Dieing cories

erin14

Canadian, Eh?
Aug 7, 2007
638
0
0
Brandon, Manitoba, Canada
Why do my Pandas keep dieing??? One died yesterday and one the day before, and now one today?! I tested the water and everything is good! ph 7.2, amm 0, nitrite 0, nitrate 5, 77 degrees....whats going on?!?!? I keep the water quality/cleanliness pretty good because as you can see i am a bit overstocked (50g) so i do 2- 30% water changes a week. It has to be something with the pandas because my skunks and bronze cories are all fine! None have died in the whole time i've had them! The pandas look fine, then i get up in the morning, come down here and look and theres another one dead! Sooo frusterating since these were the cories i really wanted since i started this hobby! When i scoop the dead ones out to look at them to see if there was anything wrong with them, i can't see anything, other then the fact that their blacks markings are faded (from being dead of course). Their eyes are clear, no unusual things on the body (i.e fungus) and no fin rot. At first I thought well, maybe it was just the one that was sick or whatever but now i've lost 3 in 3 days. Whats going on?!?!?!?! :thud:
 
....whats going on?!?!? ...

Erin:

I cannot answer the question but I may can be of some help.

I am responding to your post as my experience was similar and was with bottom dwellers also.

You indicated that the panda's as well as the other fish "look fine", your maintenance was "plenty good" and your water parameters were "plenty good".

Yes. I know. I have been there, done that and got the tee shirt (with this instant death).

In may case the "instant death (as I will term it)" started with the yoyo loaches, proceeded to QA & GN plecos and then to sterbai cories (which are very, very resilient fish).

I tried 50%WC's with no joy.

By day three I had lost 3 yoyo loaches (these were adults and the other three had red lips and fins), 3 GN's and 3 QA's, with the remainder of the GN's and QA's acting very sickly as well as my sterbai also commencing to act sickly.

By "just trying something" I had a "big jug" of activated carbon in the garage which I placed in a media bag and into my sump (I have a wet/dry).

Within 2 hours "things started returning to normal" and three days later everything was normal.

I have absolutely no clue as to the why this situation occurred or why the activated carbon fixed it!!!!

TR
 
They eat fine, well, when I see them they eat fine. Usually i feed them after lights out because the other fish try to eat it. They're were about "middle size" haha if that makes any sense. They weren't little but not full grown either. Maybe just over an inch? All my other cories seem fine which is what confuses me. I originally had 4 skunks, then one died (my bad mistake!) so when i got the pandas i got one skunk to replace the one that died and hes still doing fine! Thats what makes me think its something wrong with the pandas and not all the fish.
 
well,i don't have any wonderful advice to offer you (sorry about that) but I know if you do a search on panda cories in this forum you will find loads and loads of posts about people buying them and then having several die. Seems as though they are a little fragile during acclimation (whether that is from breeding/cultivating techniques i dunno) but do well once established. I wish you lots of luck with your remaining pandas as they are cetrainly quite cute.
 
Erin- No real advice here, but as Ms said Pandas do seem to be the most fragile of the common cories. I lost 2 (very small 1/2 - 3/4") in a tank with nothing but cories. All eating fine, all look well, and then bam... dead Panda. Tested everything, zeros, 75% change just in case... The remaining Pandas as well as a group of 6 Spotteds are fine. I think it may be a matter of demand for them encouraging quick change of hands from breeder-distributor-store and maybe improper acclimation along the way weakening them. No real facts to back that up, but it seems to make sense. Sorry for your loss.
 
Well, I have 2 cents to toss in....

Acclimation, slow, and I mean slow is a big deal, from my experience with them.

Also, for me, like otos, the more well established your tank is, the better odds you have. And, like some fish, (discus), they are highly affected by minute changes in water chemistry until well grown.
 
well i have gone from 6 pandas to 1 in the last 5 days...lost another one last night, hopefully the only remaining panda makes it, but who knows. the others looked like they were gonna be fine and look what happened to them! :(
 
AquariaCentral.com