Sick Cory?

[Tetratastic]

I recently bought 4 corys, two bronze and two peppered - both from the same fish store. The bronze ones are fine, but I've already lost one peppered, and the second one looks pretty near death.

Both appeared fine at first, other than they were both much more timid than the bronzes. I woke up one morning and the first one was dead with no outward signs that anything was wrong. Now the second one keeps twitching, jerking and jacking-knifing uncontrollably... I have never seen this before. Also, when I bought the four they were all the same size, now the bronzes are considerably bigger than the peppered... is this indicative of anything or are the peppered normally smaller?

I've quarantined the remaining peppered cory, and have tried a broad spectrum antibiotic, but it just seems to be getting worse.

I'm wondering if there is anything I can do or did I just get sold 'bad' fish?

[OrionGirl]

Glad to see that you've quarantined it--those symptoms don't sound good. I can't help wit the diagnoses, but I can reassure you that peppered cories are usually smaller than bronze. IME, the fish sold as bronze and green cories are not really in the cory family (though I can't recall the actual family), and get much larger than cories.

Only thing I can recommend would be to get some medicated foods. This tends to be more effective than the kind you dissolve in that tank water.

[Tetratastic]

Yeah, I'm sure they're really aeneus corys, the fish shop also sells what they call 'Emerald Catfish' which are quite large, and is probably what you are referring to.

These are the first peppered cories I've ever owned, and assumed they'd be like the bronze cories behavior-wise. When they kept hiding though, I figured they just had a different tempermant, esp. since they looked physically healthy. :(

I'll go buy some medicated food and give that a try, thanks.