Cory spiraling and sideways?!?!

[FlareBettaGuy]

A female cory keeps swimming around in the gravel sideways! Although she still searches around in the gravel for food, she does it lopsided. When she swims off of the gravel and up, she does clumsy spins and spirals down as if she couldn't control her balance. What's wrong?

 

[aquarius]

i'm sorry you're having problems with your cory already. it might be a swim bladder problem. that's when the fish has trouble keeping balance, i lost a fish to that myself. just watch your cory and see how it continues to act, if it's eating, how it swims, if it has any inflammation around the stomach area. maybe your fish just ate too much or ingested some air, that could be the cause. or it could be nothing. my cories swim all over the place, when they're not napping, sideways and sometimes upside down. so just watche her and maybe read up on swim bladder disease. good luck

http/www.aquatics-online.co.uk/guides/disease.html

 

[FlareBettaGuy]

Right. So I will feed them sparsingly, and be very careful that very few food drops to the bottom. When I woke up this morning, I found him upside down on the gravel, but he was still alive. Now he REALLY is having a hard time getting around. It's as if he can go anywhere BUT rightside up. Now, when he moves across the gravel, he does it in a rather fast spiraling motion rather than straight...oh well, I won't feed him as much and see how that works.

 

[FlareBettaGuy]

Oh no...she is about to die...I found her in a hidey hole, and she was upside down, and not moving. I thought she was dead, and I was taking her out, but she wiggled and squirmed. But can't swim. I think she's hurting really bad. Kinda like when you get a very big stomach cramp and have to go poo, I guess...looks like i'm going to have to put her down. And the other cory is going to be all alone until I can get another one.

I'm going to get some freezing water, put it into the fridge until it develops that upper layer of sheet ice, and put her in. That's humane, right?...

 

[FlareBettaGuy]

And that other cory keeps staying by her side as if trying to comfort her. Oh well....

 

[FlareBettaGuy]

Here's the update: She died. Jeez, that's the third fish that ever died ever since I started fishkeeping. (including the betta, Firebolt) To that makes one guppy, one cory, and one betta. There are only three fish in the tank now. Two guppies and one lone cory.

 

[Inchworm]

Here's the update: She died. Jeez, that's the third fish that ever died ever since I started fishkeeping. (including the betta, Firebolt) To that makes one guppy, one cory, and one betta. There are only three fish in the tank now. Two guppies and one lone cory.

Hi FlareBettaGuy

I'm so sorry to learn that your little cory died.

Don't be in too big a hurry to replace him, though. Wait until the tank is ready. Corys are delicate and need to be in cycled tanks.

Every day that goes by, your tank is getting better and better. If you've been taking care of it (as I'm sure you have) and haven't changed the filter, it is still cycling, but will be finished soon. Have you tested your water lately?

 

[FlareBettaGuy]

Yeah...she was such a good cleaner, too. Which was why she problebly got swim bladder, cause she found too much food off the ground. She ate herself to death.

I don't have a test kit. But I am starting to save up for one, cause I just spent all my loose change money on the new tank and filter and everything that went with it. So, i'm broke, I guess... But i'm sure that the ammonia isn't that bad, cause the last two guppies didn't die as I expected after the small one died. Although one cory died, it was from overfeeding.

 

[Jo]

Flare,

I'm sorry to hear about your corry....one of mine has been behaving in exactly the same way, i thought she was going to be a gonner, had an inflamed stomach, the works....!

I put her in a net to get her away from the other fish and to give her somwhere to rest in, she lay upsideown in this for a couple of days, looking not very well.....all of a sudden my other fish started looking a bit like there was a lack of oxygen in the water and so I added an airstone and tested the water.....

uh oh....my tank was spiking (AGAIN!) and so by controling water changes daily i managed to get it back under control...

3 days later and my corry is still alive, so i fed her a bit and she ate it....i released her back into the tank and she was (and still is 2 weeks later) fine.

If you chose to get more corries, I would suggest trying what I did, corries sometimes lie on their backs cause they cannot get enough oxygen and she was obviously complaining about the bad water...

she is a good early warning system for me, I'm sorry that I didn't see this post in time to help save your corry tho!

 

[FlareBettaGuy]

So you're saying that it's not swim bladder, but it's the water? I guess that explains why the small guppy died, but that was weeks ago. And the other cory plus the other guppies are okay. Your's managed to survive the problem? Mine was not so lucky. It died within a few hours after the symtoms. I don't have an airstone, either. I should do some water changes, then.

Also, the plant is starting to get black spots on the leaves! I just got them, and they're rotting already! This is like the...uh...third time it happened. The plants all just rot in the end. It's pissing me off like heck, cause then I have to go and replace them, just to see them rot again, then replace it again! And it's such a hassle taking the plants out, washing the new plants, and then trying to set the plant's roots into the gravel without it floating back up. Everytime I try and get the roots in place in the gravel, I disturb the gravel a lot. It's driving me nuts. And I even added some liquid plant fertilizer this time. Guess I should start switching to plastic. No more rotting for me!

 

[joshua]

maybe u shud get some hardy plants eg. java moss, java fern, riccia. my plants rotted on me too... first it was insufficient light then i think i gave it too much until my whole tank was in algae then i din get anymore

 

[Jo]

Flare,

I cannot tell you for sure why your cory died unfortunately, I was just sharing some information with you about mie as it was acting in exactly the same way...If you could give me a little more info about your tank I might be able to help more...?

How many fish do you have in it, what size is it, what are your water peramiters..?

It might have been swimbladder that got her, mine might have swimbladder too, I dont know for sure, all I know is that the water got bad and so did she, now the water is cleared up and she is better..it was just an opinion that I got from that!

I'd say that as a precaution, yeah, do a water change, do a small one daily until you get the problem (if there is one) under control!

As for your plants...do you have enopugh light for your plants, how many watts per gallon are you running?

 

[Inchworm]

Hi FlareBettaGuy

If your filter causes the surface of the water to move at all, you probably don't need an air stone. Too much agitation of the water will not be good for the guppies. Oxygen gets into the tank when it comes in contact with the surface of the water. When the surface is moving it keeps absorbing oxygen. An air stone looks like it is doing a lot, but actually it is not. (But in a bigger tank, they do look very nice.)

Until your tank is completely cycled, you should make frequent SMALL water changes. Because your tank is small and you can't remove too much water at any one time, you have to be especially careful to get water out FROM THE BOTTOM if you have corys. They are very likely to suffer when the water down there is dirty. Use your syphon to do this.

I wouldn't add any plant fertilizer because it is just adding to the pollution in an uncycled tank and also because if you don't have enough light, it won't work anyway.

 

[Auratus]

I had a danio that did that for a while. but it was my fault. When I tried to catch him in the net he slipped out and I kind of squished his belly trying to catch him. For 3 days he would just spin in circles and then stop, right himself, and do it all over again. But he LIVED! I swear, danios are like the superman of fish. Or maby the aqua man of fish... anyway he's still alive and happy. That was like 6 months ago!

 

[aquarius]

on a different note, what's with the santa hat fever?