Cory cat on deathbed

[7Enigma]

1~What type of fish is afflicted?

Cory catfish, he is breathing all right, but does not move unless prodded. I found him on his side and thought he was dead originally. I do not think he has eaten since I got him on Sunday.


2~What are your tank parameters (ammonia, nitrites, nitrates, temp, pH)?

0, 0, (10-20), 78.5, 7.5, all from the AP master test kit

3~ How large is the tank? How long has the tank been set up?

20 gallon high, fish in since sunday, tank was fishless cycled

4~What type of filtration are you using? Please give the name and number

aquaclear 50, (rated at 200gph)

5~How many fish are in the tank? What kinds of fish are they and what are their current sizes?

6 tiger barbs (v. small, maybe 3/4inch?), 7 cherry barbs (also very small but range in size), 3 cory cats (1 1/2" or so), 3 Oto's (v. small, maybe 1/2")

6~When is the last time you did a water change and vacuum the gravel?

Had not done a PWC or gravel vacuum. Fish were in since this past saturday. Everyone looked great and still do except for this cory cat, whom I have never seen eat, or do much of anything.


7~How long have you had the fish? If the fish is new, how did you acclimate it/them?

the cory's since sunday. I'm about 15min from the LFS. I brought them home and used the recommended method (let sit in tank for 15min, added cup of tank water, let sit another 15min, added another cup of tank water, let sit 15 min, drain water, and add fish to tank).

8~Have you added anything new to the tank--decor, new dechlorinator, new substrate, etc.?

Only thing new added to tank was the cherry barbs on monday, a small java fern, and some hair algae (at least that is the current concensus so far)

9A~What kind of food have you been feeding your fish, have you changed their diet recently?

Only food has been tropical flake food from big al's. And I have a cucumber in, but like I mentioned this specific cory has NEVER gone after food, or done the thing the other 2 have done (filter feed all over the tank).

Here's my original post in the getting started forum:

UPDATE: 4pm

One of my cory cats has seemed very stationary since I got him. He would move around every once in a while, but never seemed to hunt for food. I found him today under my pot, and he is on his side. I can't tell if he is stuck to the side of it, or lying on his side. I got a flashlight out since its difficult to see in there and he does seem to be breathing. I really think he might be a goner. I'm going to keep an eye on him tonight, and if no change, I might try to nudge him or something. Unfortunately he's in a VERY inaccessable place to get to, so I'll have to disturb the whole tank to get to him. It was actually the guy that Weldon reposted the pic of. He would just sit on the top of my clay pot, I had just hoped he was finding food when I wasn't around.

UPDATE: 4:45pm

I just took him out of the tank. When I went to get him with the net, he started to move, but clearly had a problem. He couldn't orient himself, just seemed to do a downward spiral. I have him in about 3 1/2 gallons of tank water right now, and will keep an eye on him for a 1/2 hour. If nothing has changed I think I'm going to have to put him down. Anything I can try?

UPDATE: 6pm

I put him back in the main tank, but in an area where I can easily get him out if I need to. The bucket he was in I needed to add water back to the main tank. He is definitely still breathing fine, but doesn't do anything at all. I feel bad that I've probably stressed him worse than if I had just left him alone, but I really thought he was dead. I submerged a piece of flake food, and got him directly on it, but he did nothing. I have no idea what else to do.

UPDATE: 6:20pm

I just went back in to see how he was doing and he was gone. He had somehow moved to the back of the tank, but was upright. I noticed his one fin on his top (dorsal fin?) seemed to be a bit ragged, and sure enough about 2 minutes later I found one of my tiger barbs nipping him. I have never seen this before and his fins were fine before I put him back in the tank.

UPDATE: 6:30pm

I couldn't watch the tiger eat this guy's fin anymore. I put my upsidedown ceramic pot, and put it over the cory. The tiger has not tried to go inside. Can these fish realize when another is wounded/dying? I've never seen this happen before and they have been fed a good amount.

Thanks for your help.

justin

 

[talloulou]

Do you have other corys who are doing fine? If so maybe this one was just ill from the store. Did you add alot of fish in a short period of time? Cause if you did this could be the problem though your numbers seem to be in range. But generally, even with a fishless cycle, you need to stock slowly. Are the tiger barbs picking on the cories? Might just have been a bit of bad luck.

It's probably a good idea to remove a fish looking this bad from the tank. If it's disease you don't want the other fish eating it. Plus the fish has no real chance of recovery when left in a community tank while being that ill.

 

[7Enigma]

Well after hiding the cory in the pot, I have not seen anyone go after him again. I think I'll wait until tomorrow morning or after work, and if no change for the better, I'll have to put him down. I have noticed a VERY increased bullying by the tiger's, with one tiger in particular. I've seen him nip at an Oto eating cucumber, and at other tiger's. I find this very odd, that all of a sudden the behavior in the tank has gotten much less friendly. I think a big part is that ALL of the fish tend to spend 90% of their time in the bottom 1/3 of the tank. I have since turned my filter to its lowest setting thinking maybe the current was causing it, but I have not seen a change.

My 2 other cory's are now hiding inside the pot where I found the one this morning on his side. Their fins seem to be in good shape, but I don't know if they just escaped harassment or what. I'm really dissapointed that these guys are not behaving how I would have hoped. I specifically did research on my tank's fish to make sure they were compatible.

 

[talloulou]

Tiger barbs tend to be bothersome if there school isn't big enough though 6 is a pretty good number. You might want to up it to 8 and see if it makes a difference.

 

[7Enigma]

The kicker is, the cory's are the largest creatures in the tank, at least 50% larger than the tiger's. The tiger's were put in the tank first, but only by 1 day. I did adjust the flow of my filter to the slowest setting, and they seem to have moved SLIGHTLY higher in the tank, but the top half of the tank is still completely empty, except for feeding time. I thought these guys were supposed to be mid/top dwellers?

