Sick Corydoras; Help Needed

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Richie Hell

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My little Yoshi, a male sterbai corydoras, all of a sudden exhibited symptoms of a swimbladder problem. He was perfectly fine and very healthy and happy, even occasionally doing the sexy dance with female sterbai, Henry. However, saturday morning he was lying at a funny angle, and by saturday evening we found him unable to swim properly.

How is it possible for a swimbladder problem to develop over a matter of hours, and to even suddenlycome on as quick as it did.

We have had a glass catfish with a swimbladder problem who sadly died, but his problem developed over months rather than minutes and hours.

What may have caused this problem?

Water parameters seem fine. No excess ammonia, nitrates or nitrites, temperature is good, filter is fairly clean. We have a bubble curtain/air stone/pump to increase aeration that was very recently altered (it had little to no air flow and no bubbles, but now has substantial bubbles)

I dont understand why he has suddenly deterriorated. He lies on his side a lot and although can swim fairly upright for a little bit, he has problems after swimming for a few seconds.

We are treating the tank with Interpet swimbladder treatment which we added last night. How long does this normally take to affect the sick fishy?

I am very upset and worried, especially as our fish only ever get sick when we are out leaving my room unattended (problems with a housemate and threats to kill the fish from his girlfriend have made me worried that he's done something to the tank).

I hope you can help me as I'm very upset about my poor little Yoshi.Sic
 
If it were me, and I thought someone might have one something to my tank/fish... I would do a really good tank cleaning and water change. Just to make sure that nothing foreign was in there. Then I would medicate and do several more water changes in the next few days.
hth :good:
 
Bacterial infection which corys are prone too, check the barbels over to seen if there gone thin and short.
 
First off don't add an meds just yet. this could be swim bladder disease, flip over, bacterial or parasitic. I have some Q's for you
1. is there redness of the fins, belly, or base of fin
2. is the fish still eating
3. are there spots, bumps, excess slime, flashing, rubbing
4. is the poo white or poo that's just the casing with nothing in it
these Q's are to rule out bacteria or parasite problems or confirm them

Next
1. What kind of food are you feeding?
2. is there farting or floating poo
Farting and/or floating poo is a sign of gas trapped in the GI tract of the fish

What I would do is a 50% water change to bring down any nitrates. Try to feed the fish as many peas with the shell removed as you can. If you cannot feed the fish, starve it for 3-4 days.
If the problem is not bacterial, parasitic, and the feeding of peas or fasting does not help after 4 days. Then use the meds.

And please respond with answers to all the Q's so we can better help you.
 
First off don't add an meds just yet. this could be swim bladder disease, flip over, bacterial or parasitic. I have some Q's for you
1. is there redness of the fins, belly, or base of fin
2. is the fish still eating
3. are there spots, bumps, excess slime, flashing, rubbing
4. is the poo white or poo that's just the casing with nothing in it
these Q's are to rule out bacteria or parasite problems or confirm them

Next
1. What kind of food are you feeding?
2. is there farting or floating poo
Farting and/or floating poo is a sign of gas trapped in the GI tract of the fish

What I would do is a 50% water change to bring down any nitrates. Try to feed the fish as many peas with the shell removed as you can. If you cannot feed the fish, starve it for 3-4 days.
If the problem is not bacterial, parasitic, and the feeding of peas or fasting does not help after 4 days. Then use the meds.

And please respond with answers to all the Q's so we can better help you.

Hey,

we feed King British Flake Food, plus Catfish pellets. Also frozen Daphnia and Bloodwork one/two times a week. Haven't seen any farting, but we do see the occasional poo floating round. Poo's look normal.

He's still eating. Or did so last night. He hasn't moved much today, despite looking a bit better this morning. No physical signs such as redness, spots, slime, but we have seen Cories in the tank flashing, though they have no physical signs either. His barbels are ok.

Thanks.

(this is richie hell on my girlfriends account btw)
 
Does the flashing (rubbing on substrate and other decor) problematic like the fish are trying scrape something off or do they flash often through out the day? Flashing is a sign of a parasitic problem. Are all your fish flashing?
For now feed only the deshelled peas or nothing at all for 3-4 days. See if that helps the swimming. As for the flashing need more info (answers to Q's above) to determine if there are parasites present.
 
Not all of them flash, and it's more like they have an itch they want to scratch than if they are trying to remove a parasite.. Like they'll just flash the once, not repeated or vigarously. At most I've seen it just once or twice a day, andonly by a couple of fish.
 
What do there gills look like.
 
Gills look normal.

That's why we're so confused. It came on so suddenly and there's no other apparent signs of anything being wrong,
 
Sadly Yoshi passed away this morning. We still have no idea what went wrong. He seemed fine yesterday morning and sat up straight all afternoon, but this morning we found he'd died.

I'm very angry with my horrible housemates and upset I couldn't save him.

We are currently making sure water changes are done to ensure nobody else in our tank gets sick.
 
Bless him. R.I.P.
 

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