Help, cories can't shake illness!

[dragonfly]

Hi, can't figure out what's going on with my cories, they are dropping left and right.

Tank stats:

37 US gallon, running for 7 months, weekly 30% w/c with light to heavy gravel vac

Penguin mini bio-filter
Penguin 170

Temp 72f
Ammon 0
Nitrites 0
Nitrates 5
Kh 10
Gh 12
pH 7.8

Few live, but mostly plastic plants, and painted gravel.

Inhabitants:
1 7" weather loach
1 bristlenose plec
3 marbled hatchetfish
8 flame tetras
5 cardinal tetras
2 penguins
2 head and tail lights
2 swordtails
2 cories, 1 julii and 1 bronze

The cories that have just died were 3 pandas, 1 julii and 1 peppered. The pandas were in and out of hospital tank with fungus; the last one to die seemed to be getting better back in large tank, then took a turn for worse & started hiding in strange places and acting listless. Put him back in hospital tank, & behavior turned stranger: he would be sitting there normally, then would flip around and spin in circles, then flop to floor and lie there on his back/side, panting heavily. He remained like this for several days, and I was hopeful. Sadly he died, and the same day, the other julii died in big tank. I had noticed a white fungus looking spot on his side a couple of days earlier and next day attempted to catch him to place him in hosp tank, but couldn't manage. After this futile attempt, I could no longer see the white spot. Next day he died. (at least I'm assuminghe was the one that died, can't tell the diff really between the two. Anyway, bronze cory and other jullii have been hiding & seemingly not eating for a few weeks (3 at least) now. Was wondering about my substrate?? The juliis, btw, are cycle pioneers.
Any thoughts?

[Jools]

dragonfly,

Put a sensible location in your profile and amend your topic title to be something other than entirely meaningless and someone might just come to your aid...

Jools

[dragonfly]

Sorry, was in a bit of a hurry, didn't mean to offend anyone's sense of protocol...or whatever.

[Jools]

Sorry, was in a bit of a hurry, didn't mean to offend anyone's sense of protocol...or whatever.

No offence taken, just trying to help you get more replies to your post. You still might want to change the topic of your post to something like "Help, corys keep catching fungus" or suchlike.

I would say that seems a little cold for Pandas and th pH a bit too high. I think the fact they are "uncomfortable" is leading to their inability to shake of the fungus. The peppered cats are about the only ones that will enjoy it being that cool, and they aren't great fans of the higher pH either, but being super hardy fish, are less susceptible.

Anyone else,

Jools

[dragonfly]

Thank you Jools. And now that I have a bit more time, I can add some details. I had the 3 pandas in my 10 gallon for several months, which has the same exact stats as 37, except it's kept quite a bit warmer--around 76f. This is where they first started getting fungus. I moved them to hosp tank & lost one while medicating with liquid fungus cure and melafix. Then I got my hands on some maroxy, and treated the remaining two. They seemed to get better, & I moved them to 37gall, then one became sick again, so back to hosp tank, but then died shortly after. Third cory seemed to make miraculous recovery (he was the sickest) after dose of maroxy, then, as stated in first post, took turn for worse etc.

Meanwhile, my 37gall cories (julii and bronze--the peppered died of unknown causes a while before all of this), seemed to be getting sicker and sicker. No physical signs, just listless and hiding. The white spot on the one julii was the only physical sign I've seen on any of these guys. I have had one swordtail (who was also a cycle pioneer) and one hatchet die from 37gall recently. Check my stats regular, never an increase in anything bad. Wish I could bring my pH down, it's 7.2 out of tap. I once mistakenly added some coral sand, but that has mostly been sucked up. Plus, the pH in 10gall is same & I've never added anything that could cause it to rise.

For now, I'm wondering if I should try & catch remaining julii and bronze & put them in hosp tank which is currently occupied by a sick tetra & has maracyn 2 in it. What I wonder is, how do you know if fish aren't just dying from old age?

Thanks in advance.

[Coryman]

I have an idea the painted gravel could be a part of the problem, I know with this stuff the dye leeches out and the corys are the nearest to it. You are better of with sand. Plus as Jools has said the panda and the julii prefer warmer water, it all adds to stress and stress adds to infection.

Ian

[dragonfly]

THanks for replies. Hmm, that's an interesting point about the gravel. When the 10gall cories first got sick, I read something about UGF systems not being that great for bottom feeders, so I put them into the 37gall. Well it did cross my mind that maybe the gravel was too big & bothered their barbels--altho none of them have damaged barbels--& I know now that dyed gravel is not good(altho when I bought the stuff, nobody mentioned this) but I guess I never considered that the dye could be causing problems. Think I will be replacing it with natural, smaller gravel.

As for the temp, I had it at 70f for a while, mainly cos I had a Hong Kong Plec in there, and also figured my weather loach might prefer it. But my plec died a few weeks ago. Do you think my loach will be OK in warmer water?