Albino Cories dying rapidly

Howdy, I recently bought some albino cories from petco (Big mistake -.-) and they are dying in my QT. I can’t seem to find a reason why. No white spots, no sunken bellies, nothing wrong on the outside, and water parameters are fine. I finished my first round of paracleanse this week to start deworming them. Any knowledge would be appreciated. Pics will be below.
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Some behaviors I found odd when a certain Cory died.
-Occasional flashing (The first one did this a lot, the second death didn’t so I’m not sure)
-The cory would separate itself from the others and die shortly after.
-As far as I can tell the cories didn’t display any signs of dying (Rapid breathing, swimming irregularly, lose of appetite) they just dropped dead.
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Water Parameters:
Ammonia: 0 ppm
Nitrite: 0 ppm
Nitrate: 10 ppm

did they start dying before or after you used the paracleanse?
what are the ingredients in the paracleanse?

Ozzie Boss said:

I can’t seem to find a reason why. No white spots, no sunken bellies, nothing wrong on the outside, and water parameters are fine

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All your cories looked fine in health without treating them as they're very sensitive to chemicals, you could have just kept an eye on them for a while to see if anything developed.

Colin_T said:

did they start dying before or after you used the paracleanse?
what are the ingredients in the paracleanse?

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After I used the paracleanse, but I wouldn’t see how this could have killed them I’m no expert, but I’ve been told this has been tested a lot with cories. The ingredients are: 250 mg of metronidazole and 75 mg of praziquantel in every packet that treats 10 gallons. I mainly use it for treating internal parasites.

Tez_20 said:

All your cories looked fine in health without treating them as they're very sensitive to chemicals, you could have just kept an eye on them for a while to see if anything developed.

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Yeah they haven’t had anything besides the paracleanse a week ago. I’m just keeping a close eye and hope the other ones are fine.

Ozzie Boss said:

Howdy, I recently bought some albino cories from petco (Big mistake -.-) and they are dying in my QT. I can’t seem to find a reason why. No white spots, no sunken bellies, nothing wrong on the outside, and water parameters are fine. I finished my first round of paracleanse this week to start deworming them. Any knowledge would be appreciated. Pics will be below.
~~~~
Some behaviors I found odd when a certain Cory died.
-Occasional flashing (The first one did this a lot, the second death didn’t so I’m not sure)
-The cory would separate itself from the others and die shortly after.
-As far as I can tell the cories didn’t display any signs of dying (Rapid breathing, swimming irregularly, lose of appetite) they just dropped dead.
~~~~
Water Parameters:
Ammonia: 0 ppm
Nitrite: 0 ppm
Nitrate: 10 ppm

Click to expand...

Paint isn't coming off those ornaments, is it?

I usually stay out of "disease" threads as I have such limited experience with it (fortunately), but a couple things occur to me here.

First, cories should never be in a bare-bottom tank. There is a bacterial issue with no substrate, and if you scrubbed the tank bottom glass every day, you might be OK, but otherwise, no. Always have a sand substrate, just half an inch in the QT is fine.

Metronidazole should not hurt cories, I have added this to their food once when I had some internal protozoan foolishly introduced with new fish, and they were fine, and the marine biologist who advised me to use it said it would not harm them. It has to get inside them with food to be most effective; adding it to the water is not recommended because it is much less effective.

Praziquantal has, I believe, been widely used by others and if so should be safe.

Edit. Just want to make clear that I was not endorsing the use of either when I posted, merely indicating that it was not likely these medications. I agree with Colin's subsequent post, or more correctly put, I acknowledge and do not dispute his higher knowledge level on these issues. I hope this comes across as intended, I seem to get misunderstood more often these days.

Ozzie Boss said:

After I used the paracleanse, but I wouldn’t see how this could have killed them I’m no expert, but I’ve been told this has been tested a lot with cories. The ingredients are: 250 mg of metronidazole and 75 mg of praziquantel in every packet that treats 10 gallons. I mainly use it for treating internal parasites.

