Julii Cory Cat Sick

Hi ,



I have a
36 gal bow front kit that I started in the first week of September 2011 (with 5 Danios)

It has gravel ,plastic plants ,a piece of wood purchases from aquarium store,three statues (\aquarium store)
and one live plant (java fern purchased 2 weeks ago.)It has carbon filter cartridges unfortunately that stated to remove them every month with new ones(Which I did)

Fish : 4 platies ,5 zebra danios (now 1 dead ,one sick) 5 julii cory cats ( bought in first week of October )
4 platy fry (in breeding tank)


water changes weekly about 34-40 litres.

Water temperature is about 25-26 Celsius.






I tested the water with the API KIt yesterday ,and it was

Ammania 0 , Nitrites and Nitrates: between 10-20


pH: last Saturday was 7.6




I am feeding Aqueon tropical Flakes and also bought a topfin small freeze dried medley two weeks ago (contains mysis shrimp,daphnia,bloodworm),
which I feed maybe 2x a week.
plus a bottom pellet for the cories.


All fish have been doing well until just last Friday .

After a water change I noticed my Danio swimming "funny" and being lethargic.

I have now put him into a quarantine tank(On saturday ) and he is still unchanged.Not eating at all either ,which worries me.


On Saturday I purchased an air pump,which I did not have before.

On Sunday another Danio,which was acting fine before suddenly died. His "belly" looked a little red and when I put him into a tissue, that part appeared to have a rosy tint ?
I wonder if he was injured somehow.


I am not sure my fish "like " the air pump .I have it connected to an airstone.

Can fish be troubled by the bubbles /current ?



Yesterday I changed the air stones around in the aqauarium .I am all new to this and trying to hook up the airlines,air stones and suction cups to the wall, I am wondering if I disturbed/stressed the fish.


Now since yesterday one of my corys was just sitting in the corner and being lethargic.

This morning when I turned on the light found him breathing very fast and still sitting in the same corner I saw him in last night.

He does not have any obvious sign of any disease.

He later swam kind of strange as well, tipped over to the side and I thought he had died. I got the net ,but when I came back he sat on the gravel at a different spot.


I immediately changed 30% of the water just in case. and turned off the light


The cory is still sitting at the same spot for the last 3 hours.
Not moving .

Any ideas please ?


Update: Oh, no he has just died

I need to figure out what is happening

Ammania 0 , Nitrites and Nitrates: between 10-20

Click to expand...

Hi. Sorry to hear your fish are not well.
Are you sure you have a nitrite reading of 10-20?
If nitrites are really 10-20, then your tank has not cycled and your fish are poisoned from these toxic levels.
What test are you using to test the ammonia and nitrites as my api liquid test kit has a nitrite reading of max 5(note I am not talking about nitrates)

snazy said:

Ammania 0 , Nitrites and Nitrates: between 10-20

Click to expand...

Hi. Sorry to hear your fish are not well.
Are you sure you have a nitrite reading of 10-20 ppm ?
If nitrites are really 10-20, then your tank has not cycled and your fish are poisoned from these toxic levels.
What test are you using to test the ammonia and nitrites as my api liquid test kit has a nitrite reading of max 5(note I am not talking about nitrates)

Click to expand...

Thanks for trying to help.

I am attaching an image of my APi test chart (nitrate is on the right) I had to resize the image to fit the attachments here.
Hope you can read it.

Anyways my Ammonia was 0 and nitrite was 0 yesterday.

The nitrate is between 10-20 . Comparing the test tubes to these charts is a little hard . It all looks almost the same.
I even had my son and husband check it. We are thinking between 10-20 ppm.



Is there any chance a disease could be causing this ?


Also, I changed 30% off the water this morning,should I do another water change tonight or wait till tomorrow .

I need to figure this out before I loose any more of my fish


Thanks

Hmmm...bit of a puzzler... When you do the w/c do you add de-chlorinator?

Your readings appear to be ok,i wouldn't bother changing the carbon filter monthly,the carbon only last a few days anyway,if the carbon is a sponge just leave it and the filter bacteria will grow on this.

Adding an airstone shouldn't make any difference...

Did the cory have an redness on it around the gills/belly etc?

Harlequins said:

Hmmm...bit of a puzzler... When you do the w/c do you add de-chlorinator?

Your readings appear to be ok,i wouldn't bother changing the carbon filter monthly,the carbon only last a few days anyway,if the carbon is a sponge just leave it and the filter bacteria will grow on this.

Adding an airstone shouldn't make any difference...

Did the cory have an redness on it around the gills/belly etc?

Click to expand...

I always used my fish buckets until last friday, when I bought a hose for easier refill .

This was a new hose (medical grade vinyl)



I use the Top Fin water conditioner which I normally add the full amount (like 10ml for 38 l ) in the very first bucket.


The time with the hose (on friday) I put the amount right into the tank at the beginning of the refill.


About the only other thing I can image is the water temperature.

My tank is around 25-26 Celsius, When I added the water on Friday it may have been higher than 30 -32 degrees Celsius .

I have now gone back to changing the water with buckets again,with a thermometer in the bucket to double check temperature before refilling.




Re:redness ...
I don't think there is any obvious redness or so .

I find they do look a little pink around the gills, stomachs because of their translucent skin ?




I am not sure if you are allowed to attach links here ,if not please remove,but I think my corys look similar like this image here (which is not a julii cory ,but still)

http/www.petpig.com/fish/Cory_Punctatus.aspx




Maybe I should get Stress Coat, or something to add with the water changes ?


Thanks ,

Ok, readings are fine. I thought you had a high nitrite reading. Nitrates at 10-20 is just fine and I don't see how this could be causing the problem.

