Cory Cat Scratching himself

[sirkeen]

Hey All,

I just purchased two more corry cats for my 20 gall on hex tank. I've had one single one for a while now, and figured he should have some friends. It was really nice to see, when the two new cory cats made it in, and they are about twice the size of my original cory, they became friends right away! They haven't left each other for days now. Anyway, one of the corys purchased has be scratching himself against a rock that i Have. I have only seen him do it three times. Twice yesterday and once today. As I type this, he is eatting off the rock, and just twitched to scratch himself, so I guess four times now. My water has a PH of 7.8, 0 ammonia, 0 nitrites, 20ppm Nitrates. No other fish is scratching themselves. Any ideas?

 

[SCFatz]

Quite possibly ick in the gills....the behavior is called flashing because the fishes lighter under belly is exposed in a "flashes" as it twitches against objects in the tank.

Watch for other signs of ick...like salt looking cysts on the fins.

 

[Blazeherd2306]

Watch him carefully, he might have a disease.

 

[Zagz]

I would suspect ich as mentioned. As a preventative measure you can turn the heat up slowly to 87 and add aeration or lower the water level a bit to create more splash. The higher temps will not hurt the fish.