Is My Cory Dying?

[CezzaXV]

Okay, so I just witnessed a weird thing.

I got my first fish on friday. I have 6 C. Julii, 6 Cardinal tetra, one bamboo shrimp and 4 apple snails. I did a fishless cycle.

I was sat here, enjoying my fish, when all of a sudden one of my cories starts swimming around erratically in a corkscrew motion at the surface. At least I thought he was swimming, but it may have been the water flow, as he really got pushed around when his movements sent him into the path of the filter output. All of a sudden he just stopped and then sank slowly to the bottom motionless, lying slightly on its side flat against the substrate (as opposed to floating a few mm's above it like they normally do).

He stayed like this for a good while and I was concerned, so I got my "aquarium stick" and gave him the gentlest of nudges and he moved a little bit, so I was sure he wasn't dead, but he then moved somewhere else and is lying sideways. A little while longer of this and he was still there, so I gave him another nudge and he did an erratic corkscrew swim and swam to the entrance of one of my coconut caves. As I've been writing this, he's swam right inside into the darkness.

I googled "cory corkscrew" and the only thing I could find of relevance was a thread on another fish forum talking about sterbai cories, and it said cories can do this before they die and it might be paraside related.

I did a test just before I witnessed it and ammonia and nitrite are both at 0 and they were yesterday also. All my other fish seem fine and active.

Help! What do I do?


(P.S - I dont really want to think about this right now, but do fish float when they die?)

EDIT: When I fed my fish last night (the first time I fed them), I fed some frozen brine shrimp. I only saw one of my cories eat them though, the others didnt seem interested in and I siphoned most of them back up after a bit. I have no way of knowing whether the cory that ate last night is this same cory now though.

 

[CezzaXV]

Update: The cory seems to be out and about again now, but swimming around in a lazy corkscrew, like he can't keep himself the right way up.

 

[CezzaXV]

Update 2: After not finding anything of help online or in this thread, I've done what I can. I dont have provisions for a quarantine tank because I wasnt expecting to need it quite this soon. I'll be getting one sorted first thing tomorrow.

In the meantime, I'm floating a box in the tank with him in it, along with a bit of food (because they're new, my cories don't seem to have taken to eating much yet) and an oxygenising tablet. I hope the little guy doesn't die but I'm mentally ready for it. My main concern is not letting him infect the other fish.

 

[This Old Spouse]

Honestly, I'd euthanize it. There's every chance he could be infecting the other fish, and it most certainly will die. Best to put it out of its misery as quickly as you can.

 

[CezzaXV]

Thank you TOS. I had suspected this is what someone would say, even though I prayed it not to happen.

I've got him in his own box for now so he is separated and in separate water from the rest of the fish. He actually seems a little better than he was before now he's in the box, but I accept that he'll still probably die. If he's not dead by the morning, I'll do my best to find a humane way to put him out of his misery.

My main concern is the other fish. They seem fine, but so did this little guy yesterday. Is there anything I can do (short of emptying and disinfecting the whole tank) which would help prevent infection?

 

[This Old Spouse]

It's hard to tell what to do if you don't know what the problem is. It might be he just wasn't well to begin with and it took a while for it to manifest. If you just got the fish Friday it's hard to tell what happened to it before you got it home.

Have you taken readings on your water lately? Maybe you should do a large water change just to be on the safe side.

 

[CezzaXV]

Well, when I got them, one of them was hiding under a piece of bogwood in the LFS, but I have no idea if it was the same one that's dying now.

Water params seem normal. Ammonia and nitrite were both at zero tonight and last night. Yesterday morning I thought there was a slight rise in ammonia so did a 10L water change, though in all honesty it may well have just been paranoia on my part as I wasn't convinced the test was completely yellow. The only issue is doing a large water change - my tap water has a pH of 7.8 but my tank has dropped to 7.4 (I have very soft water and the pH fluctuated a lot during my cycle). I do have the day off tomorrow though, so I suppose I could do several smaller water changes say an hour apart if a big one wasn't an option for my situation.

 

[This Old Spouse]

I think it's possible the poor guy was mishandled before you even got him and is now showing the signs. Probably was the one hiding under the bogwood. I got 6 little (and I mean little ... about 1/2" long!) tiger barbs, and one died within 24 hours of me getting them home. No outward signs of any problems and not even any odd behavior. Just died the next day. The rest are still fine a month later.

A little off topic, but are you sure they're julii? They're so often actually trilineatus mislabeled as julii (I've had 14 that were) so I'm curious about that. Any way to get photos up?

 

[Inchworm]

Hi CezzaXV

It's also possible that your fish was damaged by the clerk in the lfs. He/she might have injured it's swim bladder which would make it difficult for it to swim properly. If this is the case, there's not much you can do for it but there's also about a 50-50 chance that it will clear up by itself.

Good luck. I hope he gets better quickly.

 

[CezzaXV]

I think it's possible the poor guy was mishandled before you even got him and is now showing the signs. Probably was the one hiding under the bogwood. I got 6 little (and I mean little ... about 1/2" long!) tiger barbs, and one died within 24 hours of me getting them home. No outward signs of any problems and not even any odd behavior. Just died the next day. The rest are still fine a month later.

A little off topic, but are you sure they're julii? They're so often actually trilineatus mislabeled as julii (I've had 14 that were) so I'm curious about that. Any way to get photos up?

They were sold as Julii, but after a quick google search I think they may be trilineatus. I'll try to remember to get some photos when the lights are on tomorrow.

Although it's not good, I'd be happier to think he was just mishandled so I know it's not contagious. I guess time will tell on that one.

 

[CezzaXV]

Thanks for your help TOS and Inchworm. Sadly, I went out this morning and by the time I got home the poor little guy was dead. When I woke up this morning he was completely on his side so I wasn't expecting him to last much longer anyway.

All of my other cories except for one are active - incredibly so for this time of day. One of them doesn't seem interested in what the others are doing and is just chilling out amongst the plants at the back, but he's not showing any signs of illness, he's just not doing much. He does scoot away if I put my "aquarium stick" in the water near him, and he seems to swim normally. I'll keep an eye on him, just in case.

Thanks again guys.

 

[This Old Spouse]

little cory.