Corydoras In Trouble, One Dead

[akudewan]

I'll start from the beginning. Yesterday morning, I noticed one of my peppered corys had a piece of skin missing near the gills. I immediately put it into a quarintine tank, and its under treatment with "rid-all general aid", without any salt, and I'm feeding it live bloodworms.

Then I went to my LFS and bought a shrimp, which looks like an amano shrimp, but I'm not sure. Here are a couple of pics. I was thinking of putting it with my betta, but since it was a little big, I've put it in the 23gal.

Today morning I noticed another cory in the 23gal was dead !! Could the shrimp be attacking the fish ? or maybe its the serpae tetras thats attacking the corys? Or maybe it was just by chance that the cory died?

Help Please!!

 

[Inchworm]

Hi akudewan

I'm so sorry to hear about your corys.

I don't think it's your shrimp or the tetras that are the problem. It sounds to me like the red spot was an ulceration caused by a bacterial infection. This is the most common thing that happens to corys.

I remember that the temperature of your water was high and that could have weakened them and left them prone to disease. Peppered corys normally do best in cooler water.

I suggest you check the label of the medicine you are using and see if it us recommended for bacterial infections. If not, look for one that is. If you can lower the temperature and increase the oxygen level, that will help too. Keep a close watch on the rest of your corys too, and treat them at the very first sign that they are stressed or ill.

Good luck with them.

 

[akudewan]

Thanks for the quick reply inchworm. Yes, the medicine is an anti-becterial, but a mild one. Could you reccomend some other anti-bacterial tabs? would terramycin help? The temperature of the hospital tank is always below 25 degrees C.

Its looking better now, and I think it may recover within a week.

 

[The-Wolf]

the shrimp is a longarm shrimp of the species Macrobrachium
as for exactly wich one, it would be hard to tell as most don't even have a scientific name. I would say though it does look like a Macrobrachium Sp Srilanka Sri Lankan shrimp to me.
http/www.shrimpcrabsandcrayfish.co.uk/Shrimp.htm?

good luck treating the cories

 

[akudewan]

Thanks for identifying the shimp Wolf. It looks like a Sri Lankan to me too. I wonder if it can play cricket

 

[akudewan]

I have some bad news One albino cory was dead this morning. I read somewhere on the net, that Sri Lankan Shrimps tend to be a little territorial. And the cory's corpse was lying near the shrimp's hide-out under the bogwood.

I've noticed that corys don't care about anything, when they are at the bottom looking for food. It might have got close to the shrimp, and the shrimp may have attacked it. Well, atleast thats what I think.

So now, I've moved the other 2 corys with the betta in my 6 gallon tank, There is an indian almond leaf in the tank, and the water is tea-brown in colour. WIll this affect my corys in any way ?

Damn, this is really a bad day. I had a single swordtail fry, that I had rescued from the 23 gallon, (others were eaten by tetras) and the baby died today too

 

[The-Wolf]

Long arm shrimp are predatory
and generaly shouldn't be in community tanks.

Havuing said that, I have a chameleon shrimp in a community tank
and have thus far not had a problem, certainly with any of the cories in that tank.
It is possible that the cory died and the shrimp was taking advantage of a "free" lunch.

 

[akudewan]

They really are predatory, too bad i had to find that out the hard way. (Actually, my LFS told me it was an Amano shrimp, but then LFSes aren't trustworthy) Today morning, I noticed a serpae tetra missing, and I haven't found the corpse yet.

The shimp was out of his hiding place, and was trying to snap at whatever fish was passing near it. I was kinda fascinated by it. But I returned it to my LFS.

why did I have to lose 3 fish