Panda corys

[FrankSlapperinni]

One of my panda corys died last night and I feel so bad about it I almost want to give up being an aquarist altogether, it the first fish I ever lost. I though I was doing everything right, every three days I'd do a 50% water change, I would feed a small amount of food but mad sure everybody got some. and then I wake up this morning and there he is, lying on the bottem of the tank, belly up.
so anyways, is there any medication I can add to the trank, because I have 3 cory cats (used to be four) and two of them are alwas active, and the other two (on of them is now dead) were always laid back, somtimes even lying against the glass! I knew there was somthing wrong, but I know catfish are sensitive to stuff like salt so I was wondering if there was any medication I could add to prevent this tragic incedent from comming again?

 

[caz27]

50% seems a bit drastic i only do a 25% water change once a week....how long has the tank been running?

 

[lordmoose]

50% is far too much water to remove at a time. What are you water paramaters?

 

[FrankSlapperinni]

50% is good as long as it is alwas done that way. the point of a water change is to keep th ewater as close to the origional as possable. so if you di 10% a month, and suddenly jumped to 50% a day, taht would be bad fo ryou fish, but if you did 50% a day, ever sicee you got fish, then they would like that. my tank is fully cycled, so there is no amonia or nitrite , and a litle bit of nitrate, and I just did a water change a few days ago.

 

[Lateral Line]

Fish die, that is a fact of life. The thing to be sure of is that it dies because it dies, and not because of your negligence.

I would also say that a 50% water change at that frequency is overdoing it, (unless it is a really REALLY small tank - even then...), it should not be necessary in a cycled and biologically balanced aquarium. Of course, I don't know where you are getting the new water from, if it is from the tap, then you are probably keeping you fish at a high stress level due to Chlorine, (and other stuff), the drastic bubble formation that occurs when pressurised tap water is allowed to expand, (you'll often see bubbles on the glass, or plants, but it can occur in the gills which can irritate), etc., etc.

Another issue, with Corys in particular, is that it is quite easy to starve them. You say everyone gets a bit, but be sure. Give the Corys some pelleted food that sinks.

 

[FrankSlapperinni]

well, I have a well, so the water needs no dechlorinating, and I keep doing water changes because even though the water has a High ph and hardness, it has very little alkilinity (Kh) and drops down very fast. so I change the water frequently to make sure that it stays around the same ph. also, if I had four (now 3) cories, how much would I feed them, I've always been concerned about feeding my fish to much, and if what you say is true, I could have staved them. I do give them sinking shrimp pellets, about 30 minuets after the lights go out, ussualy I give them 3 or 4 tablets, the are about ____ long and not even as thick as an "i". on the night that they died, I had forgotten to drop in tge flake pellets, could have realy starved them?

 

[Kossy]

Ok...I don't think he would've starved. Seccondly a 50% water change weekly really stresses the fish. Do you add a bit of boiling water to aclimatise the temperature?

 

[FrankSlapperinni]

no, what good would that do?

 

[Kossy]

Are you reffering to changing water? if so whenever I change water I firtstly let the water sit in buckets for a night (Don't use chemicals) and then before i add it i boil some water and add it to the buckets. This increases the temp so the fish don't experience such a temp shock

 

[rosie T.]

how long have you had your fish?