Pygmy Corydora sick/ turned white

[Bvlfish]

Hello,

This is my first post here. I recently got my first fish. I had a tank with cherry shrimp for a little while, but this is my first time having fish.

I have a 10 gallon planted tank and just got 6 pygmy Corydoras and 4 cherry shrimp. The tank is fully cycled.
Nitrate 0 ppm, nitrate 0 ppm, ph of 7, KH 80 ppm, and GH 60 ppm. Temp of 25 °C/77°F. Sponge filter.

The fish store did say they were new fish that they just got, so probably not sure of health/quality?

The fish spent a few days glass surfing, which Google told me was normal. One died the first night. It looked normal, but I found it lying on its side in the morning. Two days later, the other fish had settled down, but one of them was floating up. It was lodging itself under roots, or the sponge filter not to float up to the top. I stopped feeding and threw two peas into the tank, as I thought that might be swim bladder, and again, Google told me that might help? The next day (today) it spent the full day lying on top of my sponge filter, occasionally changing position. And it was looking almost completely white, with orange irises.... It was no longer floating, just laying there. Now, as I am typing this, it has started to swim again... It swam back and forth a bit and is now lying on an anubias leaf.

I am really not sure what to do here. Some forums noted that "melafix" might help, but also says corys are sensitive to any type of medication. I am open to any kind of advice here.

Thanks in advance

 

[Bvlfish]

Just took a gander at a video I took of my fish on the day I bought them, when they were still in the bag from the fish store. One of them looks very pale like the one who is currently looking sick. I think it may be the same fish and may have already been sick in the store. Other corys are looking normal.

 

[dudley]

Welcome to AC!!

Sorry you have lost some fish already. It is possible they were ill from the store. Please do not buy or add any more fish at this time until you answer a few more questions.

How long has this tank been set up? It is unusual to have zero nitrate reading in a cycled tank.

Do you have an ammonia test kit? If not, I suggest buying one.

 

[Bvlfish]

Thank you

And thank you, I was pretty upset when I found the first casualty.

It's been a few months with just plants and snails. I didn't put the snails in, they hitchhiked on my plants, but I don't mind them. This was kind of like my practice tank until I got the 20 gallon long I wanted, but the tank I had my eye on has been out of stock for months, so I decided to just go ahead and add fish and shrimp to this one, hence the 3+ month cycle.

I'm using the API 5 in 1 test strips. So may not be 100% accurate, but the numbers have been pretty consistent over time.

Side note, I am in Canada if that's relevant.

Also, the Cory in question has been swimming a bit more, looks like it still has a slight tendency to rise to the surface, but has been hanging on to things.

 

[fishorama]

I'm so sorry you're having troubles.
So, were you acting like your tank was cycled still with only a few snails & plants? I'm not trying to be super critical but you added a lot of biomass all at once...I don't hate the test strips as many do...but 6 in 1 at least tests ammonia...Did you take a water sample to the LFS? We don't want to hear "it's ok" but actual numbers or at least a range...of all the parameters.

It does sound like the corys were not healthy when you got them. Frequent water changes may help. That's my first form of "treatment" when I have issues.

Please keep us updated, maybe we can help more when we know more.