killed a peppered cory

[scuba_jez]

ok so i got a new tank, did a fishless cycle, had everything going sweet as for 3 weeks. uni workload gets too much, dont have time to clean tank. it was 7 days after last partial water change and my cory is sitting at the bottom of the tank. its feeding time so i feed them and he still doesnt move...

he was dead. may he RIP. we have him the royal flush

nitrates were HUUUUGGGEEE, around 120 ppm.

looks like 1/3 water changes every 5 days for me. aw well.

i have to learn not to overfeed my fish. the good news is that ammonia is 0 and nitrites are 0.

anyhoo. i have no idea how my dwarf gourmai survived, they are damn hardy fish!

so yep thought i'd let you know about my loss.

 

[Miss Dib Dabs]

lil cory. Gouramies survive a great deal more as their laberynth organ means they breath air and not just through their gills. Touch wood, I've never lost a single gouramie and I have 6 of two different breeds. Plus a total of 9 bettas who also have the same organ. Anabatids are designed to survive in less then brilliant conditions. I do say survive because they won't thrive in them either.
Small daily water changes are often the best way to go about solving water problems. And avoid using meds or anything besides dechlor as chemicals used in such items can upset the params in next to no time.
Hugs,
P.

 

[dwarfgourami]

Poor little thing. Though quite hardy corys are sensitive to dirty substrates, as they spend their time rooting in it, their barbels can easily get infected, particularly in warm weather. I lost one of mine this summer. Since then I have been vacuuming the gravel twice a week, have only just gone back to once a week now the weather is getting cooler.

 

[rdd1952]

I have lost some peppered corys too in the last 6 months. All were rather unexpected with perfect water conditions. Don't really know what happened to them. Even though nitrate at 120 is high, I wouldn't think that would have been the problem. What were they after your last water change 7 days earlier? I'm wondering if you had a massive ammonia spike (don't know what would have caused it) during the week which in turn created huge nitrite and ending with the very high nitrates. Don't know if that is the case, just trying to think of what could have caused the nitrate to shoot that high in a week.

 

[Inchworm]

Hi scuba_jez

I'm sorry to hear about you little cory.

Corys do tend to be particularly effected by high nitrate levels, much more so than gouramis. It's pretty tough to kill a gourami, and I have used them to cycle tanks.

I would like to suggest that you test your tap water for nitrates. It's entirely possible that they are naturally high. If this is the case, you will either have to do more frequent water changes, keep fewer fish in your tank, or possibly both.

I have this problem and while I have to do the extra work, I have found that it is indeed possible to keep the nitrates at a reasonable level and to keep lots of healthy corys.

 

[sinistral]

I read an article in TFH recently which indicated that an excessively high nitrate can in fact be harmful to fish. If I can dig it up I'll quote it.

I'm curious about the fishless cycle. After you finished cycling, did you do a 90-100% water change to get rid of all nitrates? It's possible that nitrates have been elevated for the 3 weeks since you completed the cycle...