Albino Cory Breathing Heavily

[celaeno]

my female albino cory is breathing heavily at the rate of about 4 times per second. my male cory and female betta are fine, however.

i added algone for 2 weeks starting about one month ago, but never used activated carbon to remove it.

i don't know if algone can be considered a flocculant, but if so, could it be binding the cory's gills? or are there other causes?

 

[WILDER]

Stats would be good in ammonia,nitrite,nitrate,and ph.
Immediate water change, add some black carbon, and increase aeration in the tank.

 

[celaeno]

Stats would be good in ammonia,nitrite,nitrate,and ph.

ammonia and nitrite are 0, nitrate is between 5 and 10ppm, and ph is 7.

 

[puppyduck]

Our corys do that sometimes. Zorro especially (our davidsandsi cory) breathes heavily yet everyone else is fine. Never any gulping at the surface. Surface gulping is warrant for water change. If not it just might be she had too much to eat. Our bettas "sigh" alot after a big meal. Have even watched them straining for a poop (sorry for the graphic terms there but had to be said)

 

[WILDER]

I would still run the black carbon and increase aeration in the tank.
Good luck.

 

[puppyduck]

Yeah increasing aeration helped ours. Just thought it might be too much dinner

Bubble curtains are very cheap, you can pick up an airpump for about 6 pound and a curtain/pipe/valve for about 4. And the corys like to play with it too.

 

[celaeno]

i don't think i need extra aeration from an air pump because i use a bio-wheel power filter, so the bacteria on the bio-wheel don't compete with the fish for oxygen. also, the power filter gives the surface a lot of disturbance.

however, i just changed the filter cartridge so now there's new carbon in the filter.

 

[InaneCathode]

This probably isnt the case, but my cories tend to 'breath' rapidly just after they stuck their noses in the substrate, it seems like its their way of 'earth eating' if you want to call it that. They'll breath quickly (like they normally do) but then they stick their noses in the gravel, and their gills start going very rapidly, and debris seems to shoot out their gill slits.

 

[celaeno]

This probably isnt the case, but my cories tend to 'breath' rapidly just after they stuck their noses in the substrate, it seems like its their way of 'earth eating' if you want to call it that.

i don't have substrate.