a little help needed please

Hi when i got up this morning and looked in bubbles tank i saw a bad thing, then a good thing, then bad again :wb:

Bad thing
I saw one peppered cory laying motionless on its side :cry:

good thing
I also watched one female laying several clutches of eggs after some nice t shape cuddling with a couple of males :woohoo:

bad thing
I then watched in horror as our golden pencil fish then made a tasty meal of said eggs :cry:

Now i have solved the problem with the pencil fish by removing the eggs to a fry saver i bought today, it hangs on the outside of the tank with the water from the tank flowing in via an air pump and then back into the main tank to create a constant flow over the eggs.

however i have absolutely no idea whats wrong with the cory i found laying on its side :dk:
at first look i thought it had passed away but when i went to remove it it tried to swim away, so i caught it and have put it in another fry saver to monitor its progress.

I can see no signs of any damage to its body or any visible signs of bacterial or fungal problems, its just laying on its side and breathing is quite fast.

the tank is 2 and a half foot 100 litres

Water conditions are all as normal
temp 24
Ph 7.6
ammonia 0
nitrite 0
nitrate 10-20

the fish in there are

7 peppered corys
9 golden pencil fish
1 bristlenose

I am going to end its suffering if there is no improvement in the next couple of hours :cry:

If anyone can shed any light on what could be wrong or what may of happened i would be extremely grateful.

Just an after thought could it have anything to do with the spawning as they really do get quite boisterous ?

Many thanks in advance guys and gals

I wouldnt be too hasty give it time in the trap its possible its hit the support or side bars and had a bang on the head shooting up and down the glass is it a male or a female?

Hi Percy plec we found the Cory on its side at more or less the same time we found the eggs so there were no traps present at the particular time. We now have the injured or ill cory in a trap and the eggs in another. A couple of times the Cory has gone onto its side and gooner has gently righted it. I believe it is male but am not 100% sure i would take a picture but my mobile phone is rubbish, i will see if gooner can and post it.

I hope this information may help, we have sand substrate, a small piece of bogwood and a scattering of small stones. There are plants but they are silk. We have been watching this cory and seems to be able to stay upright until it moves a little then it seems to end up on its side.

Their diet is :

Tetra TabiMin, Freeze dried tubifex, JBL novotab, Tetra Prima, Hikari Microwafers, Hikari sinking wafers, frozen daphnia, frozen brineshrimp, hikari algae wafer ( they nibble on this when fed to the BN) i think thats it. Oh and occasionally peas ( de shelled).

during the mating proceedure, the male does tickle the female etc to enduce spawning. Maybe he/she lying on its side was just relaxed and in a trance. I would monitor and observe more. Maybe also reduce the proteins a little. cheers jk :thumbup:

hi no improvement overnight for our poor cory, its been around 24 hours now and the problem seems to be with its ability to stay up right (could it be a swim bladder problem ?) i have carefully put the fish back up right several times over the last 24 hours and it stays ok for about 15-20 minutes and then ends up back on its side and its breathing is a bit varied, sometimes fast sometimes slow.

I am now just wondering how long to wait before i should do the kindest thing for it as its getting increasingly hard to see the fish in this condition :cry:

any help is greatly appreciated

sorry for that news. as sad as it may seem, but if you think it is suffering, then place it in a tub into the freezer and say good bye. You have a better view than all of us and although a hard decision, it will have to be yours. sorry cheers jk :thumbup:

I still think this fish has taken a knock whilst spawning they fairly shoot about and its easily done this could easily cause balance issues for a while. i didnt mean it had knocked itself on the trap i meant on the condensation tray strips on the side of the tank or on strengthening bars whilst speeding up the tank to spawn i always drop the water level on cory which are spawning for this reason.

It doesnt sound like swim bladder to me but check its symptoms against those of the disease and if they do match then attempt to treat the problem.

Please dont put your fish in the freezer to euthanise IF you have to put the fish down then please use a humane method of doing so. The clove oil method is thought to be the most humane way to do it :thumbup:

bigbird said:

during the mating proceedure, the male does tickle the female etc to enduce spawning. Maybe he/she lying on its side was just relaxed and in a trance. I would monitor and observe more. Maybe also reduce the proteins a little. cheers jk :thumbup:

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Hi Bigbird what other foods can we feed the Corys to do this ?, sorry if that sounds daft i have tried to research what to feed and we bought food accordingly Thanks.

percy plec said:

I still think this fish has taken a knock whilst spawning they fairly shoot about and its easily done this could easily cause balance issues for a while. i didnt mean it had knocked itself on the trap i meant on the condensation tray strips on the side of the tank or on strengthening bars whilst speeding up the tank to spawn i always drop the water level on cory which are spawning for this reason.

It doesnt sound like swim bladder to me but check its symptoms against those of the disease and if they do match then attempt to treat the problem.

Please dont put your fish in the freezer to euthanise IF you have to put the fish down then please use a humane method of doing so. The clove oil method is thought to be the most humane way to do it :thumbup:

Click to expand...

Hi Percy plec, i happen to agree, i think it has taken a knock, not swim bladder i guess we are kind of grabbing straws here, thank you for the advice on dropping the water level very helpfull as we are very new to corys breeding.

If we need to euthanise the fish we will be doing so with clove oil, i am really hoping not to have to do so :~(

i would give it a little time its not nice to see and there are no guarantees things will right themselves but im sure at this stage its more distressing for you than for the fish i really hope he pulls through for you

Sadly the Cory didnt make it and has passed tonight, i have to admit i am gutted i was really hoping it would pull through.

Thank you for the kind replies much appreciated.