cory with popeye

[fins]

Hi everyone,

In my 55 gallon tank I have three Adolfo cory cats, at least one of which is having trouble with popeye. I can't say it's one in particular because the popeye has come and gone several times, so I'm not sure if it's the same cory who keeps getting it, or different ones. I'm puzzled by this. We do a 30% water change once a week. Nitrates, nitrites, and ammonia levels are all 0, consistently. I truly don't think bad water quality is the culprit here, but the popeye has cleared up on its own both times previously.

Yesterday they all looked perfectly fine. This morning, one of them has fairly severe popeye in both eyes, and several of our turquoise rainbows have little white strings on their lips. I immediately tested the water and it's completely fine. However, our PH is at 8.0 and it's normally at 7.4. I believe this is because we recently switched from using RO water only to tap water (due to convenience). Could this cause these problems? We did the transition over multiple water changes, adding more tap water to each one, so it was a gradual change.

I'm really at a loss for this! I would hate to medicate if it's not necessary, but our Adolfo cories are nearly impossible to find and I would be very upset to lose one. Everyone is eating well and acting normally for now, but I would like to solve this before that changes. Please help!

Tank Info:
PH: 8.0
Nitrates: 0
Nitrites: 0
Ammonia: 0
Temp: 78
2 Aqua-Tech 30-60 HOB filters
Stocking: 2 Boesemani rainbows, 4 turquoise rainbows, 3 adolfo cories, 3 false julii cories, 3 amano shrip

 

[jlk]

Can you post a pic of your rainbows? As you mentioned the popeye clearing up on its own, the symptoms your rainbows have are quite suspicious and indicate a possible larger issue that has nothing to do with your parameters/ph.

 

[fins]

As of this morning, none of them have that white thread. What does it indicate? The popeye looks better, but is still visible. No other signs of injury or illness in anyone.

 

[jlk]

Keep a close eye on everyone and do some extra water changes. As your having random symptoms that disappear quickly, it's a bit difficult to pinpoint anything specific. Keep us posted if anything changes!

 

[fins]

I'm so upset right now, we lost one of the adolfoi corys tonight. One of the two survivors is still showing popeye. The one that died had absolutely no sign of injury or disease (ditto on all other fish besides the popeyed cory) and as of this morning was swimming around, eating and behaving completely normally. All water parameters are where they should be.

I am so frustrated with this tank! We bought it second-hand and have had terrible, awful luck with it so far. Our first stocking was lost to an ich outbreak (from a fish that had been in QT for almost two weeks and developed the ich the first day in the main tank). Our second stocking was wiped out when our heater failed to turn off overnight and heated the tank up to 98*. Now with our third restocking we've already lost two rainbows to TB and now this adolfoi to who knows what!

I can't understand what is going wrong with this tank. We have three other tanks that are up and functioning just fine, a 20g that has been running problem-free for two years, plus a 10g QT tank that our betta lives in normally, and another 5g for another betta. And yet, with our 55g, we're on our third restock in a year! We can't afford to keep restocking it like this but we're at a loss to what the problem could be.

Somebody please help!