

[sumpthinfishy]

HELP! Two cories are having problems with their swim/float/whatever you call it bladders. One is upside down and another flipped upside down, but righted itself. They have been absolutely fine until today. One is new to the tank. It was quarantined for 10 days before being added to this tank. Was also treated with Melafix for three days as a precaution before being added.

Internal parasites? Flukes? I haven't noticed any flashing or odd behavior before. They have all eaten fine and had typical hyper cory behavior.

What treatment should I use? The other seem okay and I don't want to lose them.

Water parameters?

0 ammonia
0 nitrites
<20 nitrates
pH a little over 8.0 (normal for us)
temp 75

[Gunnie]

Thought this might help. I borrowed this from a sticky on another forum:

Swim Bladder Disease

Mostly seen in fancy goldfish it is not so much a disease as a genetic abnormality caused by mans fascination for odd shaped fish.
The end result is that they get wind trapped in their stomachs which they cannot get rid of.
An old cure was Epsom salts.
The other problem is their swim bladder is in the wrong position and the fish is constantly fighting the effects.
Swim bladder disease on the other hand can affect all fish.
Raising the temperature and adding salt at 5 gm per gallon seem to help.

Dropsy usually takes one of two forms, body swells due to fluid accumulation, which causes scale protrusion, and also protrusion of the scales without the body swelling up, false dropsy.
Dropsy is caused by a bacterial infection of the kidneys and other internal organs, causing fluid accumulation or even renal failure.
Treatments are varied, adding salt at a rate of 5mg per gallon seems to help.
With modern Anti? Biotic this problem is soon cured.

[sumpthinfishy]

Thanks Gunnie. I have been searching and have read, I think both of those! LOL

I had wondered about swim bladder disease, especially because of the way they're acting. However, it seems strange to me that it would affect two fish simultaneously. Makes me feel it's something I'm not catching with my water/tank conditions or a disease or parasite introduced because quarantine was cut short (10 days - had baby swordtails to put in smaller tank).

The one cory is new and I can see it being a problem just becoming apparent. But my trilin is beginning to act funny too and I've had him/her about 4 months.

I'll try the treatment for swim bladder and see if it helps. First, I'll do a good water change. Am scheduled to do it Saturday, but I'd feel better knowing that at least the water and gravel isn't cruddy and to blame.

[Damon]

You should state where you quoted the info from........ Can lead to serious problems.
Swimbladder info is accurate, but incomplete. The actualy organ can be damaged which, in younger fish can heal. In older fish may be permanent.

[sumpthinfishy]

A few minutes ago, I saw my panda cory "flash" or scratch against the gravel on the bottom. I can't tell because of the light in the aquarium, but the newest cory looks like the gill plate (I guess that's what it's called) is somewhat red. However, I have a new bulb that is sort of violet and really makes everything much redder or bright orange, so I don't want to rely totally on that.

I did do a water change and have been watching them. Most of them are a little less active than I'm used to seeing them. But I wouldn't say lethargic. Just less active. They did seem to enjoy an algae wafer though.

Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated. Have thought about a round of Coppersafe, but truly hate to treat until I KNOW what's going on.

[Damon]

Test you water. Check for NH3,NO2,and NO3. Could be ammonia and or Nitrogen poisoning. Is the tank cycled? Tank size and fish in it?

[sumpthinfishy]

All the water parameters are good. I had them listed in the first post.

The tank has been cycled for months. I did a water change anyway, just for safety. It was due on Saturday anyway.

Now all of the fish are less active than they had been. I don't know what the heck is going on.

Two cories are really not looking too happy. These are the two that started flipping over. They're not like that all the time. But still struggle to stay upright on occassion. Otherwise they're just lying in one spot.

[sumpthinfishy]

Okay, all the cories are looking really sluggish. Not seeing much flipping, but they are so lethargic they're just not moving much. After a meal of bloodworms, a couple of them perked up during the feeding. But are all sluggish again.

It's only affecting the cories.

Oh, it's a 46 gallon tank. Five cories, five ottos and two swordtails.

[sumpthinfishy]

Since the last post, no one flipped upside down until today. They are all really not up to their typical cory antics. They are eating. No visible signs of disease such as ick or fungus or anything. They move around some, but not zooming everywhere. And unless eating, rarely doing more than hanging on the bottom. No constant sniffing out the food. After lights out last night, no increase in activity.

I did a partial water change yesterday.

Today the parameters are as follows:

0 ammonia
0 nitrites
20 or maybe slightly less nitrates
pH 8.0 (normal)

hardness and alkalinity are my norm. Don't remember the numbers now, but no change from their regular levels.

I also eased up on protein foods and have mainly had algae wafers as their main diet for the past few days. Didn't know if it was a bloat problem if green food might help. They had stopped flipping over and I had hoped it was getting better. But today two have flipped again.

HELP!

[garfieldnfish]

Since it is only the corys that are affected, my guess would be it has nothing to do with your water. In my limited experience if anything is remotely wrong with the water quality, the otos are the first to suffer and since your otos are fine I would look elsewhere for the problem. Are they all the same corys? How old are they ? Could this be spawning behavior? Maybe they are old enough and when you added the last one you got them the right size group since they are group spawners. There needs to be at least three or more of the same species. I would also vary the food you are feeding them to see if it makes a difference. Try some frozen peas, microwave and shell before feeding to your fish. This acts as a laxative in case it is bloat. If it's not it won't hurt them any and mine love the peas. They get that once a week. (On Friday, I call it poop day and the tanks get cleaned on Saturday )

[sumpthinfishy]

Thanks for the response. I had wondered about the otos, 'cause they are perfectly fine. I do feed peas to them all. Total favorites in my tank!

They are all different types and it's definitely not spawing behavior. In my 55 gallon tank, I watched spawning for a couple of hours today! Managed to get TONS of eggs before the gourami ate them all!

Anyway. One of the cories died today. It was the newest addition and the largest. Also the one showing the most floating behavior and lethargy.

The rest are: I've had all for about 6 months except the one who died today. A panda - I believe it was full grown when I got him. Trilineatus - May have grown slightly since I got him. Albino (aeneus) - was not fully grown when I got him. Paleatus - was very young when I got her. She's about doubled in size.

The only other one showing the float problems was the trilineatus. All the others are just very subdued and inactive.

Temperature is roughly the same. On warm days it may go up a degree or two, but nothing extreme.

Usually their diet is frozen blood worms, frozen brine shrimp, algae wafers, flake food scraps, shrimp pellets and various veggies. Green beans, peas, spinach that sort of thing.

I'm just at a loss. I've been looking up online whenever I can but haven't found much at all.

I had noticed a bit of "flashing" earlier in the week and just to make certain there were no parasites such as flukes, I did use quICK cure which actually seemed to help - may have been coincidence - but definitely no more flashing.

[sumpthinfishy]

For lack of a better answer, I'm guessing this is a bacterial infection affecting the swim bladder. It's the only thing I can find to answer how two cories suddenly were stricken with the same weird thing happening. And all of the cories seemed affected in other behaviors.

So, if this is indeed a bacterial infection, would Melafix be sufficient, or am I likely going to have to treat the tank with an antibiotic, thereby wiping out all of my good bacteria?

Any insight is much appreciated.

[frogyetta]

what type of fish is it? clown loaches do it all the time

[sumpthinfishy]

Corydoras. Since my last post, I treated with an anti-fungal/anti-bacterial as it was the only thing available locally. It seems to have done the trick.

So far. Got my fingers crossed!