Cory catfish laying on side

Hello, I have a 20 gallon tank with 5 Julii Cory catfish, 3 kuhli loaches and one betta. Last night I noticed one of my corys was swimming weird and seemed to be floating a bit. This morning when I checked on him he seemed fine but now he is lying on his side at the bottom of the tank not moving very much. After testing the water last night I have 0 ppm ammonia, 0 ppm nitrite and didn’t test nitrate but I did a water change two days ago so I am doubtful that is the issue. Any advice on how to help the little guy would be greatly appreciated.

 

Do you have an airstone in the tank? He might be low on oxygen. But it could be a number of things! Does he swim around sideways? If so, than he could have an issue with his swim bladder.

 

He looks really bad. The first thing I see in your tank is that you have gravel which is a HUGE no-go with corys and for loaches. Switch to sand asap as it can wreck there mouths and fragile bellies. Get a nitrate reading if you could answer bettafairy 's questions that would be great as well.

 

Can you try and get a closer photo please, especially the nose.

Cories need, as stated already, a fine sand substrate, they injure themselves on gravel and can lose their barbels or damage their mouths and be unable to feed properly. You should also have more Kuhli as well as they thrive better in groups and, as stated already, they too need sand for burrowing.

 

Do you have an airstone in the tank? He might be low on oxygen. But it could be a number of things! Does he swim around sideways? If so, than he could have an issue with his swim bladder.

No airstone currently, and he doesn’t really swim sideways. Also nitrate reading is at 5 ppm.

He looks really bad. The first thing I see in your tank is that you have gravel which is a HUGE no-go with corys and for loaches. Switch to sand asap as it can wreck there mouths and fragile bellies. Get a nitrate reading if you could answer bettafairy 's questions that would be great as well.

Did not know that they required that kind of substrate. I will consider that on future tanks but this one is going away in two weeks anyways.

Can you try and get a closer photo please, especially the nose.

Cories need, as stated already, a fine sand substrate, they injure themselves on gravel and can lose their barbels or damage their mouths and be unable to feed properly. You should also have more Kuhli as well as they thrive better in groups and, as stated already, they too need sand for burrowing.

He’s not moving around too much so it is difficult to get a picture of his barbels but here is my best try. In the future more kuhlis and sand will be in tanks with these species.

No airstone currently, and he doesn’t really swim sideways. Also nitrate reading is at 5 ppm.

Did not know that they required that kind of substrate. I will consider that on future tanks but this one is going away in two weeks anyways.

He’s not moving around too much so it is difficult to get a picture of his barbels but here is my best try. In the future more kuhlis and sand will be in tanks with these species.

Correction. When he swims it is sideways.