I just joined here because I recently got two corydoras and I'm worred that one of them has gotten ill and want to save him if at all possible.
The water temperature has been just under 82 for the last week that I've had them (only had them for a week so far, as well as tank so the water was put in new a week ago and hasn't been changed yet)
The tank is 5 gallons, with gravel, a whisper filter for 5-15 gallon tanks, furnishings are 2 silk plants and a large, hollow, fake rock decoration. Currently tank mates are 1 other cory and 1 neon tetra, initially there were 4 neon tetras and a betta, but one of the neons killed all the other tetras and the betta passed away for not exactly known reasons (I think he got caught in the rock formation and couldn't get back to the surface)
The problem is that he's been floating at odd angles (although it appears that he still has a sense of balance from time to time), the mouth and base of gills seem slightly red, the barbels first seemed to be missing, but on second glance it almost looks as though he's eating them, and over the last two days his color has been getting darker.
I haven't taken any medical measurements yet as I'm not entirely sure how to handle the situation.
I'm going to take a picture and post it as a reply to this once it's uploaded
Pepper Cory Infection - Advice??
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hellocatfish
- Posts: 227
- Joined: 08 Dec 2006, 21:49
- I've donated: $10.00!
- My cats species list: 5 (i:0, k:0)
- Location 1: Mid-Atlantic Region, USA
First off, let me say I'm sorry for you and your fish. I have a peppered cory, too, and am very fond of him/her/whatever. I'm also new, so I'm not going to pretend I am giving expert advice, but being new, I've had to do a lot of research in a short time and narrowly avoided some serious mistakes and went ahead and made a few anyhow. Mostly with the help of this forum and a cichlid one, I have managed to achieve stability (knock wood) in my 29 gallon tank and still have my starter fish and now have the tank almost fully stocked at 8 corys and 8 danios.
What it sounds like is you have too much ammonia built up in your tank. Have you ever heard of "New tank syndrome"? What it means is that in a new fishtank, there is little to none of the beneficial bacteria to break down the ammonia (from fish poo and pee and uneaten food and other decayed organic matter in the tank) into nitrite (another toxin) into the "harmless" nitrate. Nitrate isn't exactly harmless either, but it is the last link in the chain and unless you have a planted tank (which brings with it a whole other set of complications and pitfalls for a newbie like us) it can only be removed by water changes.
Water changes are best done at levels of 10% every couple of days when the tank is new. Maybe more for a tank as small as yours. Five gallons is VERY small bio-system wise when you are starting out fresh and have put in several fish.
Unfortunately I am not qualified to give you specifics on how often to clean your tank, but if you search this website and search on "Google" some terms like "New Tank Syndrome" or "Cycling a new tank" you will find some helpful articles.
Meanwhile to help this fish, who sounds and looks like he is suffering from ammonia toxicity, you need to change the water in your tank with fresh, dechlorinated water the same temperature you are using now.
Also, I think...need to doublecheck, the peppered cory likes lower temperatures than what you are running your tank at. My tank is now at 75. I only let it go up to 79 or 80 when adding new fish, to keep ich at bay. But I let the temperature go up or down SLOWLY, so as to not shock the fish. I use a Visitherm heater, which is pretty accurate.
EDIT: P.S... I forgot to mention that when some of your fish passed away, even if you removed the corpses fairly quickly, their decomposing bodies probably released some pollutants into the water, too. Whisper filter is better at mechanical filtration but has a serious drawback as the host of beneficial bacteria for biological filtration. I started out with the almost identical TopFin filter, so I learned this issue the hard way. You won't have biological filtration in the form of pollutant converting bacteria sufficient to handle ammonia built up in your filtration system yet. But by the time it finally does build up, by then you need to change the filter cartridge...doh! It takes a few weeks to a few months (if you're a really stupid newbie like me) sometimes to build back up your bacteria colony in a new filter.
