Adolfoi Corydora is dying!

Hi everyone,

I'm having a trouble with one of my adolfoi and I'm afraid he's gonna die.
Last friday I noticed that my guppies had fry and got a breeding net to put them into. In order to get the fry into the net quickly I moved the other fish (10 in all. 6 neon tetras, 2 guppies and 2 adolfoi) to a bowl of tank water. I did this because I didn't want to lift the fry out of the water to get them into the breeding net and I didn't want to hurt the other guys while I was banging around the tank.

Anyway, when I moved the second adolfoi into the bowl he played dead for 2 seconds before coming too. This was when I first got worried about him. So when I had all the fry in the net I submerged the bowl back into the tank and let them all swim out.

Since then I've been watching my adolfoi and he's gotten much much worse. Before I took him out he hadn't been getting worked up when I put food into the tank. He'd just sit there while all the others went at it. I thought he just didn't go crazy for food and that he ate at his leisure when food got near him.
After watching him for the last few days he doesn't eat at all.
To add to that he started some odd behaviour problems. He would dash from the bottom to the surface and get air and then sit back down the bottom.
I was concerned and did a water change because I thought he might have ammonia/nitrite poisoning. I've since done a second water change since then. Both about 20%
After the first water change he started listing to one side and when he tried to swim up he'd roll over and come back down to the bottom.

My girlfriend was worried about him too and went to the pet shop and the guys there gave her a swimbladder treatment and reckon I may have injured his lungs when moving him, but I'm convinced the problem showed itself before then I just didn't realise it.
So we gave the swimbladder treatment but he hasn't shown any change. Every time I come back to the tank he's on his side and I think I've lost him but he's still breathing (rapidly) and I right him up (he struggles to get away but he's no energy left)

When the fry arrived I tested the water. Everything normal, ph between 7 and 7.2, ammonia and nitrites are zero and nitrates are no more than 10 mg/L. I even redid the nitrate to ensure an accurate reading as I found a post somewhere that had a conversation from an API rep. Sometimes the nitrate test solution 2 solidifys at the bottom of the bottle and needs to be banged and shaken to work it loose.
The only thing I can see physically wrong with him is that he doesn't seem to have whiskers like the other guy, but his mouth doesn't look damaged. He must be sufferring starvation at this point

So all in all here's the symptoms,

Initial
Not eating
Bursting to the surface
Rapid breathing
Solitary
No redness around gills
No physical marks

Current
Not eating
Rapid breathing
Tumbles when trying to swim
Falls over when sitting on the bottom
Doesn't right himself after tipping over
Fins held close to body
Little to no movement
Doesn't run from my hand but does try to move


I'm very worried and I'll post a link to an image later that I've already taken. Maybe somebody can spot something I don't recognise.

Thanks for any help
R

HI R,
when you moved the corys did you notice any discharge in the water?

but i would suggest you treat with ESHa 2000 its a good all round treatment.

Mickey

Unfortunately I would think that fish is either dead by the time you read ths or will be very shortly.

It is perfectly normal for corys to travel to the surface and gulp air. That is nothing to worry about unless they are doing it excessively. It is most common after they eat.

The key to this guys problem is the lack of barbels, if they are gone the fish has been suffering a bacterial infection for a long time and once they have dissapeared all the way back to the mouth they will not regrow. The cause an be either too sharp substrate or a dirty tank. Either is easily remedied with a change of substrate or regular gravel vacuuming.

Of all the corys, some are more delicate than others, adolfoi would be in the delicate class.

How long have you had him/her?
How long is the tank running?
Finally I am most interested in knowing what medication the LFS supplied?


Daragh

Thanks for the replies guys.
You were right Daragh, he was gone by the time I got home yesterday. I'm really disappointed by this. They're geat little fish and he was very happy in the tank. I have the setup for about 8 months now with the adolfoi in there for about 4 months.
We recently moved though and I was so busy with that, that I let the water changes slide a bit. I would have thought that the build up of nitrates wouldn't have been big due to there only being 10 small fish in a 60L tank.
I think you must be right about the dirty gravel though. I did a good clean of it for those water changes and there was quite a bit of dirt coming from it. He must have gotten the infection from that. I did quite a lot of searching to try and figure out what was wrong with him and I didn't come across the barbels pointing to an issue. I'm a bit frustrated that I didn't find that, it might have helped to know it sooner.

