I've been losing my corys and don't know what to do

[favouriteslave]

Hi there this is my first post! I'm glad to have found this site.

1. Water parameters
a) Temerature range. 77
b) pH. 7.0
c) GH. ?
d) KH ?
e)Ammonia 0, Nitrate 5, Nitrite 0, leavels.
f) Water change frequency Once weekly 25-30%
(Most LFS's will check your water and give a list of readings).

2. Tank set up
a) Size. 10g
b) Substrate. smooth pebble
c) Filtration. Penguin biowheel 100
d) Furnishings. Silk plants, caves and fake wood
e) Other tank mates. 4 corys now 1 pepper, 1 albino, 1 brochis, 1 skunk (metae)
f) How long has it been set-up? 45 days

3. Symptoms / Problem description
Corys seem to waste away. Face becomes skeletal and they stop eating. Eventually their fins fray, rot and they die.
I've lost a sterbai, two emeralds and a schwartz in this manner. Right now it's only the metae who is exhibiting symptoms. The last one I euthanized was my Sterbai and he had massive rotting, fraying fins and eventually he got a few red streaks on his back half near his tail. I suspected septecemia but I didn't notice for the others just wasting away and some frayed fins

4. Action taken (if any) Others none, sterbai I tried maracyn 2 for two days and isolated him. It didn't work

5. Medications used (if any)
Maracyn 2

[torbanite]

Hi there,
Whilst the ammonia/nitrite readings look OK, I notice you say the tank has only been running for 45 days.
Was the biological filter seeded from an existing tank or is this your first tank?
Even if the filter was seeded from another tank, I would be inclined to suspect that the root cause may have been more fish than the filtration was initially able to keep up with.

As to treatment of the fish which is currently showing symptoms, my instinct would be to up the frequency of your 30% water changes to daily for the time being and make sure there is plenty of aeration. Also make sure that you don't overfeed in your efforts to get the sick fish to eat - uneaten & decomposing food lying around is likely to compound the problem.

I don't feel qualified to offer advice on medications, I'll leave that to those more knowledgable than me.
However, if you do add medications then often they often need to be in the water for several days to take effect. This requires a judgement call as to whether the medication or good old fresh water is more likely to be beneficial. (Or some maths to calculate the correct daily dosing to maintain the level despite the water changes)

Finally, I would resist the urge to replace the casualties until the tank has been running trouble free for a few months.

Hope that is of some use, good luck
Martin

[favouriteslave]

Yes those are some good suggestions! Also I forgot to mention that all the sick fish came from one local petstore and all exhibited problems by the next day that I brought them home. I am suspect that many of his fish are sick and don't think I'll be buying from him anymore. The ones that are still alive came from Petsmart or Petco surprisingly!

I'll move up to small daily water changes just like I was doing in the beginning when it was cycling. It was a fresh cycle, no seeding, with a betta who is also dead along with a dwarf flame gourami who also died when added a few weeks later. Neither of them responded to antibiotics either when I isolated them in a hospital tank.

[Troender]

I agree with torbanite with both the suggestion of the problem, and of the solution. 45 days is not much. The cycle is finished after 35 days, but it will be vulnerable for a long time after that. But there's a few more things:
1. Do you use any salt in the water? I know many LFSs say that you must, and that's absolutely wrong. Corys are sensible to salt in the water. It can help them at nitrite poisoning and when they're ill, but corys should not have any salt in the water anytime else.
2. I agree with torbanite that you should wait until the situation in the tank is under control. After that, you must make up your mind what cory you should go for. Corydoras (and brochises) are kept in groups, I would say at least 6 of each species. Your tank is not big enough to support anything else than one single group (and barely that) of corys. It's too small for a group of brochises. Brochises get big!
3. What did the corys look like when you bought them. Were they nice and round, or did they already show signs of being thin.
4. How long has the corys lasted before they died?
5. Redness close to the tail often means a bacterial infection. But I see you've already tried antibiotics. I have no idea what that that med you've used is, as we don't have it around here, but antibiotics can be pretty tough on fishes.
6. Some fishes just don't ever make it. A year ago I bought my first group of brochis splendens. They were wild caught, and they were thin (and very small). I tried everything, but they just didn't make it. Only two survived. One more died recently, by a tumor. Only one is left now, and he looks healthy. And now he has joined a small group of XL brochises. I think he is happy. My only comfort is that my fishes lasted much, much longer than the ones that was left in the shop. But they just wasted away, getting thinner and thinner, even though I fed them well, and they ate well. Here's one of them (look away if you don't like to see ill animals):

[favouriteslave]

Ok I'll keep up with the water changes daily and as of now I only have 3 corys in there. Albino Aeneus, reg aeneus (bronze) which I thought was a brochis but is not and one peppered. Fortunately they are schooling together and do everything together. I do test the water parameters 2 times a day just as I was during the main cycling.

