Flukes? Or just Itchy?

[tetra]

This has been happening to my bronze Cory’s ever since I put them in their display tank. They weren’t doing this in quarantine from what I remember. They seem to be acting normal though other than just occasionally flashing here and there usually they flash on the sand or driftwood once a day (not all of them though) they look normal, too.

The only odd behavior I’ve seen since was when I tried using @Colu’s fluke treatment just for a safety precaution if there was anything. But they still occasionally flash after 2 weeks of the treatment. So I think I’m gonna stop now. But during the treatment, one of the females (I think it’s a female cause it’s plumper and had a sunken belly after laying eggs a few months ago, it’s gotten less sunken now) started spinning in circles randomly after a male (I assume) chased her. I’ve never seen this behavior again after switching the food in the medicated slurry and adding garlic guard.

I watched a video earlier on about flashing in fish, and he mentioned that fish usually flash to “interact with their surroundings” or give them selves a relief from a quick itch. And he also mentioned that it was only an issue if their flashing excessively which is not my case.

The type of substrate they have is pool filter sand I got off Amazon. And the Corydoras usually sift the sand through their gills and when going up for air, some sand flys out of there gills and sometimes they may occasionally flash. Maybe it’s just the texture of the sand?

I was gonna add some more cories from quarantine with them possibly next week or later. So I want to make sure nothing happens to the new ones if they are carrying something. No signs of ich or any other type of external parasite except flukes but they do occasionally breathe fast but on a full stomach of food or after swimming fast from another bronze cory (kind of like tag) and when they are scared.

The tank is moderately/heavily planted ish and gets a water change every few months because the 5 bronze Cory’s are the only ones in there and I’ve never seen any high nitrates or ammonia or nitrite. And everything has been stable, so the only thing I do in there is feed them every now and then. They also had fry as well and the parents didn’t eat them. The tank is very under stocked at the moment. They enjoy swimming up and down the right glass panel of the tank also, all five of them.

Should I be concerned? Or could I add the new cories with them?

 

 

[Colu]

Apart from the occasional flashing have you noticed Any rapid breathing hanging out near the surface lethargy spitting food out loss of appetite Redding to the Gills or body weight loss what medication were you using @tetra

[tetra]

On 12/22/2023 at 4:29 PM, Colu said:

Apart from the occasional flashing have you noticed Any rapid breathing hanging out near the surface lethargy spitting food out loss of appetite Redding to the Gills or body weight loss what medication were you using @tetra

No rapid breathing near the surface, lethargy, spitting out food, appetite loss, weight loss, there was a long red line down the bottom half of a female but just a little, no outside of the gills are red, but the inside of the gills are red but I think that’s normal? But mostly occasional flashing. I can’t get a good photo of the red line on the female but I drew a line to show where it was at in the center of the grid. The red line was running horizontally through that section. And it’s not as red anymore though.

I used praziquantel or paracleanse

[Colu]

On 12/23/2023 at 1:26 AM, tetra said:

No rapid breathing near the surface, lethargy, spitting out food, appetite loss, weight loss, there was a long red line down the bottom half of a female but just a little, no outside of the gills are red, but the inside of the gills are red but I think that’s normal? But mostly occasional flashing. I can’t get a good photo of the red line on the female but I drew a line to show where it was at in the center of the grid. The red line was running horizontally through that section. And it’s not as red anymore though.

I used praziquantel or paracleanse

Occasional flashing can be caused by a number of things poor water quality substrate irritating the Gills an itch  as your fish have none of the symptoms I mentioned and are only occasionally flashing I would look at water parameters what your ammonia nitire nitrate pH KH GH temperature do you add dechlorinator when doing water changes as chlorine can also cause flashing 

Edited December 23, 2023 by Colu

[tetra]

I tested the water this morning, just because I haven’t tested it in a month or 2.

