Death of Cory (possibly two) advice

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PygmyPepperJulli

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Hi all,

Not sure if I should put this in the emergency section since it's already happened but just wondered if anyone could suggest what happened. I came back from holidays recently (the holiday was around 10 days), having left instructions for someone to feed the fish on a certain day from an amount in a plastic bag. Came back and one of my neons had jumped and was a fish chip on the floor (not the purpose of this post, I was willing to let that go although was curious as too why a a bit sad). However, one of my cories was also missing for a few days. Two days later, missing cory still hasn't shown up and one of the others was floating at the suface. At first I thought it was dead, but it was still breathing (not rapidly). It was lying on it's side like it had just drifted up there, so I gave it a gentle poke and it swam down (it always looked like it was about to float up to the surface again but was using it's energy to get back to the bottom).

Well at that point I was pretty sure the end had come and a few days later it was deceased (I didn't see it from the day it floated to the day I found it dead at the top, but the last time I saw it it didn't have any symtoms of anything, however when it died it did have a white patch on it's head, that may have been from dying though). I took apart the tank later that day (to transfer the remaining fish into my new large tank), but didn't see the remaining cory (the one that went missing) anywhere (there was no-where to hide), so I suspect while I was on holidays it also died and decomposed.

Any ideas as to what went wrong? I always seem to lose fish after I come back from holidays... which isn't great as I'm going on another one in about a week and am on a 2 day visit right now. Could it have been overfeeding (I DID leave very specific instructions to only feed once) lack of water changes, bad luck or something else?

I was about to have 6 peppers finally (I had just gone to the shop and bought 3 peppers (the only ones they had in stock) to the school) when I came home to realize the other two were dead, but now I'm back to four, which is really annoying. I tgink cories are cursed, and am seriously reconsidering on my ideas to ever have them. I think if any more die I'm just not going to re-stock the school and instead just watch them disappear. Thoughts?

PPJ
 
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What were your parameters in the old tank? My first port of call if I'm unsure of something is to check parameters - may not have been anything you could've done but it may give an idea. May also be worth testing the new tank to be sure the parameters in there are okay too, new tanks can need extra water changes when you first add fish.
 
Mmm, yes. About that.

After much hinting about how much I needed one, I received a test kit for Christmas (I think.. that's what people have been hinting at) but they ordered it late and it hasn't actually arrived yet. I did do a large water change as soon as I got home to make up for the missed one, which should mean the parameters are ok, but unfortunately I can't actually tell you. So it COULD be that, but I don't believe it was, as I did a large water change before leaving as well. If it helps, all the other fish were fine.
 
Unless you are away for 3weeks+ you don't need to feed the fish. It pollutes the water which causes stress and disease. People often overfeed making the pollution worse.
 
I fully agree with Naughts. The fact that one jumped out is indicative. There may well be other issues involved here, we don't have all the facts.
 
Alright, I'll keep that in mind for the future. I wasn't sure whether I should instruct them to feed or not, as nearly two weeks seemed like a long time and I didn't want them dying of starvation or displaying cannabalistic behavior (I knew they could go a while without food, but wasn't sure how long). I know it wasn't an overfeeding dose as it was the same amount I usually give them, which they eat very quickly without leftovers, but I suppose next time I'll just not feed them at all.
 
I’m curious as to the hardness of your water supply. You can get the hardness level from your water company website ir call them. Many cory types prefer softer water.
 
@Fishmanic
My water is incredibly soft with almost no (or no) minerals/hardness as it's rainwater we collect in tanks. So if anything, the water could be too soft, especially as it has a small amount of tannins in it (I think that increases softness... I know it decreases pH).
 

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