I did treat with eSha 2000 the first day before the LFS gave us the swimbladder treatment.
It was the Interpet Swimbladder treatment. I'm not put off by them suggesting that treatment as I wasn't there myself to tell them more info and I can see how they came to that conclusion as we were more focus on his odd behaviour than the lack of barbels.

There was no discharge in the water when I moved the guys although I'm sure the stress of it didn't help the situation. If I had realised there was a problem before that I never would have moved him

I'm gonna do a full treatment with the eSha 2000 over the next few days and another water change and gravel clean.

I'm annoyed at myself as this is obviously my own fault for not keeping the tank cleaner.

Heres a picture of him I took the day before I posted this thread, this might confirm the issue. Maybe you could tell me if you think my gravel could be better for cory's?

Sick Corydora Adolfoi

Thanks again for taking the time to read my original post and giving your advice guys. I really appreciate it.

R

I've put a video up there too but its over exposed so its not really clear enough. You can view it fullscreen in HD though so that might help a bit.

Hi rclerkin
sorry to hear this. Corys are not my field but i would personaly prefare to see corys with sand rather than gravel. But I am sure Daragh Owens will give you some better information later.

Mickey

Sorry to here about the cory, I had three but only have two now. Your gravel looks ok, I have almost the same set up. It may have been an infection that caused the fish to be weak.

Also you got to be careful when moving or netting corys. They discharge a chemical into the water from somewhere near their gills, as part of a defense mechanism, to kill whatever is trying to eat them. In a small volume bowl or bag, this can be fatal for them and other fish.

So when moving corys, it is sometimes better to spend a while chasing them with the net, if you get them quickly and pop them into a small bag, the discharge can be enough to kill them.

I never knew that about the discharge. I didn't realise that was what you were asking about in your first reply Mickey. I certainly didn't see any discolouration in the water when I moved them. I'm going to get some more Adolfi if I can so that the guy left on his own will have a small group to swim with. I'm going to have to do some more research on them though. I thought I knew their behaviour better than I do.
Thanks for all the replies guys. I don't feel quite so mystified about what happened.

Hi

There is no video link above if you are having trouble posting it, PM the link to me and I might be able to fix it.

Mickey is right about the sand, corys prefer it especially the long nose species, however the gravel you have is fine. I have it in some of my tank. The real no no is the artifical gravel made from ground glass.

Looking at the pic you post that fish was really sad looking and I would think he had been failing for a long time. Once he got to the stage you described, rolling over etc, it was 99% sure he was a gooner. Look after the remaining one and if you get him back to health get 4 or 5 more adolfoi, they like to be in a shoal of their own type. Keep up with the water changes and vac the gravel and you should be fine.

I have hundreds of corys from over 50 species and have never experienced them releasing poison, however as Puggy described they can, at least it is known some species do. Particularly C sterbai, there is only one known photo of the poison release and it appeared to come from beneath the pec. fin and looked like milk. It would be noticeable in a small volume of water. It also cause the water to sud, so it you have a cory in a bag and soapy like bubbles develop on the surface - rebag immediately. The poison is as harmful to the cory releasing it as to the attacking fish!

The reason I was interested in water treatment was provided for waim bladder issues was that I was not aware that there was one! Swim bladder ailments in tropical fish are more often than not secondary to the original problem and or as a result of huge temp fluctuations. The traditional solution is to try rising the temp a few degrees and adding some salt, however corys and most catfish in general dislike salt and therefore the amount of salt used, if any, would be very small. Does the medication you got list any active ingredients?

Daragh

Hi Darragh,

The video is at the same link as the photo. Its only a 20 second clip of my poor little guy being miserable
I've gone on a mad gravel cleaning spree over the last few water changes. I've been churning the gravel in my hand to lift as much crap as I can into the water so it goes into the filter and then I've been cleaning it with the siphon too when changing the water. New filter floss with each water change too.
I've started a course of the eSha 2000 aswell so hopefully the tank will be back to good condition after this and I can get some tank mates for the cory who's there on his own.
I'm a little worried about the guppy fry and the eSha 2000, will they be ok with the treatment in the water?

I knew the little guy was on his way out too but by the time I realised there was something wrong it was too late and he deteriorated quickly. 3 days from seemingly normal to having died. I'm keeping a close eye on the other guy tho. I'm determined not to let this happen again.

The swimbladder treatment we got is this one . I'll put up some more info when I get home later.