Lost a cory

[QTOFFER]

Last night, I noticed one of my julii corys lying on its side near the front of the tank - dead. There was no sign of damage, no ich, and gills looked fine. The other is still alive, but I don't see much of it during the day. I have observed it at night, tho and its gills and fins look OK. The three albino bronze corys actively look for food all day long. Nobody else ever bothers with the corys except for the danios who occasionally come down to check out the sinking wafers.

Water params are excellent: NH3=0, NO2=0, NO3=5ppm. PH seemed to drop a bit to 6.8 - it's usually 7.0. Temp is stable at 82-84 F (too high???) Filtration is with an Eheim Pro 2026. I have a smooth gravel substrate and I feed the corys daily at night with 2-3 sinking cory wafers and/or algae wafers (both from Hikari). I haven't added any newcomers since I got the corys, but I recently reintroduced the four serpaes after a weeklong treatment with MelaFix and PimaFix in the Q-tank.

Any ideas on why this fish expired?

 

[webmoose]

I've read lots of people have sucess mixing species of cories. I've found that when I have established sets.. (example: bronze) and I have tried to introduce a second species (example: panda) The panda's did not do so well. The did not feed as often or as well as the bronze and they seemed kinda lonely in a strange way.

Just my own personal experience with the bronze cory's and other species..... Of course the bronze have all been established first.....


Sorry about your loss..

 

[QTOFFER]

Aaaaaaaaughhhh!

Found the other julii dead last nite - looked like the other fish had been chewing on him post-mortem. I rechecked water params - all came up clean!

The other corys are active and eating well. I guess the three juliis I got were sick to begin with.

 

[Allivymar]

How long did you have em QTOFFER?

 

[QTOFFER]

I bought the 3 juliis on Jan 5 and I got the 3 albino bronzes and 3 otos on Jan 11 - all went into quarrantine One of the juliis and two otos died in QT because I stupidly neglected to check the water params daily and the NH3 shot up to 1.5 ppm.

On Jan 19, I slowly acclimated the six fish to the show tank. An oto died the next day. The remaining corys all looked good until yesterday when I noticed the first dead julii. The bronzes seem very healthy.

Was the quarrantine period too short? Is the tank too warm? (82F) - I knocked it down to 80F last nite.

I'm planning to get some more albino bronzes if this frigid cold ever goes away, but I don't want to kill any more fish!

 

[webmoose]

Bronze 72-82 and Juli 68 - 82..

I had mine at 82 for a few months.. I currently have my tank around 76. I lowered it to accomodate a hillstream loach. My cories became more active and now breed at the lower temp.

82 is on the high side of their tollerance but technically it should not have been an issue.. But you could be onto something as the Juli's do prefer a bit cooler than the Bronze..

The experts could jump in here but any chance they weren't getting enough food? My cory's and otto's go nuts over the algea tab's I only have 2 cories and 2 oto's and they can consume 2 tablets a day.. (I do usually give them at least 1 a day)

Juli's are more sensitive than bronze...

 

[Allivymar]

I'm wondering if they were actually carrying something; figure you had em for around 3 weeks or so. 2 weeks is a good all around number for QT, but sometimes it isn't enough (some folks QT for up to 6 weeks!). My guess is its nothing you did; that they weren't healthy to begin with or picked something up from the otos(especially since none survived; makes me suspicious). I'd give the tank a month or so with no additions to make sure all is well (and it'll give us some time to get to warmer weather!).

 

[QTOFFER]

I don't think underfeeding was a problem, webmoose. In addition to the flake food leftovers everyday, Iwas dropping in three algaewafers or sinking cory pellets every night. I did notice that the juliis were less active from the get-go. At night, I always observed the bronzes feeding, but I seldopm noticed the juliis feeding. During the day, the juliis would do nothing but hide while the bronzes actively patrol the substrate for food. The bronze corys always browse among my plastic plants - something I never saw the juliis doing.

 

[webmoose]

QTOFFER ya your right than.. I would agree with Allivymar that you may have gotten a bad batch...

Let me know if you end up having better luck with non-bronze in the future.. I have my eyes open for a good batch of panda's...

 

[QTOFFER]

Thanks for the advice/reassurance. In the absence of any evidence to the contrary (bad water params or disease), I too think I just got a coupla dud fish.

At least the albino bronzes seem happy and healthy and I will get at least three more in a month or so. I think I will stick with this species since they contrast nicely with my dark reddish/brown substrate.

 

[webmoose]

"Herd's of similar species" are always a good thing with the cories.. Post some pics sometime of your cory's if you get a chance. I'm a cory / oto / hillstream loach freak....

 

[QTOFFER]

"Herd's of similar species" are always a good thing with the cories.. Post some pics sometime of your cory's if you get a chance. I'm a cory / oto / hillstream loach freak....

Absolutely - will do!
These hard working little scavengers are so fun to watch as they bumble about and work the substrate. The danios are the only fish I have that are more active. I can see why so many people on this site are cory-crazy!