lost another cory....

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ashleynicole

Aquarium Advice Addict
Joined
Sep 12, 2011
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Location
Florida
So out of the 6 cories I started with, I am now down to two.
Background- 29 gallon planted, fully cycled for about a month with seeded sponge filters from angels plus. (never had ammonia or nitrites spikes, had nitrate readings by day 4). Had nitrates up to 20ppm before adding plants. Did a 50% water change today which I do once or twice a week using prime.
Paramaters before water change today , ammonia and Nitrite at zero, nitrate was trace , not even 5ppm. The low nitrates is due to plants.
I lost one cory and one snail during an ich treatement. Then the first time I added seachem Excel I lost a ram and a cory, which I attributed to the fact that I added too much excel. Then 3 days ago I lost a cory and today I lost another cory. Water is pristine, no signs of illness on any other fish. I drop pellets in a few nights a week and algae wafers on alternating nights. I suppose this could just be a bad batch since they all came from the same place? Any other clues as to what could be causing them to randomly drop dead? These are the only losses I've had in this tank. I know to some extent it is inevitable... But this is more than I would expect. The other two look and act normal, active, playful.

Tank mates are 1 bolivian ram, 2 juvenile angels, 6 neon tetras. 4 otos, 1 bristlenose pleco, 1 Apple snail, a few ghost shrimp and some malaysian trumpet snails. I am running two aquaclear 50 HOB filters . I would have expected the otos to be the most sensitive, but they are doing great. It's just the cories and I can't figure it out.

Thanks to anyone who has any clues.
 
your aquarium is overstocked and you feed algea wafers too often. try removing the two angels, ghost shrimp and the bristlenose pleco and maybe even the apple snail. tetras, ram, otos and corys make a complete and healthy ecosystem. instead of algea wafers try feeding the otos blanched zuchini until algea forms in your aquarium and on your leaves. i have a 29 gallon with 2 otos, 1 cory, 13 neon tetras and 3 silver hatchet fish. my aquarium is planted and is a balanced eco system. so well maintained that my otos spawn. take my advice on the feeding try the zuchini and the use of flakes every morning for these fish. also please you are semi overstocked...
 
It is not overstocked. And I do feed zuchini or cucumber probably 1-2 days a week. The otos and bristlenose both love cucumber. You can see pics in my profile upload. 2-3 nights a week depending on how often I visit the grocery store. It is not to often for 1 spirulina wafer. I break it into pieces so it scatteres in the tank. Between the malaysian trumpet snails, shrimp, otos, and pleco it gets eaten. I don't feed anything else on the night I do cucumber or zuch.
A bristlenose pleco is perfectly sized for this tank. I like the extra filtration for the plant detritus.
They were only labeled as spotted coreys, they looked kind of like sterbas? and no the barbels were still there.

View attachment 56772
 
jetajockey said:
maybe false juliis. If the water tests come out o.k. and none of the other fish are having issues then I'd just call it bad stock.

That was my assumption since these are dying off one by one, and everything else is fine. As much as I love cories, I don't think I'm going to add anymore to this tank... At least not for a while and not from that store. I am testing paramaters again today when I get home and will test daily for a while just to be safe.
 
You know what else, my temps are still around 82 since my ich treatment, maybe cories don't tolerate the higher temp? Angels and ram seem to love it.
 
I had the exact same issue with a Cory die-off.

Julii or spotted corys, three of them. Two died, the other went MIA yesterday. I am still looking (tank is 36" high against a wall and is difficult to reach the bottom).
Talked to LFS and they admitted they got a bad lot of those fish and immediately gave me four free corys (different breed, plainer brown).
I have four angels, two half-black and two marbles. All adolescents. I actually added them in separately but they get along fine with each other and also with the corys. One angel was a gift, i got him a buddy, then finally got two more yesterday. I did not want to add them all at once because my tank is new. Temp and ammonia, etc are dialed in.

Tank is also 155 gallons so there is plenty of room for the four angels and the four corys.

I would talk to the LFS and see if they would mind replacing them if it was a recent purchase and you have no other explanation as to their demise.
 
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