# Corydoras acting weird



## sampster5000 (Jul 24, 2010)

Can someone tell me why my skunk cory is so discolored and why he is breathing so fast? My temperature is at 76 and has not moved for weeks and I just did a big water change of 60% yesterday. I thought my skunk looked normal until I started searching for pictures of other skunk cory's. Why is mine not white? Why is his stripe not clear at all? Why is he breathing so heavy? Also, I have 2 axelrodi and 1 orange laser cory in the tank and they are breathing very fast too. Really confused here :/

My pH is 7.6 from the tap. I've read that they will be fine with a wide range of pH though so that shouldnt be a problem. I have not measured ammonia, nitrite, nitrate because after doing 50-60% water changes every week this should be very low. My plants in the tank are java fern, water sprite, hornwort, anubias barteri, anubias nana, and 2 plants I'm not sure of. I'm using eco-complete and black sand on top of that. I am dosing flourish, excel, and NPK daily. My filter is an Aqua Clear.


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## davemonkey (Mar 29, 2008)

What about chlorine or chloramines in yuor water? Do you use water conditioner when you water change?

50% water change per week may not be enough to clean out ammonia in a newly established tank that is lightly planted. Do you clean your filter (and if so, do you change the filter material often...which would effectively remove your bacteria/biological colony...leading to ammonia problems)?


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## davemonkey (Mar 29, 2008)

I thought of another question: did you boil your driftwood before putting it the tank?


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## sampster5000 (Jul 24, 2010)

I use Prime water conditioner everytime I do a water change. I change the media every month. I dont have many plants right now because I'm waiting on my new lights to come in. I'm under 1wpg right now and these plants are really struggling. And yes I did boil my driftwood beforehand.


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## sampster5000 (Jul 24, 2010)

I guess one thing I can think of is the tank has been running 3-4 months (I've lost track) so maybe its still cycling? I didnt think it would take more than a few weeks. I got these cory's last week and have had a mystery snail in the tank since it started up.


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## swimfast59 (Aug 19, 2010)

Do you only have 2 cories in this tank? If so, he may be stressed out since cories thrive in groups of at least 3. I have 7 in my tank and they are doing really well.


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## davemonkey (Mar 29, 2008)

At 3-4 months your tank should be well cycled by now.

It could be the black sand cutting their barbels (it's a very "sharp" substrate). Or, since you are adding your ferts daily, you may be overloading with nitrates since you are only lightly planted and very low WPG. I'm willing to bet that you are dosing more than your plants can consume right now. When you say, NPK daily, how much would that be (and is this the flourish liquids, or are they dry ferts)?


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## sampster5000 (Jul 24, 2010)

I have 4 cory's in the tank. I did not know that this sand was sharp. I was hoping it would be soft and good for them, hence why I got it  What would you consider heavily planted? My tank is pretty full with plants. I dont have many but its only a 15 gallon tank. I use liquid fertilizers by Seachem. I took the recommended weekly amount for each fertilizer and figured out what a daily dose would be for each. For example: Flourish directions say to use 5 mL for each 60 gallons once or twice a week. I am dosing it .50 mL daily. I do this because I read that these fertilizers have a half life which would not get them through to the next adding of fertilizers. 

Do you suggest adding them by what the bottle says? It is the same amount of fertilizer but spread out.


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## sampster5000 (Jul 24, 2010)

Well I did another 50% water change and cut my dosings in half until my new lights come in. I also decided to cut back on how much I'm feeding. The cory's are only eating 2 out of the 4 mini wafers I drop in so I dropped it to 2. I was feeding bloodworms every evening but I'm only going to do that every few days. Hopefully this helps.


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## sampster5000 (Jul 24, 2010)

bump... could anyone add anything?


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## sam22sam (Jul 9, 2010)

Check for PH swings; my corry did the same thing (lying at the bottom and not moving) when the PH had dropped from 7.2 to 6.4 due to a 70% water change. Also try moving the cory; if it not able to swim around but seems to wobble; then it could be a swim bladder infections. 

I also hear that if the Gills are very red and the fish seems to have rapid breathing and seems to be heaving; then it could be amonia poising. 