The others looked normal before they died and lasted 24-48 hours after I brought them home before showing signs of illness. Once they showed signs of illness they lasted anywhere from 24- 5 days before dying or I had to euthanize them.

I will wait a while and see how they do before I get another one. I do think I need one more in there, maybe another albino. I have 2 albinos in an upstairs tank with a male betta and they are doing great with each other and show no signs of illness. I bought these three at petco, put one downstairs with the mixed crew and 2 upstairs. They are very small just barely juvenilles.

[Troender]

They still need to be more of the same species. Even though they are schooling together, your corys, they know the difference themselves - and they really want to be a group of their own species. Look at it as: we're schooling together now, because we don't have anyone of our own kind to be together with. BTW, albino specimens can be weaker than others. They could have some other sort of weakness, because they are albino. Albinism is a genetic defect, and is often joined by other defects. I'm not saying that you albino is weak, but it's better to know about it if you want to buy more. The albino corys I've seen around, have been albino c. aeneus (and so you say too ), so you're already on your way to getting a little group of this species.

[ShadowDancer10k]

okay, this may seem like a dumb question but i noticed you didn;t have your chlorine readings on your post. to me, it sounds like chlorine/chloramine poisoning. i could be wrong though, do you use a water conditioner? i know that probably sounds like a silly question but some people who keep fish don;t even know what dechlorinator/water conditioner is!! let alone use it. hope your corys do better. poor little guys.

[favouriteslave]

Yes, I use a conditioner for chlorine, chloramine and hard metals then Amquel Plus for ammonia, and the N's. Not a dumb question. There are so many people who are misinformed. I was trained by a marine biologist student to take care of a fish dept in a pet store back in the early 90's so thats were I got most of my knowledge about tropical fish. Things have changed a bit since then like fishless cycling etc... and I never kept corys until this time around. I kept brackish fish like livebearers and dwarf puffers etc...

[torbanite]

Hi again,

Also I forgot to mention that all the sick fish came from one local petstore and all exhibited problems by the next day that I brought them home. I am suspect that many of his fish are sick and don't think I'll be buying from him anymore. The ones that are still alive came from Petsmart or Petco surprisingly!

Possibly not that surprising...

Lets say, (for the sake of argument), someone has 4 corys from $Mega-Corp in a tank, the tank is all nicely "cycled" & everyone is happy.
Then 4 more.corys from the LFS are added.

The rate of fish waste (ammonia) production is suddenly 200% of what it was and the filter bacteria population takes a day or so to catch up.
During that time there will be some level of unconsumed ammonia/nitrite in the water.
The new arrivals will already be extremely stressed due to being caught, bagged, transported, plonked into a strange new environment etc, etc.
Any extra stress due to ammonia/nitrite may therefore be more likely to affect the new arrivals first - regardless of where they came from.
The existing fish on the other hand are probably rather less stressed initially and, by virtue of the fact that they've already survived $Megacorps handling of them, not to mention being used to cycle a tank, can be assumed to be abnormally tough specimens.

In consequence, apparently healthy, happy fish kept in perfect conditions at the LFS start keeling over within 24 hours because they don't know what's hit them.
So, the fact that the additions from the LFS were the ones which went belly up could, but does not *necessarily* reflect badly on the LFS.

Anyway, that's all slightly academic I suppose.

Hope the fish are doing better!

Martin

[favouriteslave]

Well the last one to die was Monday and I had to euthanize him (metae). A few days before that was the Sterbai and before that 2 emeralds and a Julii. At the moment all the corys in the tank are from Petsmart and Petco except for my one and only Aeneus (bronze) that is from LFS. He came from a different tank on a different isle than the metae, sterbai and Julii that came from the exact same tank. I think my emeralds were perfectly fine until I introduced the Julii and that got them sick because I had them for a while before I started adding one fish at a time.

So this is what is left and looking healthy. They were scattered thoughout 3 different tanks in the house but on Monday I decided they would do better together and consolidated them (10gal) in case they were sick from the LFS and therefore wouldn't infect my Bettas.

2 peppers - who appear to be spawning since they can't keep their fins to each other
3 albino aeneus
1 bronze/green aeneus

I don't plan on adding anymore to this tank as it is stocked. If one were to die like the pepper I would have to get another so he wouldn't be lonely. The albinos are little babies right now and the bronze looks as if he's full grown.