10 Gallon Tank Pygmy corydoras showing signs of Swim Bladder Disorder AGAIN

Tank (This is a Quarantine Tank)

What is the water volume of the tank? 10 gal
How long has the tank been running? 4 weeks (But used cycled filter media from established tank)
Does it have a filter? YEs
Does it have a heater? Yes
What is the water temperature? 76 F
What is the entire stocking of this tank? (Please list all fish and inverts.) 8 Corydoras pygmaeus

Maintenance
How often do you change the water? Once weekly
How much of the water do you change? ~25%
What do you use to treat your water? Seachem Prime
Do you vacuum the substrate or just the water? No substrate in QT, so just water

*Parameters - Very Important
Did you cycle your tank before adding fish? Yes
What do you use to test the water? API Freshwater Master Test Kit
What are your parameters? We need to know the exact numbers, not just “fine” or “safe”.

Ammonia: 0 ppm
Nitrite: 0 ppm
Nitrate: 5 ppm
pH: 7.2

Feeding
How often do you feed your fish? Usually twice a day
How much do you feed your fish? For both dried tabs and frozen daphnia, I just break off a very small chunk, maybe 2-3mm in diameter. They take forever to find it all
What brand of food do you feed your fish? Hikari frozen daphnia and Sera O-Nip tabs
Do you feed frozen or freeze-dried foods? Frozen

Illness & Symptoms
How long have you had this fish? 2 months
How long ago did you first notice these symptoms? Original outbreak was 4 weeks ago. One fish showed symptoms again today
In a few words, can you explain the symptoms? Floating limply, on side, or upside down intermittently. Swimming in an unbalanced manner. Staying at surface and possibly gasping for air. Possibly twitching.
Have you started any treatment for the illness? No
Was your fish physically ill or injured upon purchase? No
How has its behavior and appearance changed, if at all? More lethargic and spending more time at surface.

Explain your emergency situation in detail. (Please give a clear explanation of what is going on, include details from the beginning of the illness leading up to now)


Some Background: I purchased 12 pygmy corydoras 2 months ago. After bringing them home, I kept them in a 10 gallon QT for 4 weeks. During that time, one died of unknown causes. After another week the rest seemed fine, so I moved them to my main aquarium, but a rainbowfish that had hatched off of one of my live plants was harassing them, so the next day I surrendered the rainbow to my LFS. A few days later I found two of the corys dead and stuck in the intake valve of my filter. I feel bad for not doing it sooner, but I did put a prefilter sponge on the valve after this happened. About a week after that, multiple corys started having intermittent spells where they would float around the tank limply or swim in an unbalanced fashion. Over the next few days, I ended up isolating all the corys in the QT again, and after reading about swim bladder disorder, I proceeded to fast them for 72 hours. Most seemed to recover, but one died after about a week.

Unfortunately, after two weeks of no issues with the 8 remaining corys, I noticed one of them floating limply at the surface and then returning to swimming normally again. Throughout the day, I've noticed that one cory spending a lot of time at the surface. I have been extra concerned lately so I've noted some other behaviors that I wasn't sure were normal. Sometimes during and after feeding, I've noticed one cory hanging around the glass at the surface of the tank swimming back and forth and possibly 'gulping' for air. I've also seen the occasional 'twitching' episode, where a fish will repeatedly flinch for a few seconds and then return to normal. I haven't been able to tell them apart well enough to know if this is the same fish. I'm now considering trying some sort of medication, but have been wary to do so, and I'm not sure what to start with.

I'm super disappointed and worried, since I felt like everything had finally stabilized, so I would greatly appreciate any suggestions on medication or other measures I should try in order to save my fish!

 

A virtual hug for your concern and distress.

While I am not sure of the cause, I'm lucky enough to have a collection of 9 healthy pygmy cories. Every once in a while I have one which flashes a few times without consequence (nitrates may be between 20-40) and followed with a WC. As you may be aware, a swim bladder disorder may be as simple as digestive issue and fasting may solve the concern; yet there are other causes. I have success feeding once a day. This may be helpful in eliminating the concern of overfeeding.

Do you have photos to share for better support? I recommend sharing some of the fish, and of the two tanks.

What type of pump and water agitation do you have in the QT and main tank? I recommend adding an air stone or additional sponge filter. The lower levels of the aquarium often hold the first signs of tank health due to the more limited atmospheric exchange occurring at the water line.

