Dying cories -- please help!

It's a 5 degree temperature change which is a lot for a tiny fish. My suspicion is that upon noticing the 82 temp, the heater was immediately turned down to let the water temp fall at it's own pace, rather than do a temperature lowering over several hours. If you google ich, you'll find tons of references to "it is almost always present in freshwater tanks". It lives there very quietly waiting for an opportune time when a fish gets stressed. It is not "held" by the fish. And yes, new inhabitants can certainly bring it into the tank with them.
 
Ich is a parasite and must be introduced. It is true that a fish can develop a slight immunity to this species; However the parasite requires a host to survive and it cannot lay dormint forever. Common wisdom is that 3-4 weeks is a long enough duration to ensure that Ich is not present within a fish. Remember, it's only the adults that most of us see (the salt-like cycsts on the fish's surface)

Here is a Great Article on the organism and treatment methods: http://www.aquariacentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=88601
 
Thank you so much guys.. this is great help.

ct-death, what type of cory is that in your pic? He's gorgeous!
 
zanytomato said:
Thank you so much guys.. this is great help.

ct-death, what type of cory is that in your pic? He's gorgeous!
Click to expand...
Thank you!

C. Melanistius (spotted) ;)

Commonly sold as Schwartzi's, and less so as Agassizii
 
Good article ct-death. Thanks! In reference to this quote: "There are instances where fish will develop partial immunities to pathogens in there water systems so it is possible that your fish may have lived with ich for a while with out really showing any signs of it and once something goes wrong with the water conditions there will be an outbreak that you notice"

.....would mean then that a chill to the fish such as might occur during a rapid water termperature change during fish transport or as a result of a heater malfunction.....would be enough to trigger an active ich outbreak? And.... if there was absolutely no ich in the tank to begin with, even a chill from a malfunctioning heater would never bring ich on?


(Unfortunately,the ick myths have been alive for a very, very, very long time and can still easily be found in reference material)
 
Update: My cories (except for the panda cory) are all dead. I don't know if it was ich, or what the heck it was... everyone else in the tank looks fine. I'm totally at a loss.

I was so thrilled with those cories! I could just cry. I have no idea what I did wrong!

I want to get more to keep my panda cory happy, but now I'm afraid they're just going to die, too (I've now lost 5 total -- those and my pleco are the only fish I've lost in this tank).

Argh!

:(
 
Just a follow up -- rechecked all of my levels, everything looks perfect:

0/0/0.5 for amm/nitrite/nitrate
ph 7
kh 3
gh 5

Did my cories maybe require harder water?

I took a closer look at the last body of the one who died tonight. I could see no evidence of spots on him at all. The one who died yesterday I didn't find till this morning, and his colour had already really faded. I couldn't see the spots that were on him previously. So my theory of ich seems out the window. Especially since none of the other fish have spots.

Everyone else in the tank seems fine... just one of my black phantom tetras (the biggest one) seems a lot lighter in colour than normal, so I'll keep an eye on him.

My panda cory looks as if he has a slight white film on him.. however he has looked like that since we got him at the store. I was told he looked healthy when I bought him, and I've gone on this assumption, but now I'm not sure. He has outlived all of my cories by the longest, though.


-zt.
 
I can tell you right now that I kept my cories for weeks at 3/3 KH/GH, no problems. Its possible that you got a bad batch. I know exactly how you feel though, I lost 4 to date. 3 Sword tails and 1 long finned blue danio. I couldn't imagine loosing my cool cory cats.
 
Sorry to hear about your cories! It's hard to tell by your pics, but I think I see patches of white fluff rather than the hard specks associated with ich. White fluff would be bacterial or fungus, rather than a parasite. Good luck!
 
Yeah, staring at my photos I think that is the case, too (and having watched the one swimming around before he died).

Whatever it was it killed them all quickly. I'm afraid to get more for my tank as I'm not sure what it was.

I've got to return my other tetras (I'm going with just a school of black phantoms in the end), so I guess I'll do that and see how things fare. If they have more panda cories in stock I'll get some more of those, perhaps, so my current one isn't lonely (he hung out with the sterbai cories all the time... ). My plan had been to have the black phantoms and the cories, but now I'm not sure. Hmm.

Thanks for everyone's replies so far.
 
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