Corydora With Buoyancy Issues

Hi,

One of my Cories is having problems with her swim bladder. She can't stay at the bottom unless she keeps swimming. If she stops she floats to the surface.

When she is swimming, she is feeding and wiffling about normally but I think she must be getting tired as when she stops she floats on the surface and breathes quickly. She is not gasping but she is breathing quicker than the others.

Do swim bladder issues resolve themselves, or can they be treated?  I've got the clove oil ready but don't want to call it a day if she could recover.

Also, what causes swim bladder problems?

FC76

Sorry to hear about this, Fishcake. I have extensive experience of treating swimbladder problems like these - but with goldfish and particularly a fancy goldfish I had who suffered from this almost constantly for an entire year. What you're describing is what I called "the helium balloon effect" ie as soon as the fish stops swimming, they float straight up as though they're a helium balloon.

The various treatments I tried were, in this order:
(i) dietary - frozen pea, blanched in boiling water to enable the shell to slide off easily, then cut into tiny morsels [this might be easier if you transferred her to a quarantine tank], chopped courgette, a tiny morsel of fresh papaya (wow - certainly had a laxative effect on the fish!), frozen or preferably live bloodworm; keeping on a 'no dried food' diet of these for several days [I've since learned that spirulina can help with this issue]
(ii) raising the water temperature slightly and lowering the water level, so that the fish didn't have to 'travel' too far during these spells and therefore become less stressed by them, +/- a dose of aquarium salt but NB salt can't be used with cories so ignore this part [shame as this often worked wonders within 24hrs]
(iii) anti- swimbladder treatment
(iv) or, after the required length of time after the above and if still not working, anti-internal bacteria treatment as a last resort

If you're in the position to be able to move this fish into a QT, then that might enable you to do the above suggestions, particularly (i) before another fish eats the food intended for your "swimbladdered" one.

Hopefully either the fish will expel any excess gas of its own accord, or else some of the above suggestions will solve the problem, and there will be no need to even contemplate the clove oil any time soon! Best of luck!

Another thing to watch out for with cories is that are a few species that are not bottom feeders, but fish that dwell in the middle waters too! This doesn't really sound like your fish, but you have to watch out for it!