I also didn't see the 3rd cory this morning. He must still be inside the pot. There were no elevated nitrIte or ammonia readings, so I'm hoping he is still alive. The more I think about it, I think he was basically eaten alive, and probably lost a lot of his fins that help him balance. I feel really horrible for him, I don't want to kill him, but don't want him to suffer.

Would it help to get more cory's? They seemed to stick together a little bit (2 anyway), I wonder if 3 or 4 would be better at fending off the tiger's. And I'm kind of doubtful that having 6 tigers causes them to still be agressive, but having 8 would make them less. I'm pretty much at my max for this 20gallon tank, and since its a 20gallon high, and they are spending 90% of their time near the bottom, its pretty cramped right now.

 

[7Enigma]

UPDATE: 12:30pm Wednesday

Came home to check on the fish. Couldn't find the cory, figured he was still in the pot. Was going to feed some flakes and noticed a small cherry barb, belly up at the top of the tank. I quickly fished him out. His eyes were missing, but otherwise no sign of trauma. I don't know what killed him, though I did have to do a PWC last night after removing the cory, and the temp did go up about 1.5degrees over 15-20minutes (I added the water back very slowly but it did raise the tank temp). I don't think such a small increase in tank temp over 15-20min could kill him, but who knows.

I then lifted the side of the pot to check on the cory, and sure enough he was dead. R.I.P. I fished him out as well.

So I immediately tested all parameters again (except nitrAtes). 0 ammonia, 0 nitrIte, pH about 7-7.2, tank temp 78.4F. I'm completely stumped. I had gone to PetSmart to get a breeding cage to put the cory in, but they didn't have one, and apparently I don't need it anyway now. I did pick up some Hakari freeze dried bloodworms and these things were like crack for my tiger's. Not a single one made it even near the bottom as the tiger's ate every single one at the top of the tank in about a minute. I got a 0.7oz box of it for $7.49 which seems pretty expensive, but I figure it will last quite a while.

I wanted to get some algae wafers for the cory's but they were very expensive for such a small amount. I'll continue to try to suppliment their diet with food on my magfloat, and make sure they dont' get too skinny.

Well, that's about it. I'm bummed, but feel somewhat relieved since the cory was probably a goner, and I didn't want him to suffer. The cherry barb has me completely stumped, but at least he went quickly. All the other fish look like normal....

 

[rich311k]

Sorry for your losses. The cory was probably sick to start with. Have the tigers bothered the cherry barbs at all?

 

[7Enigma]

Only a little bit. They seem to hold their own in the tank. There is definately MUCH more agitation in the tank, and it seems that the cory's take the brunt of the punishment (they get chased out of one place, the new place has someone that chases them out, and so on). I have to find a way to either buy or build a hideout they can relax in. I think the sheer exhaustion from getting chased all day might be stressing them out.

 

[7Enigma]

UPDATE: 5:30pm

I can't take it anymore. I tried building a couple of hiding places with the left over pieces of terra cotta, but they either can't find the spots, or it doesn't matter because the other fish all hang out everywhere in the tank. These 2 cory's are being harrassed constantly by the tiger's and the dominant cherry barb. Fortunately none of their fins appear to be nipped yet, but I'm sure that's how it started for the one that died. He probably was completely exhausted and just sat their and got eaten alive.

Temporarily one of the cory's seem to be worse off than the other. He either is too stupid to find a good spot to catch a breath, or just unlucky. Since I don't have a holding tank, I used my gravel filter (its a large one), and stuck him in the tube so that no other fish can get to him. He freaked out for a couple of minutes but I turned off the light and went out of the room for a couple minutes and now he is on the bottom, hopefully getting some much needed rest.

The other cory is still be harrassed every couple of minutes. My wife is out shopping and I asked her to go back to Petsmart and get a tank divider. I will give the 2 cory's about 3-4 inches of the left side of the tank. I don't know what I can do in the future for them.

1. I feel bad that they are limited to roam the tank

2. I'm a bit annoyed since these guys were to be my ground cleanup crew

I can only imagine this harassment will get worse as the barb's get bigger, since the cory's are currently the largest fish in the tank. Are their any brand of catfish with a little more spunk that won't take this treatment from the other fish (and will stay the same size as the cory's)?

 

[maxwell1295]

Sorry to hear about your losses. Are all tiger/cherry barbs that aggressive towards corys? Since I'm going with a fairly peaceful community tank, I didn't plan on getting any, but it's always good to know how certain fish act in certain situations.

Again, I hope you get it all figured out...

 

[7Enigma]

Wow, what a bad week for the tank.

I had a long winded post, that screwed up during posting so I'll recap yesterday quickly:

-got a tank divider and put the 2 remaining cory's and 1 Oto in the 3" space on the left side of the tank. This was because the cory's were being attacked constantly

-due to installation of the divider the water got VERY cloudy. I didn't want to do a PWC to keep from stressing the fish further, so I wanted to wait until Thursday after work to do a good 50% PWC.


Now fast forward to today:

-Tank parameters were 0 when I left this morning.

-Everyone looked healthy

-Water was still very cloudy

-When I got home, I did my daily count and could not find an Oto (one of the 2 in the main tank section).

-I found him dead inside the "cave" portion, where I found the cory almost dead a couple days ago.

-I pulled him out, he looked fine as well, except for being dead of course

-I did a 50% PWC, and in the process the tank temp dropped about 1.5degrees F

-Tank is still cloudy but not as bad as before

-Everyone looks good except for a cherry barb that is just sitting in the corner at the bottom. He's breathing, but does not seem spunky

-I hope he doesn't die too....