Maybe if you can post pictures of the fish that seem sick to you?

Since you mentioned the problem started after a water change and additionally to what Harlequins mentioned, I would test the Ph of the tank water and the tap water. What was the Ph before when everything was fine, if you happened to test it?

The temperature could well be the problem here...

Most Corys will suffer with temps above 26 degrees,so adding water thats going upto 32 degrees will shock them more than just adding cold water.

Corys dont mind cold water changes,it may even trigger them into spawning..so when using the hose just use the cold

Did the cory have an redness on it around the gills/belly etc?
[/quote]

Hope I'm not derailing to much. Harlequins, what would your thoughts be if there was redness on the belly?

Erik

Thanks everyone for trying to help.




to Snazy , REH

After the water change on Friday the PH was tested at 7.6 .

I am not sure, what it was before that , but My PH has always been fairly stable .(7.2 -7.4) and I don't add anything to it.


to Harlequins, the water change was on Friday ,so that was 4 days ago and the Cory was o.k. until last night.
Would he not have been ill sooner that that ?

I was thinking that maybe the Danio was affected by the temperature because he was sick right on Friday.

Do you think Corys can die because of stress (setting up airtubing and airstones in the tank ) ?




And then 2 days later,on Sunday night another Danio died suddenly without showing any signs of sickness before that .

Sigh,it's hard to fix something,when I don't know what's "broken"


I tried to take a picture of the fish that is sick (Danio) but it did not turn out well.Sorry.

He (Danio) is still in the quarantine,not eating,mostly sitting on the bottom .
If he swims at all,he looks uncoordinated .


My other Julii corys like to hide in the caves but they come out at "feeding time" .
I have not seen them a lot today,but I am hoping they are o.k.

Is it normal for them to "hide out" a lot ?

Was there any reason why you increased the temperature so high so quick? This can give your fish a shock and I agree that cories can't tolerate so high temperatures, but maybe harlequins would have some idea if that could cause the deaths?

What is the Ph of your tab water?

I don't really know what could be causing your fish dying as I haven't come accross anything similar, but I researched a bit based on the information you gave and here is what I found:

"Velvet or Oodinium are much more difficult to diagnose because they may not always produce visible signs on the outside of the fish. They are smaller and often attack the gills where the fish is more vulnerable. Diagnose this disease by the process of elimination and the more subtle clues. If the water checks out OK and there are no white spots or signs of bacterial infection and fish are dying in slow, but steady pattern over days, suspect this. Look to see if the fish are gasping right before they die or rubbing across the gravel. If the answer is yes, you can be pretty sure of your diagnosis.Sudden temperature change is often the cause of an outbreak"


And then another quick Google search about Velvet:

"Velvet is a disease caused by protozoa that infects the fins and body of the fish. The disease is not that uncommon but can easily be treated once diagnosed. Some fish species such as Danios are more susceptible to velvet then others, and once infected they can infect other fish species in the aquarium that do not attract this disease as easily. Species that attract this disease easily are usually more resilient toward its negative health effects and can be infected without becoming seriously ill or die. The fish should regardless of this be treated, since an infect fish as earlier mentioned can infect other fish in the aquarium. The disease is extremely contagious and is usually fatal unless treated."

Maybe someone here with more experience can give an input if the above is possible?

snazy said:

Was there any reason why you increased the temperature so high so quick? This can give your fish a shock and I agree that cories can't tolerate so high temperatures, but maybe harlequins would have some idea if that could cause the deaths?

What is the Ph of your tab water?

I don't really know what could be causing your fish dying as I haven't come accross anything similar, but I researched a bit based on the information you gave and here is what I found:

"Velvet or Oodinium are much more difficult to diagnose because they may not always produce visible signs on the outside of the fish. They are smaller and often attack the gills where the fish is more vulnerable. Diagnose this disease by the process of elimination and the more subtle clues. If the water checks out OK and there are no white spots or signs of bacterial infection and fish are dying in slow, but steady pattern over days, suspect this. Look to see if the fish are gasping right before they die or rubbing across the gravel. If the answer is yes, you can be pretty sure of your diagnosis.Sudden temperature change is often the cause of an outbreak"


And then another quick Google search about Velvet:

"Velvet is a disease caused by protozoa that infects the fins and body of the fish. The disease is not that uncommon but can easily be treated once diagnosed. Some fish species such as Danios are more susceptible to velvet then others, and once infected they can infect other fish species in the aquarium that do not attract this disease as easily. Species that attract this disease easily are usually more resilient toward its negative health effects and can be infected without becoming seriously ill or die. The fish should regardless of this be treated, since an infect fish as earlier mentioned can infect other fish in the aquarium. The disease is extremely contagious and is usually fatal unless treated."

Maybe someone here with more experience can give an input if the above is possible?

Click to expand...

@ Snazy , Thanks very much for helping!



My Ph when the first one got sick was 7.6 . It is normally around 7.2- 7.4 , Not a big change there I suppose.

The water temperature was my fault.
Stupidity I suppose,since that day I used the hose for the first time and I know the water felt a little warmer than in the tank, I should have measured.
Since refilling with a hose is faster,there may have been a fluctuation in temperature.

I changed about 25% water that day, so it was not a huge change, but still it could have raised the temperature 2-3 degrees or so.

What you describe (Velvet) makes sense.

Right now my fish look happy.
Thankfully the 4 remaining corys,danios and platies appear healthy, but if it's this disease I must treat,I understand.


I really appreciate that you mention this, I would haver never thought of that disease.

If someone else wants to confirm and please let me know the best treatment ',I'll be going asap to get meds .

Even if it's no parasite/disease meds would not harm the fish ,or ?

Thanks so much