Lazy Cories?

[jessiepbg]

Ok, I keep coming home and thinking my cories aren't feeling well. Does the species just tend to do a very convincing dead fish interpretation or are my guys actually not feeling well? I keep finding them either upright or tipped slightly against rocks with no visible gill movement. If I get near them with the net, they scoot off, then graze for a while before falling asleep again. It's a 76 degree 10 gallon tank right now, 0 ppm ammonia and nitrite, 5 ppm nitrate with a rock cave that they'll hang out in sometimes.

[small fry]

You can tell by dropping a piece of algae right next to them. Mine go CRAZY! That is not a proven method, it just works for me.

What kind of cory is it? Not all of them are suitable for a 10g tank.

[jessiepbg]

2 peppered cories, 2 juliis, and 2 pandas. Some days they'll all school up together and some days they break down into colors and hang out with their matches. They were all listed as 2" maximum length, except maybe the pandas who are tiny. They're all pretty well fed right now, this is my first time keeping cories, so I've been experimenting with them a bit trying to figure out how much they eat and when. They don't get terribly excited about food right now, but I think they're just not hungry.

[small fry]

Yeah, mine take naps when they are full.

It used to worry me to see my cories just looking still as a statue, but they should be fine.

[Alex09]

Cories are known to "freeze" sometimes. Mine occasionally do it as well.

[jessiepbg]

Ok, that makes me feel better. Unfortunately, I did lose a panda cory this morning, but he's been acting sick since the day I got him home. The other one looks fine and has buddied up with one of the peppers for the morning. They're still not very interested in food this morning, and I don't think they ate anything last night. Is that something to be worried about?

[small fry]

I am sorry about your lost cory.

There might be something wrong in the cory tank.
*Are the cories showing any signs of bloat, fungus, external parasites, bacterial infections, etc?
*Were there any differences between the lost one and the others?
*Are there any other fish in the tank? Are you medicateing the fish with anything?

All these thing can effect the health of your fish.

[jessiepbg]

They're all acting very slow and lethargic now, none of them will move if you get near them. I've got no meds or anything in there and I can't see any physical signs of sickness besides the lethargy. I just put in river rocks and I think I forgot to boil them. What could have been in them and how can I save my fish?