Cory Cat Death

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whitepinehokie

AC Members
Sep 25, 2008
23
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39
Virginia
My cory cat just died. :( I just got home from work and it was laying on the bottom of the tank. I noticed last night that it's tail was sort of pinkish and maybe it's belly as well, but I was chalking that up to the fact that I have gravel, not sand. I was looking at getting sand soon for them, but I don't understand why this one died. After looking at it post-mortem, the tail fin is pink with red bits and the stomach was pinkish. No other symptoms were observed. The only other thing I have noticed is that one of my red wag platys is swimming around with clamped fins.

Tank specs:
29 gallon
0 ammonia - liquid test
0 nitrites - liquid test
5 ppm nitrates - liquid test
Between 0 and 25 GH (I need a more accurate test) - GH, KH, and ph on strip
120 KH
7.2 pH
78 degrees F

Other inhabitants:
2 red wag platys
1 sunset wag platy
1 regular sunset platy
3 peppered cory cats
1 green cory cat
5 zebra danios
Lots of plants (growing like weeds)
2 teeny tiny snails which seem to stick around


I do a 50% water change every week (I just did one). I use a chlorine/chloramine remover when I change the water. They get fed every 2-3 days. The cory cats get Hikari mini sinking algae wafers or shrimp pellets. The rest get Hikari micro pellets or flakes supplemented with freeze dried Tubifex worms.

Could it be bacterial? I don't want to lose any of my other fish. My tank recently (3 weeks ago) finished cycling.
 

jackiomy

Lover of Oddballs
Jul 6, 2008
3,423
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San Diego, CA
Real Name
Jacki Wilson
I lost three corys with the exact same symptoms a couple of weeks ago. I moved the 4 sick ones to the Q tank and treated them with Maracyn 2. Three died and I moved the one who made it back into my community tank 10 days later. I have had no problem since. This happened right after a nitrate spike. I don't know if the two things are related but that is what happened to mine.
 

IsaacMTSU

Nikon D7000
Jul 24, 2008
135
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Murfreesboro, TN
www.IsaacCogdill.com
It may be lack of oxygen... pink is a sign of de-oxygenated blood, but if you have suffecient filtration/agitation, this wouldn't be the case. Maybe stressed from the move to your tank and a less-than-perfect oxygen level made it hard for them.
 

13enzene

AC Members
Oct 16, 2008
360
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0
ya but with lack of O2 wouldn't they be acting weird. sluggish, stay near surface (may not for corys) labored breathing.
 

whitepinehokie

AC Members
Sep 25, 2008
23
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39
Virginia
The cory cat was quarantined before being introduced to the tank 2.5 weeks ago. I'm not sure it's the oxygen, because I do have a bubbler and when I do my weekly water change, I make sure to agitate the hose to get lots of O2 in the water. Looking at it right now, I can see all the non dissolved O2 floating about. Also, besides the pinkish tail and stomach, the cory cat in question didn't behave strangely (outside of dying). He scooted gravel around and slept in a heap with the other cories. None of the other fish seem to have any color issues. The other other one with problems is my red wag platy, who I have had for about 2 months now. She's swimming around with her fins clamped real tight.
 

whitepinehokie

AC Members
Sep 25, 2008
23
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39
Virginia
Freak! I just found one of my zebra danios dead with the same symptoms. I'm trying to get a picture taken to put on here. He looks really weird. He died with his mouth open too. I'm also worried now because one of my platys (not the one with clamped fins) now has a red spot near her gills. I'm going to do a 50% water change now, in the hopes that will slow things down until I can figure out what's going on. I had an issue with my heater this morning - it got COLD in there. It was 78.1 last night and this morning it was 73.2. I have 2 heaters set up (one less powerful). The more powerful one kicked off for some reason, but I think the second heater is the only reason it wasn't colder in there. I don't think the heater outage was the problem though, because the cory cat died before the heater went out.

Any help anyone could offer would be much appreciated. I don't like my fish dying.
 

whitepinehokie

AC Members
Sep 25, 2008
23
0
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39
Virginia
My tank:


My poor dead zebra danio, with the same symptoms as the cory cat.


I'm sorry the picture is of such poor quality, but my camera is freaking out. He died with his mouth open and his stomach is red, which you can see. His stomach was also swollen, which didn't come through in the picture. They haven't been fed recently, so that wouldn't be the cause of the swollen stomach.
 
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