Help needed: one cory died and others are less active

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Fishmomva

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Hi - I could use some help determining why my albino cory just died and if I need to do anything to protect the other 3 Corys.

Situation: We moved our 2 Rasboras, 4 Corys and some nano shrimp into a new 13 gallon tank a week and a half ago. I added our cycled filter cartridge to the tank and have been keeping an eye on the water parameters and have no ammonia, nitrite or nitrate issues. The tank is currently unheated and stays at about 70 degrees. I feed once per day.
Right after moving into the new tank, I noticed that one cory wasnā€™t as active as he used to be and would occasionally lay on his side. When I gently nudged him with a net, he would swim around just fine. We found him dead this morning. No fin damage, no red sores, no signs of ick or other disease. The rest of the Corys move less than they used to but are still somewhat active.

Any ideas on what caused this and if thereā€™s anything I should do to protect the other Corys?

Thanks in advance.
 
Hmm.. waters a little chilly for Cory's at 70 degrees, is that 70 degrees during the daytime when you check it? Or 70 degrees at night? With no heater you're more exposed to daily/nightly temp. swings, especially if you're in an area like CO where I am, where we have random cold snaps that bounce back to warm weather this time of year. The temp. will influence the oxygen lvl's of the water. When we use to breed bullhead bait minnows, we would keep the water a bit extra chilly just so they WOULD be less active (when it would get too warm the bait minnows would become more active and sometimes harm themselves darting too quickly into the walls).

What's your pH? Also, while it is normal for a cory to take a gulp of air on the surface every now and then, do they seem (or at least the one that passed) to be going to the surface for a gulp often? Or more than what you usually see?

Were any of the fish or plants recently purchased, or come from outside your cycled tank?

Also, did you use any of the water or substrate from your old tank? Or didjya use tap or RO water or anything? Just wondering what water you used since you had a fully cycled filter.

Sorry can't be of more help, but I'm sure answering some of these questions will help assist in determining the issue.

Either way, sorry to hear about your corry, I hope everything works out!
 
Thank you so much for the reply. Itā€™s pretty
constant at 70, but I may get a heater to bring it up a little and see if that helps. I have shrimp so I donā€™t want bring it too high.

Ph is about 7.3. They donā€™t seem to be going to the surface very often.

The only new additions were a few nano shrimp. I used a few handfuls of gravel from the old tank in addition to the filter cartridge. I also used some of the old tank water, maybe 15-20%, and the rest was tap water with Prime conditioner.

I really appreciate any other thoughts or advice you have. I donā€™t want to lose another cory.
 
Thank you so much for the reply. Itā€™s pretty
constant at 70, but I may get a heater to bring it up a little and see if that helps. I have shrimp so I donā€™t want bring it too high.

Ph is about 7.3. They donā€™t seem to be going to the surface very often.

The only new additions were a few nano shrimp. I used a few handfuls of gravel from the old tank in addition to the filter cartridge. I also used some of the old tank water, maybe 15-20%, and the rest was tap water with Prime conditioner.

I really appreciate any other thoughts or advice you have. I donā€™t want to lose another cory.
Which species of cory and rasbora do you have?
Also which kind of shrimp?
 
Hmm.. waters a little chilly for Cory's at 70 degrees, is that 70 degrees during the daytime when you check it? Or 70 degrees at night? With no heater you're more exposed to daily/nightly temp. swings, especially if you're in an area like CO where I am, where we have random cold snaps that bounce back to warm weather this time of year. The temp. will influence the oxygen lvl's of the water. When we use to breed bullhead bait minnows, we would keep the water a bit extra chilly just so they WOULD be less active (when it would get too warm the bait minnows would become more active and sometimes harm themselves darting too quickly into the walls).

What's your pH? Also, while it is normal for a cory to take a gulp of air on the surface every now and then, do they seem (or at least the one that passed) to be going to the surface for a gulp often? Or more than what you usually see?

Were any of the fish or plants recently purchased, or come from outside your cycled tank?

Also, did you use any of the water or substrate from your old tank? Or didjya use tap or RO water or anything? Just wondering what water you used since you had a fully cycled filter.

Sorry can't be of more help, but I'm sure answering some of these questions will help assist in determining the issue.

Either way, sorry to hear about your corry, I hope everything works out!
I disagree. Peppered corydoras do well at 68Ā°F. What kind of corydora are we talking about?
 
Albino cory, Harlequin Rasboras and Cherry Shrimp.
Albino is a colour variant of a species, several cory species have albino versions, it doesn't tell us which species it is I'm afraid, and different species have different requirements.

If you can upload some photos of the remaining cories, @NCaquatics is very good at identifying which species different albinos are.
 
Wow, I didnā€™t even think about that! Thank you. Hereā€™s a picture.
 

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You've got 2 corydoras aeneus albino, 1 normal aeneus, and 1 paleatus.

Paleatus needs a little softer of water (18-215ppm for Gh) than aeneus (who can handle up to 268ppm)

70 isn't too low, but could be increased a little bit to at least 72 for the paleatus.
 
Wow! Thank you so very much! Iā€™m still not sure what caused one of our albinos to die but Iā€™m glad to know more about the others so I can take better care of them.
 
Back again...this morning, I noticed that the other albinoā€™s tail is a little ragged. I donā€™t think itā€™s fin rot? Any ideas?
 

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Also cherry shrimp and halrlequins will be fine at a slightly warmer temp too. I strongly recommend getting a heater so the temp stays stable at around 72. You don't want to go too high because of the peppered cory (peppered prefer it slightly cooler) but these are tropical fish, and keeping them in a coldwater set up isn't ideal. My red cherry shrimp are fine at 76, and they were thriving and breeding even at 79. As long as you adjust the temp slowly, and it isn't fluctuating a lot, they can handle quite a range of temps.

Also worth considering switching to a sand substrate since you have cories, cories are filter feeders with delicate barbels on their faces, they really appreciate a fine sand substrate.

I'm not sure what's going on with the ragged tail there, but frequent water changes and monitor for an signs of secondary infections, or any symptoms in the other fish.

Happy @NCaquatics could ID your cory species for you, she's fantastic with cories!
Seriously Fish is a very reliable resource for checking the requirements of the fish you have, and learning more about them, and planet catfish is also brilliant for cories.
 

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