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Can anyone help me with my bronze cory.

Last night I noticed one of my Cories make a dart to the surface of the water, nothing strange there as they all do it. But instead on coming straight back down it was flapping and splashing about at the surface for about 10 seconds, then dived to the bottom. I didnt see it for the rest of the night. I have just came in from work and couldnt spot him then all of a sudden it did the same thing darted to the top and was splashing about along the surface before sinking to the bottom. It is now just lying on its side all the time and not moving. But is still moving its gills.

Whats up with it? I have put him into a large breeding trap so I can keep an eye on him but he is just lying on his side.

My tank is 14gallon i think.
Temperature - 78f
PH - not knoen
Nitrate- Not known
Other fish- 6 other bronze cories, 2 zbra danio, 3 penguin zetra and a male fighter.
Last water change 10% 3 weeks ago.

Thanks

Could be a bunch of things, but we do need to know some more info first.

This is the stickied thread at the top of The Hospital Forum. The first post in it (by Cory_Di) details everything we need to know.

The quicker you can get us this information, the quicker we can help you.

Just to add as well there is no viable damage to him. His fins seem fins, he doesnt have any white spots or and other marks on him. He is still moving his gills but still laid on his side and only moved at 1 cm.

Could well be problems with ammonia and nitrite poisoning, and consequently damage to the fish's gills, which is why you need to know these water perameters. Without a test kit you cant keep track and without keeping track you wont know what step to take without making things worse. It might need biological aid, better water change regimens, or disease treatment, but without knowing your complete water perameters you'll be guessing. Every aquarist should have a test kit that includes tests for ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, and ph. Ironically, the smaller the tank, the more necessary it becomes to have a kit, because perameters are apt to change more suddenly in a smallish body of water.

If you can post a pic of the tank, and the fish, it will help some. He might be the only sick fish at the moment, but that could change, and its important to get on top of things as quickly as possible. For now, the very least that can be done is to add more oxygenation, whatever the cause its clear your cory has a dire need for oxygen, and oxygen it must have for it to stand any chance of survival. Whatever the cause, gill damage, disease, water pollution, its chances of survival will be significantly improved with more oxygen, and , if your lucky, it might buy you some time to sort out the root cause of the problem, but you'll have to move really fast.


Test kit, airstone, and go from there.

Last water change 10% 3 weeks ago.

I'd say that right there is a big cause. Your nitrate is probably sky high by now. You should be doing 20-30% weekly. I'd recommend doing a 30% water change immediately and go get yourself some test kits: nitrate, pH, nitrite, and ammonia. Those are the really important ones. Kits of GH and KH are also important, but not critical right now. Pick them up if you have the extra cash on hand. If not, get them next time you're at the LFS.

Additionally, your pH is probably very low because as ammonia turns to nitrite and finally nitrate, it actually releases some acidic atoms which will lower your pH.

Test your water for ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, and pH about 6 hours after you do your WC. That should give the water enough time to mix all together and will give you a true reading.

You'll probably have to do WCs on successive days, say 30% today, another 30% tomorrow. Test your levels of everything and see if they've returned to acceptable ranges. If they haven't, you're going to have to do some more WCs. If you end up doing more, don't vacuum the gravel -- just change the water. If you gravel vac too much, you'll remove too much of the bacteria and send your tank into a mini-cycle, which would do more harm than good.

Thanks for that info. I am using a fluval 2 internal filter with 2 2 inch airstones and 1 small airstone, so i dont think oxygen will be the problem.
I will get a ph, nitrate, amonia etc kit tomorrow. What should it be and what do I do if its too high?
Fish update. He is now sitting upright and not on his side and is moving very occasionaly but not far.

Ammonia and nitrite should both be 0 ppm. If there is any measurable levels for either of those, it indicates that your tank does not have enough bacteria to metabolize all of it into nitrate.

Nitrate should be 40 ppm max, but below 20 ppm is a lot better and what you should be shooting for.

If any of them are too high, you should do a water change.

Hope your fishy gets better!

Actually oxygen is indirectly the problem, and your cory's behaviour is showing you that. Ammonia and nitrite damage the gills so in order to get a badly stricken fish of the death list you supersaturate some water for him, so that he has a chance to recover, with a limited oxygen uptake thanks to his damaged gills, he needs all the help he can get. Obviously the water chemistry is the problem, and you fix that as soon as you can, but for a fish in a debilitated state a major water change can be a hell of a shock, think of it as not needing to just fix the water quality or up the oxygen , as there is really a need for both. If a fish's oxygen uptake is limited for whatever reason, then it often has problems with environmental change, and is far more susceptible to shock.

Hi herea an update.

I took a sample of my tank water to the Local aquarium shop who did an amonia, nitrate ph etc test on it. All was fine, they said the nirate and amonia levels wre good so nothing wrong with them. Only thing they said was my ph was a bit low at 5.5. So i bought some 6.5 buffer, which they recommend to bring the ph up to 6.5. I have add the 6.5 buffer to my tank so hopefully that will sort the ph level.
I have watched the fish more closely today, he seems a little bit more active. What I have notiched is when he tries to swim he does not use the right side pectoral fin, it doesnt move. Could he have damaged this and he in pain thats why its doing it panicky and erratic movements? I know its sounds daft but he does look in pain when he tries to move it.

can't shake the possibility that its ammonia.. did you do a water change before you got it checks... also Im no cynic but i'd be skeptical of the store..i've had some bad experience with part time workers who know little of the hobby and care less for actually keeping fish. I dont think it adds up... 14 gallons + 10% water changes + large stock + 3 week water change interval = normal water parameters (minus the ph).. i dont think so...... i would invest in my own test kit as i do now and increase the water changes

Nicely said . I was thinking much the same thing.Even if its not testing detectable ammonia at the moment, it will have been producing it at one point or another. Damage to gill tissue is permanent if it scars, and that damage can accumulate over time to a point when a fish simply becomes too weak to carry on, especially when its past it youth, and the metabolism for healing and cellular reproduction slows.

Think id go for a good quality liquid test kit, and do the testing as accurately possible to be sure. You may find in order to ascertain how things are going over time that it takes multiple tests.You might test nothing, friday, saturday, then bingo, monday brinks a spike that lasts a few hours. Ammonia production is not always consistant ,it can happen by a clumsy water change without enough conditioners used, after an unusually heavy feed, when a pocket of detritus is moved in the substrate, or when a bacterial filter colony reaches its limit and dies back with clogging or a generational die off, only to be back up to speed in a few days.