 

Are you using a liquid carbon product (Excel or similar)?

 

My C. habrosus did something similar, though I'm sure it was because they didn't transition well in the the hardness and pH difference between where I got them from and my tank.

What is your hardness? Are they tankbred?

 

Thanks for the replies and suggestions! In the main tank I have an Aquaclear 30 HOB filter and an air stone. In the quarantine tank I just have one sponge filter powered by a Tetra Whisper 10 gal air pump. There seems to be pretty solid surface agitation. I do use Flourish Excel in the main tank. I don't have a water hardness test unfortunately, so I haven't tested that, but when I bought the corys from my LFS, I was told that they were captive bred.

Here's a video of the cory in question and a picture of each tank as requested:

 

Ok, the hardness would be really good to know (in general). Can't say more without readings.
And as they are tankbred the likelihood they brought some kind of infection with them is higher.

 

Ok, the hardness would be really good to know (in general). Can't say more without readings.
And as they are tankbred the likelihood they brought some kind of infection with them is higher.

Gotcha. Well thanks for the info! I'll definitely try to pick up a hardness test ASAP.

 

Ok, the hardness would be really good to know (in general). Can't say more without readings.
And as they are tankbred the likelihood they brought some kind of infection with them is higher.

Hey. I was able to pick up an API GH/KH test this morning. ). It looks like my water hardness is 3 dKH and 5 dGH.

 

Wait, so were they exposed to Excel within the last few weeks?

 

Thank you for sharing the photos.

Beautiful tanks (nicely done for a QT!). By appearance and my initial reaction, I do not see a swim bladder issue but more of a looming sickness. The fish seems to need to put energy and effort into swimming versus being off-balance due to irregularity with its swim bladder. It may be the video angle but the body shape seems thin which would lead me to consider something internal.

How is its appetite?

AvalancheDave, what effects may you expect from a liquid carbon supplement?

 

AvalancheDave The last time any of them were exposed to Flourish Excel was on 9/10. I was under the impression that it was fish-safe though. Is that not always the case?

cdianne Yeah I agree that it looks thin. When I was treating the rest of the corys there was noticeable bloating in comparison. The last time I fed them was yesterday morning (I figured I might as well try fasting). That was when I first noticed this little guy having issues. I remember them all eating then. I've only had a few chances to check on them today and I think the one having problems was just laying on the bottom. Granted most of them do that for a good part of the day. I'm off work tomorrow so I'm wondering if I should try to find some medication. Just not sure what would be best in this case...

 

AvalancheDave The last time any of them were exposed to Flourish Excel was on 9/10. I was under the impression that it was fish-safe though. Is that not always the case?

The same chemical was trialed as a fish poison and Seachem admitted it never did any toxicity research. It doesn't cause noticeable issues for most aquarists but the occasional case of dropsy or tank wipeout isn't worth it. There may be long term effects. It's also an irritant so it can be painful to animals. Some people have noticed fish trying to escape it and shrimp spazzing out when it's dosed.

 

Hey. I was able to pick up an API GH/KH test this morning. ). It looks like my water hardness is 3 dKH and 5 dGH.

That's perfect range for cories. The pH is a bit high, I wanted to make sure it's not from the hardness. And it very much is not.

 

AvalancheDave Well that's concerning... I'll definitely look into that. Luckily they're in the QT now so they won't be exposed to any more.

To give an update, I ended up going to my LFS, and the guy there said the pygmy corys they get are often super sensitive to water parameters. So maybe I just have a really delicate batch. He did give me some Melafix, but after doing some research, it sounds unlikely that that will have an effect. Any thoughts on that or other treatments? Also do you think the sponge filter is providing adequate oxygenation or would an airstone be beneficial?

 

Get indian almond leaves, alder cones and do regular waterchanges that's the only treatments one should do if it's unclear what the fish have. You have a spongefilter running, so an extra airstone is not necessary. Cories breath atmospheric oxygen anyway by gulping air. So unless they all go to the surface every 5 minutes there should be more than enough oxygen in the water.

 

Awesome, well thanks for all the input! I'd never heard of Indian almond leaves, but they sound like a really cool option. I'll try to track some down. I'll definitely keep up with the water changes and hopefully things turn around!