Help: Sick Cories Dying

[zurikitty13]

1. Water parameters
a) Temperature range: 75-77 F
b) pH: 7
c) GH
d) KH
e) Conductivity or TDS (if GH and KH aren't provided): 137 ppm
f) Ammonia, Nitrate, Nitrite levels (Most LFS's will check your water and give a list of readings): 0 ppm, 0ppm, >20ppm
g) Water change frequency: at least once a week w/ distilled water, maybe some tap if the conductivity is really low.
h) "Routine" water treatments (e.g, chlorine/chloramine or ammonia neutralizers; pH or hardness adjustments, anti-stress chemicals, tank-cycling bacterial mixes): seachem prime

2. Tank set up
a) Size: 30x12x12, aka 20 gallon long
b) Substrate: black inert sand
c) Filtration: sunsun 100 gallon canister filter w/ uv sterilizer (sounds too much I know, but it doesn't cause a whirlwind in my tank or anything, works fine), has biocubes, sponges, cotton, and peat moss as media
d) Furnishings: malaysian driftwood, pvc pipe caves, fake log decoration, one amazon sword (I know sand isn't good for them, working on fixing the subtrate by adding peat moss underneath the sand and adding liquid fertilizer)
e) Fish in tank:
2 trilineatus
1 paleatus
3 albino
3 pygmy
3 salt and pepper
3 kuhli loaches
f) How long has it been set-up?: about 6 months
g) Food used and frequency: alternate between marineland shrimp wafers, nls thera a+, and national geographic bottom feeder wafers, once a day at night
h) Recent changes in the tank which occurred shortly before the disease/problem appeared (if any; e.g., changes in water source or water treatment, changes in decorations or substrate, replacement or changes of hardware (filters, heaters, etc.), and additions or removals of live plants or live fish): In order of occurrence: changed filter type from HOB to canister but saved and transferred old filter media, took out anacharis plants and replaced with one amazon sword, added peat moss to filter, bought the 3 pygmies and salt and peppers. this took place over the course of this week.

3. Symptoms / Problem description or history: one salt and pepper has popeye, the rest sporadically seem to breathe heavily on and off

4. Action taken (if any): none

5. Medications used (if any) / changes in fish observed since treatment began (if any): none

Background: I have had Columnaris in my tank before, took me a month to get rid of it completely, as it kept coming back. Finally got tired of the high maintenance of my HOB filter and the columnaris coming back, so I bought a new canister filter w/ uv sterilizer. works great, no problems.

The reason I have small amounts of each fish is... well, each time was a different accident. When I first started keeping fish, I didn't know cories were shoaling fish, so I bought multiple different fish, and bought a paleatus, some albinos, and a trilineatus. I did some research, realized my paleatus needed friends, and bought two more. they brought the columnaris, they both died, and killed one of my trilineatus as well. Added more trilineatus, columnaris decided to come back and killed one. Snapped, bought new filter. Fast forward a month later, and I saw these adorable pygmy cories at my lfs. I had room in my tank, figured why not, and bought 6. Turns out, half of them weren't pygmies, but salt and peppers. Sigh.

Anyways, the woman who got the fish for me out of the tank dropped one onto the floor, and handled them pretty roughly. I'm pretty sure the one she dropped is the one who now has popeye. I have a 10 gallon hospital tank ready to go, should I move him there? I'm hesitant because he'd be in there alone and cories like to shoal, so the move, being alone, and being in a new environment will stress him out a lot. Also, what meds should I use to try to treat him with?

As for the rest of my cories, this is a less dire problem, but I regularly catch some of my cories sitting in one spot breathing pretty hard, usually underneath the intake of my filter. I can see their gills moving rapidly from at least a half a foot away, and they stick their mouths forward sometimes. But, I can't think of why this is. They show no other symptoms of sickness, and are still active when they want to be. They eat and search for food. But its still concerning. Maybe its stress? I've had my hands in the tank a lot recently, as I'm trying to set up an amazonian biotope for them. But I feel like I've almost always had this issue. My filter output is a two part wand with multiple holes, so I have one half pointed at the surface of the tank to create surface disturbance, and the other half pointed at the ground to create a little current behind the pvc caves, because they love to sit in there and let the current flow into their gills so they can be as lazy as possible. I have a little bubble disc, but I took it out cos I heard amazonian biotopes don't have much current. I'm trying to do a blackwater environment. Should I put it back in to increase the oxygen?

As for the problem of species numbers, there isn't too much I can do. I plan on buying more trilineatus and salt and pepper cories, but I simply don't have enough space to create groups of six for all of them. I don't want to give them to my lfs, because they won't take proper care of them. I don't have the time or money to create another tank, so I don't know what to do. Ideally, I'd like to focus on trilineatus and the salt and pepper cories, and have a group of six of the tris and a group of 8 of the S&Ps. At the same time, the pygmies seem to be getting on really well in my tank with just a group of three, and look very healthy, active, and curious. The salt and peppers seem more lethargic to me, so I'm thinking maybe adding some more of them will cheer them up, and they'll all shoal together, as they seem to enjoy each others company already anyways. I was thinking two more S&Ps, and four more trilineatus. My paleatus seems to school with the others just fine, so I might just leave him in there with them by himself, as paleatus can get pretty big. Since I want to move the albinos anyways, would it maybe help to move the albinos and the S&P with popeye to my 10 gallon hospital tank? Oh, and my kuhlis are fine. They always are super healthy and doing great, its honestly a relief that I don't have to worry about them too much.

Any suggestions, experience, input, advice, etc., is helpful. Thanks in advance!

[zurikitty13]

My cory with popeye passed today. He didn't look well, it doesn't surprise me that he didn't make it. I kept him in the same tank as his friends to keep him stress free as possible, but I don't think there was much I could've done. The lady at the pet store dropped him from a pretty far distance, at least four feet. I couldn't get him to eat either.

Anyways, I'd still like to hear some suggestions on the heavy breathing issue. They seem better now that I've put in the peat moss and oyster chick grit into my filter I think. Also did a water change. So, we'll see I guess.

[zurikitty13]

Last night, added mangrove roots to my tank and removed my plant and the fishes' favorite log. It took a long time, as I couldn't get the roots to sink right/fit. Stirred up a lot of stuff, lights were turned on and off a lot. I think I stressed out the fish a lot. Woke up this morning, another one of the salt and peppers is dead. My water quality and parameters look to be about the same. I have no idea what's going on.