McFuzzy

Just gave it about a 25% change. I will take your advice and keep an eye on it. Thanks!

The 50% water change saved the day. All the corys are now behaving normally. However, I believe the Maracyn may have crashed my cycle as I now have gray cloudy water and Ammonia testing at just under .25ppm. Looks like they are in for a long ride while the tank gets cycled again. I have a large sponge filter I use in my Convict Cichlid tank that I may borrow for now `to speed up the process.

I was thinking that doing all the meds at once too might have been too much for them also. I am going to try that water change and see what happens. Thanks for the advice!

Greetings all! I am from the northern edge of the Adirondack Mountains in upstate NY, and a very short drive to the US/Canadian border. There is not much for Local Fish or Pet Stores, just a sad and struggling PetSmart. The nearest real pet stores are in Montreal, about an hour or so away but with a closed international border due to COVID, and a wonderful little pet store called the Pet Advantage in Burlington, VT, which, alas, is also hard for me to get to due to COVID restrictions. Fortunately, Aquarium Co-op does a great job of keeping me supplied as well. I have been a slowly evolving fish nerd ever since running a science and nature store in Lake Placid, NY in the 90s, where I cared for aquariums and an indoor fishpond with local perch and pumpkinseeds, along with a trio of red eared slider turtles. I now have a 30 gallon planted tank filled with various Fancy Guppies that are constantly breeding, a 10 gallon planted tank that houses my male Guppies, a 30 gallon tank with a mated pair of Convict Cichlids, a 3 gallon tank with a veil tail Betta who will be moving into a 5.5 gallon soon (or maybe he will go into the 10 gallon planted, still not sure!), and a 10 gallon that I have set up as a Quarantine Tank. All of my tanks are happily "infested" with Malaysian Trumpet Snails except for the Cichlids, who I am pretty sure would find the exposed bits tasty. I am always happy to learn from others and open to sharing my own experiences, although I will be the first to admit that I am often wrong and still have much to learn. If you happen to be in my area of the country, don't be afraid to say hello, and I am always willing to trade what I have.

I put it against the white background like you are doing in your first picture. I also shine a flashlight on it or put it under a desk lamp to get the best illumination that I can. Of course, I suppose I could still be doing it wrong after all this time...

I purchased 5 peppered corys from PetSmart yesterday, and put them in my QT tank. My QT tank is a 10 gallon with an appropriately sized sponge filter and 50 watt heater, a medium pebble substrate, and some weighted small java fern for some cover. It had just been tested at a pH of 7.4, Ammonia 0.0, Nitrite 0.0, Nitrate >5.0, KH 3 degrees, GH 7 degrees. It was recently home to 4 male guppies to keep it cycled who are now at home in another 10 gallon tank of guppies and doing well. Once I had acclimated the corys and put them in my QT tank, I added one packet of API General Cure, one packet of Mardel Maracyn, and 1 tsp of Ich-X as per the Aquarium Co-op QT procedure. Not even 24 hours later, all are showing signs of swim bladder issues. Two swim vertically next to the glass by the stream of bubbles coming from the sponge filter. Two more float on their backs, lying still in the water until disturbed. The last one floats on its side, and also lies motionless until disturbed. Once they are disturbed, they will swim to the bottom and sometimes stay there for awhile, but will eventually go back to the same behaviors. I haven't fed them, and wasn't planning to for at least the first 4 days, also as per the QT procedure. Does anybody have any similar experiences or suggestions?