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One of my emerald cories has been acting quite strange. About a week ago I noticed that it was swimming quite rapidly against the glass (Like it was trying to get to the surface to get air). I watched it for a while and it can swim fine enough to get to the surface for air. But over the past several days I have noticed that its top fin is quite frayed (it has been being picked on by a very aggressive female molly). Now when I check on it I see it doing the same dance against the glass or laying on it side on the rocks. I think that it is dying. What could be causing this erratic behavior?

So since my last post I went to check on the poor fish and had to get out the net. I thought for sure that it wa a goner. But as soon as I came close to it it swam away and is now back to shimmying against the glass. I also noticed that looks like its skin is peeling away on one side of its body. What could be causing this and should I be treating the tank for something contagious?

The fish is stressed if it is being picked on, you will have to treat the fin and body with melafix.,you will have to get rid of the molly to sort the problem out.

How is the water quality in the tank?? I think (not sure)that if the nitrItes or nitrAtes are too high they will dart to the surface like that.
HTH,
Stella

I checked the water last night and the readings were:

ph 7.2
gh 14
ammonia .25
nitrites .25

It has been a while since I saw the molly pick at the cory. The shimmying and laying around didn't happen until a while later. I thought that the molly could have nipped at his top fin causing the fraying. But closer look this morning showed that one of his anal fins is missing as well. I looked up some diseases in one of my books and its behavior shows symptoms of flukes. Has anyone ever had experience with this? All of the other fish in my tank are okay and I do not have a hospital tank. What could I use for this if I have to remove the cory to treat it? I am going to do a water change and vacuum the gravel today as well.

Thanks

Your tank hasn't cycled, how long has it been set up, you should not do a vacum till your tank has cycled, then only do a water change if the fish are gasping at the top of the tank, your readings are high I would do a water change.

your nitate and ammonia readings should ba zero!! how old is the tank? did you cycle it before adding fish? how many fish did you add? what kind of filter are you using??

The tank has actually been set up for close to 2 years now. We added fish about 9 months ago. We started with a few platys for starter fish and gradually added more. Our female molly kept having babies and we have just now got the population of mollies under control. Could that have anything to do with the water reading? We have 1 power filter and we also run a air line to a bubble hose. We have been vacuuming the gravel for quite a few months now. I treat the water with conditioner and stress zyme each time we do a water change and once a month I add Cycle to help with the biological filter. What could I be doing wrong?

Is your filter good enough for the tank size and fish you keep, you only need to use cycle when you have been using medications.