Cory floating on its side

[Glyn Oliver]

Hi put 2 corys into my 48ltr tank on saturday, admitedly they went in after about 30 minutes floating in the bag...... they seemed to do fine, raking around on the bottom, doing what they generally do, today one of them has floated to the top, head and tail hanging down, every now and then it swims about and to the bottom but seems to have difficulty stopping down. When it floats to the top it just stays still as if dead. Could this be a swim bladder problem?

Tested water with API liquid kit - Ammonia 0, Nitrite 0 and Nitrate 5.
The PH of our water is only between 6.0 and 6.4 but it is always like that and the other fish are ok. This is not a new tank setup either.

Thanks for any help.

 

[Rivercats]

Can't say if it's a swim bladder problem but when a cory gets like that it's usually not long for this world... sorry.

 

[Glyn Oliver]

Thanks

I don't have a quarentine tank either, it's something I should invest in, what would be the basic setup for a quarentine tank?

 

[Cynic]

Depends on the size of fish you normally keep...

 

[DavidAl]

Ditto what Rivercats said. Once they get like that, it's time to start thinking about euthanization. How's the other cory doing?

I simple quarantine tank could be a 10-gallon with a mature sponge filter or corner box filter. That combination is at cheap as it gets. Throw in some floating plants and do not add any substrate. Lights are not needed; room lighting is plenty enough. Keep an airstone with a small pump around in case you need to medicate.

David

 

[Glyn Oliver]

Thanks for the reply, the biggest fish in there are 3 x pristella tetra, the other cory is doing fine at the moment. I assume a quarentine tank would need to be left functioning all the time even if nothing was in it?

 

[Jbaygurl78745]

U can go to walmart get 10g whole set up for 30$ filter hood heater net. Thats were i got my Q set up cnt beat 30$ for everything than seed the filter from ur main tank.

 

[Jbaygurl78745]

Maybe up you corys they love 2 b in shoals. I have 6 julias in my bow front n they are crazy lil dudes wen i first turn on the light. My daughter has a 45g tank with all diff kinds of cories.n the diff kinds all shoal together. What kinda cory do you have?

 

[bobc4d]

do you keep the qt tank running all the time? what chemically happens to a qt tank which isn't used for many months on end.

 

[DavidAl]

do you keep the qt tank running all the time? what chemically happens to a qt tank which isn't used for many months on end.

You don't have to keep a QT tank running all of the time. Only set it up when you want to isolate a fish due to aggression issues, know you will be buying fish in the near future or when you have a sick fish you want to medicate. The key is to have mature filter media ready to go on a very short notice, and you can do that by keeping the media running in a healthy tank.

If you want to keep a QT tank running all of the time, feed it liquid ammonia on a daily basis.

 

[Cynic]

do you keep the qt tank running all the time? what chemically happens to a qt tank which isn't used for many months on end.

Easiest thing to do is simply run a sponge filter on your main tank. If you require a QT tank just setup the tank, switch the sponge filter to the QT tank and instant cycle.

Just make sure you clean the buggery out of the sponge filter before returning it to the main tank.

 

[bkiggy]

You can put the media back in the main tank, otherwise if you "turn it off" beneficial bacteria dies and the tank will be useless