My panda cory, who is about 2 years old I think, has just developed pop eye - this is the first time I have ever seen this problem but unfortunately it is unmistakable and horrible.
I also have another cory with a small amount of white fungus on the nose and one penguin tetra with mouth fungus. A few weeks ago I lost a dwarf gourami to dropsy. The tank has become rather overstocked which is a problem I need to resolve, but the other fish appear healthy.
I believe the problem may stem back to when I had a water quality problem two or three months ago when one of the two external filters began to fail and we replaced it with a new Tetratec filter which seems to be working fine.
My other half thinks I may be doing too many water changes - is this possible? The tank is 280 ltrs and I change a bucket of water most days because the substrate gets dirty quickly and I am trying to keep their environment clean. At the least I would have to change half a bucket min because our pleco, who has grown rather large, produces a lot of waste. Some days I might change two buckets (prob about 9 ltrs per bucket) and then every week or two I would do a larger water change of about 4 buckets. Is this too much?
I cannot provide the stats at this moment as the fish are in darkness and I don't want to disturb them (it is the early hours of the morning) but generally the nitrite has been nil, pH around 7 (they had a period several weeks ago where it was higher because the tap water pH had risen but it has been steady for a while now), ammonia nill. Nitrates I am not sure about - tend to be on the high side but I have difficulty in matching up the red colour on the card, but usually at least 40 but not the very dark red colour. My water hardness kit is at work with the other tanks but last time I checked KH etc it was within correct parameters.
I have been putting melafix in the tank for the fungus in any case, so put some more in this eve.
If someone can please tell me how to help the panda cory (if I isolate the fish I worry about the additional stress caused to a fish who has always been with the other corys in the tank) and what I am doing wrong re the changes/water quality I would be very grateful. I put a lot of effort in cleaning the substrate and trying to make sure the fish are ok but am now feeling very despondent now. We have kept fish for few years but this particular tank just seems to be going all wrong.
Sorry for the long post.
I also have another cory with a small amount of white fungus on the nose and one penguin tetra with mouth fungus. A few weeks ago I lost a dwarf gourami to dropsy. The tank has become rather overstocked which is a problem I need to resolve, but the other fish appear healthy.
I believe the problem may stem back to when I had a water quality problem two or three months ago when one of the two external filters began to fail and we replaced it with a new Tetratec filter which seems to be working fine.
My other half thinks I may be doing too many water changes - is this possible? The tank is 280 ltrs and I change a bucket of water most days because the substrate gets dirty quickly and I am trying to keep their environment clean. At the least I would have to change half a bucket min because our pleco, who has grown rather large, produces a lot of waste. Some days I might change two buckets (prob about 9 ltrs per bucket) and then every week or two I would do a larger water change of about 4 buckets. Is this too much?
I cannot provide the stats at this moment as the fish are in darkness and I don't want to disturb them (it is the early hours of the morning) but generally the nitrite has been nil, pH around 7 (they had a period several weeks ago where it was higher because the tap water pH had risen but it has been steady for a while now), ammonia nill. Nitrates I am not sure about - tend to be on the high side but I have difficulty in matching up the red colour on the card, but usually at least 40 but not the very dark red colour. My water hardness kit is at work with the other tanks but last time I checked KH etc it was within correct parameters.
I have been putting melafix in the tank for the fungus in any case, so put some more in this eve.
If someone can please tell me how to help the panda cory (if I isolate the fish I worry about the additional stress caused to a fish who has always been with the other corys in the tank) and what I am doing wrong re the changes/water quality I would be very grateful. I put a lot of effort in cleaning the substrate and trying to make sure the fish are ok but am now feeling very despondent now. We have kept fish for few years but this particular tank just seems to be going all wrong.
Sorry for the long post.