Parameters with the test strips (co op to be specific)

Nitrate: 50ppm (a little high but not dangerous)

Nitrite: 0

GH: 150ppm (my water is soft so probably the easy green doing something, but it has stayed consistent)

KH: 40ppm (also a little higher than the tap)

Ph: 6.4

Ammonia with liquid test kit:

Ammonia: 0.25ppm-ish

There has been a lot of decaying, dead leaves in the tank from some plants “melting” specifically the Amazon swords, and has probably led to partial amount of ammonia. So I did a 15-20 percent water change (which is a small water change but the volume is 75 gallons and those corydoras and their babies are the only ones in there) and added extra dechlorinator (about 2.5 capfuls of prime.) It hasn’t got a water change since early July of this year. I did clean the filter once every month or two. But after cleaning the pre filter sponge, wow was there a lot of poop and it turned the bag completely brown.

Quickly after the water change, I saw a male flash then a female flash a few times. There is random days where they flash way more than usual and also swim fast (specifically a female that laid eggs before) with high speed. Which I saw was a symptom of flukes from a google search, and then the female would breathe fast for a second or two (probably from swimming so fast as I don’t see it struggling to breathe when swimming normally) the swimming with high speed only happens occasionally, probably once a week at most. These 2 symptoms also occurred while in the first day of quarantine but only with the female. She did it very often but doesn’t do it as much anymore.

I also monitored their poop the only thing I’ve seen is brown ball-shape poops and that’s it, I haven’t seen any stringy white poop at all or other shapes of poop.

If water quality isn’t probably the issue then it’s either the substrate irritating them, or some external parasite of some sort.  I don’t want the new Cories to contract something cause it took extremely long for them to finally get back to health.

 

[Colu]

On 12/24/2023 at 3:56 AM, tetra said:

I tested the water this morning, just because I haven’t tested it in a month or 2.

Parameters with the test strips (co op to be specific)

Nitrate: 50ppm (a little high but not dangerous)

Nitrite: 0

GH: 150ppm (my water is soft so probably the easy green doing something, but it has stayed consistent)

KH: 40ppm (also a little higher than the tap)

Ph: 6.4

Ammonia with liquid test kit:

Ammonia: 0.25ppm-ish

There has been a lot of decaying, dead leaves in the tank from some plants “melting” specifically the Amazon swords, and has probably led to partial amount of ammonia. So I did a 15-20 percent water change (which is a small water change but the volume is 75 gallons and those corydoras and their babies are the only ones in there) and added extra dechlorinator (about 2.5 capfuls of prime.) It hasn’t got a water change since early July of this year. I did clean the filter once every month or two. But after cleaning the pre filter sponge, wow was there a lot of poop and it turned the bag completely brown.

Quickly after the water change, I saw a male flash then a female flash a few times. There is random days where they flash way more than usual and also swim fast (specifically a female that laid eggs before) with high speed. Which I saw was a symptom of flukes from a google search, and then the female would breathe fast for a second or two (probably from swimming so fast as I don’t see it struggling to breathe when swimming normally) the swimming with high speed only happens occasionally, probably once a week at most. These 2 symptoms also occurred while in the first day of quarantine but only with the female. She did it very often but doesn’t do it as much anymore.

I also monitored their poop the only thing I’ve seen is brown ball-shape poops and that’s it, I haven’t seen any stringy white poop at all or other shapes of poop.

If water quality isn’t probably the issue then it’s either the substrate irritating them, or some external parasite of some sort.  I don’t want the new Cories to contract something cause it took extremely long for them to finally get back to health.

 

Even a small amount of ammonia can cause fish to flash what I would do is try and keep you nitrate below 30ppm high levels of nitrates can effect fish immune system it depends on the species to how sensitive they are to nitrate 

[tetra]

I tested the water today as I didn’t test the new water after doing the water change and the water change did absolutely nothing to the water parameters. The only parameters that changed were the KH and the PH. The Kh shot down to 0 and the ph shot up to 7.2 (it was previously 6.4 which is a big fluctuation in a 24 hour period) and I cut and pulled some more dead plant leaves out. And after doing so, a male cory started darting around the left side of the tank super fast, once it stopped it just sat there, fortunately the breathing look okay, just a little fast from the speed but that’s it. I don’t know if I scared him or what, but yesterday it happened as well, but this only happened after changing the water.

