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Hi all. I'm new here. I've learned a lot about corys from this forum and will be replacing my substrate soon. I feel bad that the two I just brought home have lived on aquarium gravel for years!!

I just bought a 50 gallon tank last weekend and inherited a big 14" pleco, 2 corys, and 5 black skirt tetras. I dip-sticked the tank when I arrived to pick it up, and it was quite toxic. Nitrates were off the charts, nitrites were high as well, GH was 300+, and I don't remember the rest. It was full of nasty waste from the pleco. They had an undergravel filter with over 6" of aquarium gravel on top, which obviously wasn't working. I managed to haul the fish 3 hours home safely in clean, treated water (its a wonder they didn't die of shock from that!). The pleco went to the LFS the next day to live in a 180 gal. tank and I'm planning on keeping the corys and tetras, as long as they live peacefully with my 2 goldfish and 2 otto cats which is who I bought the tank for.

The bronze cory ("Wilford Brimley") seems normal and often schools with the tetras. He's very active. The other cory, however, seems to be having some trouble so I'm hoping someone here can give me some advice or answers. We named her "Dolly Parton" as she seems to have a big "chest" or fat deposit on her abdomen between her head and first set of bottom fins. She rests on this "chest" a lot. She also seems to have a hard time getting to the surface for air, often making big circles like climbing a spiral staircase to get up to the surface. Sometimes she doesn't make it to the surface and kind of glides/sinks back down to rest on her "chest" again. This all seems to take a lot of energy for her. She also has a white dot on one of her eyes. The lady I got her from said that she is probably around 5 years old. Is this just old age? Is she fat? Is there something I should do for her?

I removed the undergravel filter and have an Emperor 280 HOB and an Aquaclear 20-40(?) HOB from a cycled tank running on it until my Rena canister arrives. I also used Stress Zyme to kick start the bio. I have two airstones running, one at each end of the 4' tank. The temp is 74 deg. Water quality is checked daily and has been consistent. 0 Ammonia, 0 Nitrates, 0 Nitrites, KH is a bit low, ph is 6.8, and the water is soft. In my smaller tank, I added baking soda to raise the KH and pH, but haven't done that to this tank yet, and I'm wondering if it's even necessary and/or is there a better (easier) way to raise KH and pH?

I attached some pics of Dolly. Thanks in advance for any advice/answers.

Okay I'm not an expert, others will add more and correct me where I'm wrong, but I'll give it a shot.

I think Dolly is basically acting like a normal cory, though I've never kept her species myself. Mine often will spiral or shoot up to the surface and then sink down. Corys should have a bit of a rounded belly, though she looks a bit too big to my eyes. If she really is a female, she may just be full of eggs. As far as I've read, 5 years is really getting up there for corys. Another part of the problem is that she may just need more of her own kind as corys do best in schools of 6+ of the same species. Another factor to take into consideration is the stress of the move and the new tank inhabitants.

Dunno if I helped but thought you'd like a fastish reply. Our fish buddies sure can get us up in a twisted knot if they seem off.

Thanks for the info. She just seems to act so much differently than the other cory she's in with (I don't know what either of them are, male or female). He is much more active and swims normally. She swims very awkwardly. I guess it could be due to difference in species.

Last night I was watching her and it seemed she had perked up quite a bit. She was scrounging around a sunken ship and was more active than I had ever seen her (not saying she was very active, just more so than usual for her), and she seemed happy, so I thought that it must have been that she had been stressed from the move and was finally coming out of it.

However, as I was watching her, I saw her slowly spiral up to the surface for air, and when she hit the surface she spazzed out a bit and went to dive down fast and hit the top of my castle decoration really hard! I thought for sure she would be dead this morning, as it really knocked her lulu and she was swimming sideways and was really "floaty" in the tail end which made her stand on her head if she didn't swim. This is the second time I've seen her bash her head into something. The first time she was swimming down hard against the air bubble current and reached the end of the bubble stream and bashed her head into the gravel.

I'm beginning to come to the conclusion that she's just getting old, but geeze she's going to give me gray hairs!

Well firstly I wouldnt keep ottos with goldfish as ottos are tropical and don't do well in cold water and goldfish don't really do so well in tropical as there body's aren't made for it. So you would find that would be your first problem.

To be honest it just looks like a bit of chemical poisoning which has maybe lead to bloat but if it has been exposed constantly to high nitrate then just keeping it in nice fresh water will quickly cure it.

Another possibility is it is a female and is heavily gravid.

I agree with you about keeping them together, however its my only option at the moment (other than giving the corys to the LFS). I'm keeping the temp at 74, which goldfish tolerate (don't know for how long). My long term solution is buying a nice big (135-150 gallon) tank to keep tropicals in within the next few months, but this 50 gallon will be my goldfish tank for the long haul. I've noticed that my goldfish appreciate a heater just to keep the temp. stable. We have wide temperature changes in Oregon between night and day temps, and so I keep a heater on their tank just to keep temps more stable. They seem much happier that way, although I do keep it set at only 70 deg. normally.

Are my otto cats okay in with the goldfish? I guess I should read up on what conditions they like... (oops! re-read your post and realized you were talking about keeping the ottos with the goldfish, not the corys. So corys are okay, but not ottos?) Everyone seems to be doing great, other than this old cory girl. I can tell you that my goldies are SO happy to be out of the 10 gallon they were in!!!

Thanks for your input! I'm certainly hoping she's NOT preggo... Not really set up to deal with that!