If you have co2 in the tank it could be Co2 poisoning sometimes. In this case you might want to change the water and take co2 down to 1 bps.

Have mentioned everything I know here.. I had two panda cory's and well..

sam


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## sampster5000 (Jul 24, 2010)

Thanks for the reply. Im wondering if it has something to do with my excel? Sadly, my pH never goes below 7.4 lol


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## sampster5000 (Jul 24, 2010)

Well I was hoping for some more replies but I think I've figured out what the problem was. I was using some activated carbon that I bought from the LFS instead of the filters premade filter cartridges. After having it in for a month, AND washing the carbon twice to remove dust, it was still sending tons of dust into the water. This stuff sucks! I removed it and replaced it with another Aquaclear for up to 50 gallons then did a huge water change. My T5HO lights came in so I started over on how I was doing my ferts. Back to daily. All of my plants are growing like mad now. 

Most importantly, my cory's are all acting fine and are active again. The big confusion I still have is why my skunk cory looks almost all dusty black but hopefully I'll figure it out soon. I ordered some marsilea spp. to carpet my foreground so the cory's will have something else to move around on. Hopefully this helps.


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## fishyjoe24 (May 18, 2010)

skunks are sence-a-tive. as with all corydoras.. if the aquarium isn't maintained normaly there will has stress and get illnesses. how long have they been in your tank. did you just throw them in or did you dip accumlate them?


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## sampster5000 (Jul 24, 2010)

I am incredibly careful when acclimating my fish and inverts. I placed them in a tank that had been running for months. I do 50% weekly water changes. I was thinking the problem was the activated carbon I was using. It was still dusty and leeching after a month. I was using it that whole time. I switched to new filtration.


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## neilshieh (Jun 24, 2010)

might i recommend going to walmart and buying a container of activated carbon? its by aquatech, works for me and it's cheap. well it's made by marineland or some far off branch of marineland i think. but you have to rinse it first otherwise there will be dust.


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## sampster5000 (Jul 24, 2010)

neilshieh said:


> might i recommend going to walmart and buying a container of activated carbon? its by aquatech, works for me and it's cheap. well it's made by marineland or some far off branch of marineland i think. but you have to rinse it first otherwise there will be dust.


Thanks. I was thinking about moving to that one if I make my own media again. It is a lot more popular and looks cleaner.

Also, I took out all of my cory's and fish and moved them to my 29 gallon temporarily. They are doing great now. All color is back and they are very active. It was most likely the sand. I ordered some aquasoil amazonia II and power sand. I am re doing the tank completely and this time putting the sand on the bottom. Tired of messing with sand!! I might not even add the cory's back in. I'm thinking of an all shrimp and nerite snail tank with an oto. Thx for the replies everyone.


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## neilshieh (Jun 24, 2010)

i actually have my cories in a tank with flourite which is basically fractured clay, but i've haven't had any problems


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## sampster5000 (Jul 24, 2010)

I regret not trying out flourites sand. I was trying to save money and got caribsea black sand to throw on top of the flourite so the cory's could scavenge through it easier than gravel. I should have stuck with the flourite on top.

How active are your cories on that sand?


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## neilshieh (Jun 24, 2010)

Its not sand actually... I bought the regular one which is pretty sharp. Theyre always zipping around and so is my sae they all seem very happy


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## mudboots (Jun 24, 2009)

I used excel once for 3 days straight when I noticed a few pieces of staghorn algae in the 125. For these 3 days the cories were stressed and lathargic to the point I thought I'd loose them.

Just my experience...


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## sampster5000 (Jul 24, 2010)

mudboots said:


> I used excel once for 3 days straight when I noticed a few pieces of staghorn algae in the 125. For these 3 days the cories were stressed and lathargic to the point I thought I'd loose them.
> 
> Just my experience...


Wow I never even thought of that! So many variables that I dont have time to test  I moved all of the cory's to my 29 gallon which gets no ferts so we'll see how they turn out. They are doing a lot better right now. I'm going to keep what you said in my head. Thanks!


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