Problem with albino Cory catfish

[scturner113]

Hello so I have a 20 gallon fresh water tank. It's got a basic filter system and I add stress coat and stress zyme as I do my water changes. Currently I have some guppies, one female Betta, frogs the catfish. I started my tank in January and all has been well until now. Yesterday I woke up and found one of my catfish dead. I have no idea what happened and chalked it up to a sick fish. I ended up going out and buying two more catfish and now they are very lethargic and sitting in my plants or at the bottom of the tank. It seems that they are breathing heavily. I read that they could have ammonia poisoning so I did a 50% water change and so far I don't see much improvements. All my other fish seem fine and dandy. What am I doing wrong!? I want my little friends to survive so any help would be great thank you!

 

[Huro]

Hello Scturner113,

I wish I could give you some advise on your corys but i have no experience with them. All I can suggest is making sure your tank parameters are good and temperatures are in acceptable range for the corys.

Sent from my C811 4G using Aquarium Advice mobile app

 

[fishyfriends3]

Have you been cleaning your substrate weekly ?

Sent from my GT-I9195 using Aquarium Advice mobile app

 

[scturner113]

Yes I clean everything once a week roughly. I think it may be ammonia poisoning so I added a conditioner that helps with that. The older one seems to be doing better but the two I got this week still are having a tough time. Sitting on the bottom and not moving too much.

 

[Grumble69]

I recommend getting an API freshwater test kit. They're not all that expensive and it will help you figure out what your problem is. Otherwise, you're just blindly guessing.

Ideally, you can correct a problem before it effects your fish. I had a nitrite spike out of the blue in my 10g. My betta & albino cories appeared to be just fine. But I was able to take action and get it under control before it became a problem.

 

[venymae]

+1 on getting a test kit. An ammonia binder will only work for so long. You really need to figure out what's going on.

 

[Grumble69]

I almost forgot to say--a lot of times my albinos just hang out on the bottom. They can be like that for a while. Then something happens in the tank and they go bumbling around again.

 

[scturner113]

Yes I bought a special nitrite and ammonia tester but it takes a few days to get an accurate reading. I do think it was too much ammonia, today the cat fish are doing much better. Much more movement and the oldest one is swimming around and playing with other fish again. Thank you for the help everyone!