Mysterious tank deaths

P

Peter99

AC Members
Feb 24, 2004
94
0
0
Visit site
I went home on Thursday evening, leaving everything as it were when I left. Tonight when I got in I noticed that 2 peppered cories are dead and 1 albino cory kicked the bucket. Looks like they have been dead for a few days (eyes white and faded colors).

Just few days before Thursday, all the water parameter was good, everything was undetectable. But when I just check the water parameter, I'm high on amonia. Could this be from the dead fishes?

I've gone on for 9 days without feeding my cories, and this time when I left, they've only gone on for 4 days without food. So I'm not so sure about them starving to death.

2 of the remaining cories look very healthy while the 3rd one looks pretty pale, but looks better since I just fed him.
 
How old is the tank? Was it cycled? The ammonia could be from the dead fish, but if your tanks wasn't cycled, then it's probably from the living ones as well.

9 days is a while w/o food, but I've heard of fish going much longer. Depends on the nutrition before hand I guess.
 
Any chance the power went out while you were gone? If so, this could have caused a problem.
 
Hmmm...Any changes in temp? Cories usually are not sensitive to oxygen levels changing, but a sudden spike in temp might do them in. Other than being pale, any other symptoms?
 
The temp was at 71F (I think) and has since then crawled up to 75F overnight. 4F difference in 10 hours isn't too bad is it?

The cory is pale and lethargic (wasn't really lethargic when I came back last night). I think amonia spike did the trick. The plants in my tank looks greener and have more (and longer) roots than before.

I also removed my betta to a separate tank when I left, just in case my betta decides to stress the cories out. If anything, it lighten up the bioload very (very very very very) slightly.

The cory kicked the bucket while I was typing. Now just the active and healthy looking cories left.
 
Last edited:
While the ammonia spike would certainly hurt the remaining fish, it doesn't explain the death of the initial fish, which certainly would have caused the spike. Hmmm...The slight temp change wouldn't cause a serious problem, normally...Do you think it might have been more dramatic while you were gone (for instance, if you normally have AC running but turned it off while you were away)?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
AquariaCentral.com
Top Bottom