Maybe is the tank developing Old tank syndrome or something? The nitrates were still at 50ppm and the ammonia was still 0.25 ppm (the same as yesterday) so all that work for nothing. And I also removed as much ammonia-causing material in the tank I could see. And I haven’t added any fertilizer for a couple of weeks.

I forgot to mention, the tank temp is 64F

[Colu]

On 12/24/2023 at 9:57 PM, tetra said:

I tested the water today as I didn’t test the new water after doing the water change and the water change did absolutely nothing to the water parameters. The only parameters that changed were the KH and the PH. The Kh shot down to 0 and the ph shot up to 7.2 (it was previously 6.4 which is a big fluctuation in a 24 hour period) and I cut and pulled some more dead plant leaves out. And after doing so, a male cory started darting around the left side of the tank super fast, once it stopped it just sat there, fortunately the breathing look okay, just a little fast from the speed but that’s it. I don’t know if I scared him or what, but yesterday it happened as well, but this only happened after changing the water.

Maybe is the tank developing Old tank syndrome or something? The nitrates were still at 50ppm and the ammonia was still 0.25 ppm (the same as yesterday) so all that work for nothing. And I also removed as much ammonia-causing material in the tank I could see. And I haven’t added any fertilizer for a couple of weeks.

I forgot to mention, the tank temp is 64F

From what I have read bronze Cory's do best with a temperature between 68-82°F I would up the temperature it could be the fluctuations in your water parameters causing the flashing I would increase water changes to help lower your nitrate and do daily testing and water changes till you constantly see zero ammonia and dose  prime to help detoxify any ammonia 

Edited December 27, 2023 by Colu

[tetra]

I couldn’t get a heater right now, but I thought I’d give an update.

I noticed the parameters haven’t change except for ammonia and nitrite, unfortunately the nitrate is still at 50, but the good news is the ammonia is slightly turning yellow on the liquid test chart, but that meant that the nitrite would go up, I tested it and according to the co-op test strip, it’s at 1ppm, I know it’s a lot right now, but I dosed prime to detoxify it.

The Corydora that darted around is having some sort of struggle swimming now. It seems the only way it can swim is just darting, hitting the glass and sand repeatedly and then laying down in a spot, don’t see any signs of disease so that’s good, breathing is a little heavy though. When it does swim correctly though, its rear sinks down and can only swim for so long before sinking to the bottom, it doesn’t tumble around and fly everywhere fortunately. It’s usually sitting in a spot most of the day, specifically under a crypt next to driftwood, where it’s safe. I don’t see this behavior in the other cories.

I did notice something earlier, a male cory kept harassing a female cory and following her and going on top of her constantly, never leaving her alone for a few hours. After, I noticed she laid a few eggs on the glass, she lied on her side slightly for 20 seconds or so, then got back up and laid more eggs after.

Maybe that cory has a swim bladder issue or something water parameter-related. I still see some occasional flashing but not excessive.

Would it be okay if I did a 50% water change once a week, cause that male cory that started darting around gets very scared of the siphon since the one I bought was a giant Python tube that I think was 2-3 feet long which knocks down stuff and scares all of the cories. It says it was designed to drain a 55 gallon tank, but it drains the 75 very quickly. I want to reduce as much stress as possible and I don’t think it would be a good idea to have that giant siphon in there and scare them everyday.

[Colu]

On 12/27/2023 at 3:32 AM, tetra said:

I couldn’t get a heater right now, but I thought I’d give an update.

I noticed the parameters haven’t change except for ammonia and nitrite, unfortunately the nitrate is still at 50, but the good news is the ammonia is slightly turning yellow on the liquid test chart, but that meant that the nitrite would go up, I tested it and according to the co-op test strip, it’s at 1ppm, I know it’s a lot right now, but I dosed prime to detoxify it.

