Med Trio Floating Corys

[Stash Beardsley]

Has anyone else used the med trio and had corys float at the top of the tank? Theyre floating under my red root floaters and duck weed. Sometimes theyll swim down and float back up. Some are at the bottom of the tank doing decently. If I move the plants the ones floating will swim down and then back up. My nitrite was at 1ppm. Didnt want to do a water change because of the meds. Did dose with Fritz zyme 7 to just try and get them through the 7 days in medication. Anyone else see this before?

[Colu]

It could be low levels of desolved oxygen caused by the meds or your nitrites could be affecting the Cory's I would add an extra air stone a do a water change 

[Lowells Fish Lab]

I agree, when I quarantine with the med trio I have found in all cases that the water will be depleted of oxygen without an airstone. It's a must.

[Stash Beardsley]

Had an airstone on a sponge filter. Added another one last night just to see. About to go look right now.

[Stash Beardsley]

Lost 2 out of 15 so far. There are 8 at the bottom of the tank now at least. The rest are still floating in the plants. They're still alive though. 

[Andy's Fish Den]

If they are just floating there, not gasping at surface I don't think its a lack of dissolved oxygen issue. It sounds more like a swim bladder issue. 

[Stash Beardsley]

I threw an extra air stone in there just in case since it takes 2 secs. I thought maybe swim bladder when I was watching them last night. They swim down and then just kind of halfway swim/float back up. I did check around on the googles and there were a few blog posts of using the med trio and then they were floating. Think there was one or two posts on this forum too. But no real info. or answers. With the meds. in the water I do notice that the water itself seems to be "thicker". Maybe it was too fast of a change for them to handle and their swim bladders couldn't handle it? I would consider them more or less juveniles. Maybe they just couldn't handle it since they're younger. I waited two weeks prior to doing the quarantine trio. They were acting fine. Added the meds and then the next night I was like where are they? Then found them floating.

[Stash Beardsley]

I have used the trio on corys before with no issue. They were adults though.

[Colu]

It's possible they had a reaction to the meds I would do a 50% water change to remove the meds you could do the med trio just do one med  a week paracleanse Frist then ich x and then maracyn 

[Stash Beardsley]

4 minutes ago, Colu said:

It's possible they had a reaction to the meds I would do a 50% water change to remove the meds you could do the med trio just do one med  a week paracleanse Frist then ich x and then maracyn 

When I found them last night I almost changed water right away out of a gut reaction. Was thinking about it and watching them. Tested my water. Made this post. Went to bed. So far lost 2 total and the remaining half have recovered. I've decided to not do anything else. If I change water parameters again I feel that might wipe them out. In the future with younger corys I will probably take your advice and treat each med separately. It's an interesting sort of thing to do some testing on if I start getting more corys of different ages. Doesn't seem like it's a very common thing from the posts on this thread and what I searched for. Could just be a one off.

[Stash Beardsley]

Two days into the med trio and they're back to normal at the bottom of the tank. Looks to be 10-11 of the original 15. I pulled out three and maybe one died prior to this or died and snails got it. Hard to get an exact count. Looking good though.

Edited May 12, 2021 by Stash Beardsley

[Eric R]

Sounds like you had a bacterial bloom, and ended up with a mini-cycle where you didn't have enough BB to convert nitrite to nitrate. I would have done a large water change (50%+) and then redosed meds (this just happened in one of my tanks, where I was dosing Maracyn and ParaCleanse). It seems that Maracyn is usually the culprit when this happens. It also sounds possible that it may not have been a swim bladder issue, but a sign that the fish had nitrite poisoning. Fish will swim up to the top of the tank when there are excess levels of nitrite in the tank because they are having trouble breathing and are trying to get more oxygen. [See this article for a lot of excellent information about nitrite: https://www.practicalfishkeeping.co.uk/features/frequently-asked-questions-on-nitrite/]

In addition to water changes, you can also try dosing very low levels of non-iodine or aquarium salt, as the salt reduces the toxicity of the nitrite by interfering with how it affects the bloodstream in fish. Corys can be salt sensitive, so this may or may not be the best option, depending on the condition of the fish and whether you are able to reduce nitrites successfully with a water change.

[Stash Beardsley]

They just came out of quarantine last night. I have 12 out of 15 that made it. They are healthy and active. It worked itself out. All I did was add another airstone and added Fritz zyme 7 to take care of the 1ppm nitrite.