One Of My Corys Died

[Amryn]

This afternoon I noticed that one of my panda corys had died. I have a theory about his death. During my last water change, I accidentally sucked up a panda cory. If it was this same cory, could it have died from this? Thing is, this incident happened 5 or 6 days ago.

I also dosed my tank with seachem excel two days ago. My tank is about 20 gallons and I used about 1.5 ml of the excel. Could this have killed this cory?

The tank finished cycling a few weeks ago. Of the four corys I have, two have been in the tank since the beginning (this cory and another one that's completely fine).

Any thoughts on cause of death?

 

[nic1]

You could of caused some internal damage to the cory which may have caused his death, but its really hard to make a call.
How many fish do you have? how did you cycle the tank and also when did you add the fish?
Did it have any visible trauma or fluff or colour on the body?

 

[Amryn]

I currently have 6 fish (3 guppies and now 3 corys). The cycle was a "fish in" type of cycle beginning in July. The ammonia has consistently been lower than .25 for the past 2-3 weeks. 3 guppies and the two original corys were added about 3 weeks after the initial setup of the tank. Within the first week, one guppy died (likely due to a very bad tail injury). The next week one other guppy died from ammonia problems. I got the issue under control and eventually got two new guppies. Then, probably about two weeks from today, I got the two new corys. That brings me to the 6 I have now.

I didn't notice anything unusual about the little guy. Unfortunately, he liked to hide back in the plants so it was hard to see him.

 

[Amryn]

Ok, I'm not sure if this photo will show up. I just remembered that this same cory that died had some weirdness about his fins back in the beginning of August. Could this be part of the problem? If you notice one of the fins on his left side, you'll see tiny little threads coming off of it.

 

[DomH]

it seems like fin rot


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[Amryn]

Would it have taken fin rot a month to kill him?

Tested the water today (API liquid tests). Results were:
Ammonia: 0.25
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 5

 

[nic1]

Morning Amryn,
 
Thanks for the info. A fish in cycle is does a lot of damage to fish not just during the cycling process but also after, think about going to a place where someone has set off a poisonous substance and you had to live in it for three weeks, once the air clears you wont instantly get better, you have to go through a healing process and this can sometimes takes months up to a year, some people will never recover. This is the same for your fish unfortunately.
 
The corys ragged fins are a sigh of this and ultimately its death and the death of the guppys. This is why many fish keepers are all for doing a fishless cycle.
So the two corys that died could of been from the original batch that you first had.
 
Another thing that I am going to mention here is your choice of substrate, this could also be harming your corys, in the picture it looks like you have gravel, corys really need a finer substance as they spend most of their time on the bottom, the gravel which you currently have will tear at their fins and hurt their body and faces as they like to dig, any small cut on their body can lead to secondary infections which can lead to death, the best substrates for corys are sand and fine small rounded gravel.
 
It does not seem like fin rot to me, it just looks like part of the rotting process after death or even where other fish have begun to peck at him.
 
Hope this helps, and in the future if you do get more fish remember to add them in slowly, like two at a time just so you can build up the good bacteria in your filter, then you can add in more two weeks later, and if you do start another tank go fishless

 

[betta fish]

The threads on the cories fins look like anchor worm to me, these may also have caused your cories demise check your other fish for signs they usually take a while to kill a fish if not treated.

 

[Amryn]

Unfortunately the fish in cycle was suggested by my LFS and then started before I knew it wasn't the best option. I'll definitely do fishless in the future. =]

I haven't noticed it on the guppies. The corys are a bit quick, but I'm sure that at least two are fine. How is anchor worm treated? I've heard that corys are sensitive to medication.