The Corydora that darted around is having some sort of struggle swimming now. It seems the only way it can swim is just darting, hitting the glass and sand repeatedly and then laying down in a spot, don’t see any signs of disease so that’s good, breathing is a little heavy though. When it does swim correctly though, its rear sinks down and can only swim for so long before sinking to the bottom, it doesn’t tumble around and fly everywhere fortunately. It’s usually sitting in a spot most of the day, specifically under a crypt next to driftwood, where it’s safe. I don’t see this behavior in the other cories.

I did notice something earlier, a male cory kept harassing a female cory and following her and going on top of her constantly, never leaving her alone for a few hours. After, I noticed she laid a few eggs on the glass, she lied on her side slightly for 20 seconds or so, then got back up and laid more eggs after.

Maybe that cory has a swim bladder issue or something water parameter-related. I still see some occasional flashing but not excessive.

Would it be okay if I did a 50% water change once a week, cause that male cory that started darting around gets very scared of the siphon since the one I bought was a giant Python tube that I think was 2-3 feet long which knocks down stuff and scares all of the cories. It says it was designed to drain a 55 gallon tank, but it drains the 75 very quickly. I want to reduce as much stress as possible and I don’t think it would be a good idea to have that giant siphon in there and scare them everyday.

As your seeing 1ppm of nitire I would keep do daily water changes till your ammonia and nitrite constantly stays at zero 

[tetra]

I just tested the water right now, and I think the strip may have given me false results of the nitrites, the strip showed it was  1-5 ppm which is the same even after water changing. I tried testing it with the api liquid test and it showed the nitrite was 0 but ammonia was a mix between 0-25ppm I think this may be due to my tap water having a bit of ammonia, so I can’t completely remove it. The strip showed the nitrate was still 50ppm or above, I didn’t test with the liquid test yet though.

I just also noticed the Cory fry are also flashing but mostly against the substrate (same with the adults) but also occasionally.

I also remove 10 gallons of water per water change which is about a 13% water change which isn’t a whole lot.

[Colu]

I would test your tap water water for nitrite and nitrate just get a base line how much ammonia in your tap water @tetra

[tetra]

I just tested it and the liquid test shows there is 0 nitrite and 0 nitrate. Maybe the ammonia is 0 ppm and I’m just seeing the colors wrong?

But then again, wouldn’t there not be any denitrifying bacteria in the water since it’s from the tap? There would be 0 bacteria to break the ammonia down to nitrite and bacteria to break that nitrite down to nitrate.

[Colu]

On 12/29/2023 at 4:51 AM, tetra said:

I just tested it and the liquid test shows there is 0 nitrite and 0 nitrate. Maybe the ammonia is 0 ppm and I’m just seeing the colors wrong?

But then again, wouldn’t there not be any denitrifying bacteria in the water since it’s from the tap? There would be 0 bacteria to break the ammonia down to nitrite and bacteria to break that nitrite down to nitrate.

It all depends on your water source and water companies routinely flush the pipes with chloramines to kill bacteria 

[tetra]

Update:

I tested the water again earlier this morning, and nitrites seem to be 0 still according to the liquid test kit, and ammonia is slightly turning yellow but mostly 0.25 light green on the liquid test. I’ll check again tomorrow if there is still ammonia in the tap, if not, I’ll do bigger water changes if possible. I also let the ammonia go down naturally this time, but the nitrates weren’t really affected, so I’ll have to fix that. 

I don’t know if I mentioned this before, but a female cory kind of barrel rolled but only half-way and came back up again, it was a gentle barrel role though, not like a flash, sort of against the substrate, and she soon went back to looking for food, and she did it a couple more times then stopped. I have seen this before, but it rarely happens, and I’ve only seen this behavior 4-5 times from what I remember, it also happened in quarantine but just 1-2 times. But this happened in the time-scale of 6 months having them. I think it only happens in this specific cory cause I haven’t seen the others ever do it.

[tetra]

Update 2:

I just added a heater yesterday, and the temp has been slowly risen to 74F (desired is 75F but it’s getting there)

Haven’t seen flashing since I added the heater yesterday, I tested for ammonia, and it was still at 0-0.25 ppm, tested the tap again and it rose from 0.25 to 0.50 ppm, do I have to dose even more prime now?