Howdy! Tank running 6 months. Emaciated Cory

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TankGirls

AC Members
Mar 5, 2012
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First a huge thanks! I have used your website to gather info and troubleshoot since getting our tank back in Aug '11. This sight has been terrifically helpful.

We have a 20 gallon with the following fish:
1 Powder Blue Dwarf Gourami
1 Mickey Mouse Platy
6 Neon Tetras
1 Rubber Lip Pleco
1 Peppered Cory (back in December we had three Peppered Cories, but decided to add one more and did not quarentine it before introducing to our tank. That one cory was sick and it wrecked havoc on our tank. We lost the new guy and two out of three of the Cories we already had. The one we have now barely made it, he's actually the reason I finally joined this forum)

I had a tank growing up but I was young and never knew how much thought went into a tank until now :) I had wanted to get a tank again for at least 8 years and we finally made the commitment last summer after bribing my eldest child to do swim team with the promise of an aquarium. Best bribe I ever made, we all won!

The lone Cory we have left in the tank seemed to be doing fairly well without having any buddies. (I absolutely was planning on getting two more after we confirmed the tank was healthy again.)
Well, I'm afraid I have not been paying close enough attention and didn't realize that the Cory was not getting enough food. That's my theory because when I fed flakes on Saturday night the Cory seemed to be exerting itself vertically in an attempt to catch the flakes as they sank down; but, he had already weakened enough that it was pretty much a lost cause.
I feed flakes every other day. A couple weeks back, I cut back on algae wafers. I was giving the wafers every other day but was afraid it was making too much waste for our meager 20 gallon so I scaled way back to 1 wafer a week. Maybe that's when I doomed the Cory :(
I began to notice this past week that I was having to look for the Cory in the tank, whereas normally he's out and about doing his scavenger thing. On Saturday night, after noticing his attempt to catch sinking food, I was shocked to find how emaciated the poor guy has gotten. I purchased some freeze-dried tubifex worms yesterday (Sunday). He is not hunting for food but gobbled up what I offered in front of his face yesterday (maybe too much?). I have continued to "hand" feed the worms but he doesn't take very much at all before turning from the food. (The worms had soaked up water before I fed the little guy.)
This morning, he/she is extremely listless. He has rolled on his side two or three times at the bottom of the tank in the past 24 hours but ends up righting himself. (BTW, I am prettysure it's a male because of size)
I feel so bad screwing his little fish life up. Is there any chance to rehabilitate?

My water was tested yesterday and everything checked out great. I do this at our lfs and did not bring home the details to share. Sorry.

Any suggestions?
 
Last edited:

Rbishop

Administrator
Staff member
Dec 30, 2005
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Mr. Normal
Welcome to AC! Readings from a good liquid test kit...?
 

Rbishop

Administrator
Staff member
Dec 30, 2005
40,727
452
143
70
Real Name
Mr. Normal
Dip strip testing is very unreliable..a good liquid kit like API's is a low cost investment that will give you peace of mind.
 
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