The problem with the Whisper filter is when you change the filter cartridge, you lose all your beneficial bacteria that is in the filter. You'll still have some in your gravel and tank decorations, but it really helps to have them in your filter. At the advice of Lisa on her c*chlid forum, I switched over to the Aquaclear brand, because it has 3 different kinds of filtration media, and you change only one unit at a time, leaving you with 2 other units to keep your bacteria population alive and well in your filter.
The only warning I have about the Aquaclear, though, is that the slots in the intake tube are large enough to catch and kill a small fish, like a neon. Learned THAT the hard way with one of my poor Danios. I got around that by jamming the intake tube from my TopFin filter over the one that came with the Aquaclear. Not a perfect fit, but it works.
What it sounds like is you have too much ammonia built up in your tank. Have you ever heard of "New tank syndrome"? What it means is that in a new fishtank, there is little to none of the beneficial bacteria to break down the ammonia (from fish poo and pee and uneaten food and other decayed organic matter in the tank) into nitrite (another toxin) into the "harmless" nitrate. Nitrate isn't exactly harmless either, but it is the last link in the chain and unless you have a planted tank (which brings with it a whole other set of complications and pitfalls for a newbie like us) it can only be removed by water changes.
Water changes are best done at levels of 10% every couple of days when the tank is new. Maybe more for a tank as small as yours. Five gallons is VERY small bio-system wise when you are starting out fresh and have put in several fish.
Unfortunately I am not qualified to give you specifics on how often to clean your tank, but if you search this website and search on "Google" some terms like "New Tank Syndrome" or "Cycling a new tank" you will find some helpful articles.
Meanwhile to help this fish, who sounds and looks like he is suffering from ammonia toxicity, you need to change the water in your tank with fresh, dechlorinated water the same temperature you are using now.
Also, I think...need to doublecheck, the peppered cory likes lower temperatures than what you are running your tank at. My tank is now at 75. I only let it go up to 79 or 80 when adding new fish, to keep ich at bay. But I let the temperature go up or down SLOWLY, so as to not shock the fish. I use a Visitherm heater, which is pretty accurate.
EDIT: P.S... I forgot to mention that when some of your fish passed away, even if you removed the corpses fairly quickly, their decomposing bodies probably released some pollutants into the water, too. Whisper filter is better at mechanical filtration but has a serious drawback as the host of beneficial bacteria for biological filtration. I started out with the almost identical TopFin filter, so I learned this issue the hard way. You won't have biological filtration in the form of pollutant converting bacteria sufficient to handle ammonia built up in your filtration system yet. But by the time it finally does build up, by then you need to change the filter cartridge...doh! It takes a few weeks to a few months (if you're a really stupid newbie like me) sometimes to build back up your bacteria colony in a new filter.
The problem with the Whisper filter is when you change the filter cartridge, you lose all your beneficial bacteria that is in the filter. You'll still have some in your gravel and tank decorations, but it really helps to have them in your filter. At the advice of Lisa on her c*chlid forum, I switched over to the Aquaclear brand, because it has 3 different kinds of filtration media, and you change only one unit at a time, leaving you with 2 other units to keep your bacteria population alive and well in your filter.
The only warning I have about the Aquaclear, though, is that the slots in the intake tube are large enough to catch and kill a small fish, like a neon. Learned THAT the hard way with one of my poor Danios. I got around that by jamming the intake tube from my TopFin filter over the one that came with the Aquaclear. Not a perfect fit, but it works.
Tanks: SeaClear Acrylic 40 US gallons, Eheim Ecco 2236, Eheim Classic 2215, Fine gravel & EcoComplete: 3 Albino Aeneus, 4 Green Aeneus (NOT Brochis) 6 Peppers, 3 Sterba, 1 Elegans, 10 Danios, 3 panda cories, 1 cichlid.
5 gal betta tank: 1 male betta
50 gallon SeaClear Eheim 2213, Eheim 2215, fine gravel: 3 baby goldfish (2 Moors, 1 Oranda in QT)
5 gal betta tank: 1 male betta
50 gallon SeaClear Eheim 2213, Eheim 2215, fine gravel: 3 baby goldfish (2 Moors, 1 Oranda in QT)