Click to expand...

Metronidazole is an anti-biotic that only works on internal protozoan infections in fish. It should only be used if the fish have an internal protozoan infection.

Praziquantel only treats tapeworm and gill flukes. To treat worms in fish you want to treat them once a week for 3-4 weeks. Do a huge water change and complete gravel clean 24-48 hours after treatment.

Overdosing either of these medications can affect fish, however, Praziquantel is less likely to be an issue. Metronidazole might be an issue if it was overdosed.

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Most tanks sold as x gallons don't actually hold that much water and if they have gravel or ornaments in, or if the water level is down an inch from the top, they normally hold less.

To work out the volume of water in the tank:
measure length x width x height in cm.
divide by 1000.
= volume in litres.

If you have big rocks or driftwood in the tank, remove these so you get a more accurate water volume.

When you measure the height, measure from the top of the substrate to the top of the water level.
You can use a permanent marker to draw a line on the tank at the water level and put down how many litres are in the tank at that level.

There is a calculator/ converter in the "FishForum.net Calculator" under "Useful Links" at the bottom of this page that will let you convert litres to gallons if you need it.

Make sure you remove carbon from filters before treating otherwise it removes the medication from the water.

Increase aeration/ surface turbulence when using medications because most of them reduce the oxygen levels in the water.

Ozzie Boss said:

Yeah they haven’t had anything besides the paracleanse a week ago. I’m just keeping a close eye and hope the other ones are fine.

Click to expand...

I would suggest if you quarantine them to watch them carefully and check the bodies regular, i've never had a spare quarantine tank because of room so my cory's have gone straight in but i always use a large magnifier up the tank regular to make sure they are as they should be

Byron said:

I usually stay out of "disease" threads as I have such limited experience with it (fortunately), but a couple things occur to me here.

First, cories should never be in a bare-bottom tank. There is a bacterial issue with no substrate, and if you scrubbed the tank bottom glass every day, you might be OK, but otherwise, no. Always have a sand substrate, just half an inch in the QT is fine.

Metronidazole should not hurt cories, I have added this to their food once when I had some internal protozoan foolishly introduced with new fish, and they were fine, and the marine biologist who advised me to use it said it would not harm them. It has to get inside them with food to be most effective; adding it to the water is not recommended because it is much less effective.

Praziquantal has, I believe, been widely used by others and if so should be safe.

Edit. Just want to make clear that I was not endorsing the use of either when I posted, merely indicating that it was not likely these medications. I agree with Colin's subsequent post, or more correctly put, I acknowledge and do not dispute his higher knowledge level on these issues. I hope this comes across as intended, I seem to get misunderstood more often these days.

Click to expand...

Oh I didn’t know that bare bottom would be bad for the cories. I usually keep it that way so it’s easier to clean the QT. Could this be a factor in their deaths? I bought some sand for them should be here by tomorrow.

Ozzie Boss said:

Oh I didn’t know that bare bottom would be bad for the cories. I usually keep it that way so it’s easier to clean the QT. Could this be a factor in their deaths? I bought some sand for them should be here by tomorrow.

Click to expand...

I've got mine on smooth gravel and i read dark surface bases they like for breeding, if that's true i'm not sure.

Ozzie Boss said:

Oh I didn’t know that bare bottom would be bad for the cories. I usually keep it that way so it’s easier to clean the QT. Could this be a factor in their deaths? I bought some sand for them should be here by tomorrow.

Click to expand...

The biggest problem with no substrate is the issue of bacteria. The most important bed for bacteria in any aquarium is in the substrate, not the filter. The substrate provides hundreds of times more area for various species of bacteria to colonize, and these are not only nitrifying species but other types of aerobic and anaerobic species, all essential to a well-balanced and healthy aquarium. No filter can even begin to match this. And Ian Fuller warns against bare bottom tanks for cories.