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Rapid breathing in one of three corys.

11K views 1 reply 2 participants last post by  iamntbatman 
#1 ·
Hello,

I have three spotted corys, one of which is breathing quite fast. I noticed this perhaps three days ago. At first I thought I may have frightened him by approaching the tank, and thought nothing of it. Although yesterday and today he has been breathing in the same fashion. I had thought yesterday that two were breathing quickly, but today it is just the one. He still swims around, goes crazy for food, etc. Ammonia and nitrite levels are at 0, nitrate is between 5-10. A 20-25% water change is done weekly. The tankmates, galaxy rasboras and red crystal shrimp, and the other two corys look absolutely fine to me (other than one cory looking as though he's worn away his barbels a bit). They've all been living together for about 5 weeks. The corys have been in the aquarium for 9 weeks.

Many thanks and appreciation.
 
#2 ·
Have you noticed him going to the surface to get air? Corydoras have a special organ that allows them to breathe atmospheric oxygen, so I would expect a cory that isn't getting enough oxygen through his gills (indicated by rapid breathing) to head to the surface for air on a regular basis.

So long as his behavior seems normal and he shows no other symptoms I wouldn't be too worried about it. Just keep up the good water quality that you have and keep us posted.

Also, what sort of substrate do you have? Barbels can get worn down by rough or jagged substrate. For this reason, sand is usually the recommended substrate for corydoras. Very smooth gravel also works, but sand is preferable.
 
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