Cory Cats keep dying, “U” type stomach, and they go into “paralysis” ...

[OrangeBerry]

Hi there,

I got some corydora’s from Pet smart about ~1 month ago. I made the mistake of stubbornly impulse buying them because I had an empty tank ready to go after my betta fish passed away. The tank was active for almost a year. The impulse buy was an obvious bad idea, because there were a lot of dead fish in the tanks. The employees clearly do not care, most of the health of all the fish looked sick. If I’m being honest with you. I still stupidly bought them.

Since bringing them home, it’s been nothing but issues. 3 out of the original batch of 4, have died on me. I was given one replacement from a different PetSmart but in the bag I noticed under the Cory there was a red spot. Immediately this was a red flag, but I brushed it off.

Since having them, they haven’t been active, besides the 2 remaining ones I have now. The third one who just passed had a weird “U” under it’s stomach, sort of caved in, and then the day after it died, a red spot showed up just slightly down under.

That same Cory would float in the tank (I assumed swim bladder?) Then, be “paralyzed” then, suddenly it’d kick into life, and start shuffling like nothing happened. It wasn’t eating much.

The other remaining one is starting to get that “U” shaped stomach to now, and despite being active today, it was laying on it’s side. I legitimately thought, “oh no I lost another one.”

I don’t know what’s going on with these guys. I have two filters running & now added an air-pump tube, for extra oxygen.

I have dosed Prazi Pro twice, thinking it’s possibly a parasite because on the first day I got them they WERE flashing.

The one with the “U” shape (the second one) I’m starting to see a red spot underneath it too now.

Oddly out the deaths, my remaining male guppy literally seems unaffected. No issue. I think he was the only one from the PetSmart stock that was oddly OK, but the other guy died.

I don’t know what to do at this point, I can’t tell if it’s ME the issue, or if it’s the stock.

Tank details:

* 10 Gallon (this is temporarily, the 40 g is cycling still.) It’s almost done.

* Black sand, fine substrate.

* Ammonia: 0, Nitrite 0, Nitrate anywhere from 0-5.

Temp is in the 80s, maybe 81-82 F. I think I have a problem with the heater possibly.


I feed them currently: frozen blood worms & frozen brine shrimp, sometimes I give them the tetra shrimp pellet wafer.

[bekateen]

Hi Orangeberry,

Sorry to hear of your bad experience. Difficult to know what to say, considering that the fish appear to have been in miserable health when purchased. You're lucky if the guppy is unaffected. Quarantine is important for just this situation.

The U shape you describe sounds like starvation or malnutrition. Maybe the fish were unsaveable?

Regards,
Eric

[kvnbyl]

I've had really bad luck with Pet Smart fish, internal parasites, I've stopped buying from them completely