Panda Cory’s Q?

Hello All,

I am very new to the fish world, so far it has been going pretty well, however, I never knew how much you needed to know and all the problems that can occur. We have had the fish tank around 6 weeks and have gradually added (in order) Ember Tetras, Honey Gourami, Panda Cory, Kuhli Loach, Cherry Shrimp. So we have had the Cory around 4 weeks.

I have noticed for a few hours now that 1/3 of my Panda Cory’s has not really been moving much/playing dead. Now I think about it, this could have been going on for a few days but may have not clocked it until now.

On a closer look it appears to not really be moving its tail much and the tail looks as though its tensed closed. It moves maybe every 5 minutes but then just does the same thing. The tail also has red marks as shown on the picture. Is there anything we can do for mr/mrs Cory or are they doomed. I have tried to google but all that’s coming up is something to do with ammonia but the ammonia levels are 0 and I check the parameters every few days due to being new to this, and they have always been good:

Ammonia 0
Nitrate 10
Nitrite 0
Chlorine 0
Hardness 50
Carbonate 60
Ph 7

Last 30% water change and gravel hoover 3 days ago.

Please let me know what you think is happening and whether there is anything that can be done.

*****update*****

Poor mr/mrs Cory passed away today. Checked the ammonia level and it seemed higher than 0.25 for the first time since first getting the tank. I have ordered some API Melafix just to keep handy and have done a 40-50% water change. All other fish seem fine in temperament but I am now seeing redness on a few round the gills. Think we have been poorly advised and potentially were sold a few fish which were already showing this redness as I stupidly thought Panda Cory’s just had red cheeks. Will continue to monitor the situation and hopefully we don’t lose anymore!!!

Hi and welcome to the site.
First of all, how did you cycle the tank and what test kits are you using?

Acycle normally take 5 to 6 weejs and there is ammoniqa present and then nitrite. Plus at the ned there is a lot more nitrate that you appear to have had. How often were you changing water/

Hello and Happy New Year. I can tell you that a 30 percent water change isn't really enough to keep your fish their healthiest. The reason is, a 30 percent water change still leaves 70 percent of the pollution in the water. Remember that the fish do all their "business" in the water and if you were in their place, you'd want more than a third of your water changed. I would gradually work up to the point of removing and replacing half the tank water every week. By following this water change routine and feeding a little variety of food every day or two, you won't need to fret over the health of your fish.

10 Tanks

TwoTankAmin said:

Hi and welcome to the site.
First of all, how did you cycle the tank and what test kits are you using?

Acycle normally take 5 to 6 weejs and there is ammoniqa present and then nitrite. Plus at the ned there is a lot more nitrate that you appear to have had. How often were you changing water/

Click to expand...

Hi,

I am using EASYTEST strips from Amazon 6 in 1 and then a separate test for Ammonia, also EASYTEST.

Changing the water every week. I was informed by the fish shop that the tank only needed to be set up for a week and then I was good to start adding fish gradually. Its a 60L tank so pretty spacious.

10 Tanks said:

Hello and Happy New Year. I can tell you that a 30 percent water change isn't really enough to keep your fish their healthiest. The reason is, a 30 percent water change still leaves 70 percent of the pollution in the water. Remember that the fish do all their "business" in the water and if you were in their place, you'd want more than a third of your water changed. I would gradually work up to the point of removing and replacing half the tank water every week. By following this water change routine and feeding a little variety of food every day or two, you won't need to fret over the health of your fish.

10 Tanks

Click to expand...

Hello,

Do you know what could be happening to the fish?

We will do a 50% water change tomorrow. We have been feeding a variety of food for a few weeks now to cater to all variety, only once a day in small quantities as cautious of over feeding and waste building up in tank.

Often, streaking like that is a sign of septicemia, a blood infection. The cause is bacterial, and at 4 weeks since purchase, is less likely the usual shipping issue than something generated at your place.

In a few minutes, you'll probably be told test strips are worthless - not true. They are expensive compared to reagent kits, but stood side by side, accurate. I think the problem is poor advice - you have added a lot of fish quickly and the stress has brought out a latent disease. I bought some pandas a couple of days ago, and the 6 of them will be in tight quarantine for 6 weeks, my standard time for fish farm raised species. They do tend to have possible diseases lurking in them.

GaryE said:

Often, streaking like that is a sign of septicemia, a blood infection. The cause is bacterial, and at 4 weeks since purchase, is less likely the usual shipping issue than something generated at your place.

In a few minutes, you'll probably be told test strips are worthless - not true. They are expensive compared to reagent kits, but stood side by side, accurate. I think the problem is poor advice - you have added a lot of fish quickly and the stress has brought out a latent disease. I bought some pandas a couple of days ago, and the 6 of them will be in tight quarantine for 6 weeks, my standard time for fish farm raised species. They do tend to have possible diseases lurking in them.

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Interesting and good advice, thank you.

Do you know of anyway to treat the possible infection? I have been adding bio boost to the tank and it says on the bottle it helps with cuts…

Unfortunately we don’t really have the means to quarantine fish so we won’t get anymore and will ensure going forward that we do 50% water changes.

Hopefully whatever it is isn’t contagious.

Hello again. Increase your water changes gradually, you don't want to subject your fish to a drastic change in the chemistry of the tank water. Eventually, the larger, weekly water change will eliminate the need for water testing, high end filters, vacuuming the bottom material and medications in general just to name a few.

10 Tanks

I can't offer treatment. I live in a place where over the counter antibiotics are unavailable, but even when they were available, I never saw a Cory recover from that. I hope yours is a first. I wish I could be more helpful, but fish medicine is a primitive art.

best thing to get fish to eat is garlic...which they love and also helps them get better as it is a natural antibiotic
and the best thing to clear their gut is green peas (peeled)
you can mix it together and feed them that
use the bottled type of garlic instead of raw ones
because it's soaked in liquid the strength of allicin isn't as hard as it would be...
good luck

Garlic, if it does anything, will not affect an infection of the blood. It may be a mild irritant to gut parasites as it passes through. It sadly won't be a cure all for a Cory, as they are not big on eating vegetable matter - they are worm and insect larvae eaters. There was a fad in the 1980s of mixing garlic into Discus food, but since the fish were bigger, it was easy to get the food into them. Garlic was in everything for a few years, and then, it wasn't.
"Red streak" disease, or red fin disease is a well known Cory problem connected to stress and bad water quality. It slays them when it hits new imports.

garlic is actually a natural antibiotic that can treat microbes infections bacterial/fungal
the only reason people stopped using it is because of laziness...everyone likes to just pay 10bucks on food and be done with it
which then became forgotten by many but the old schoolers or people from 3rd world nations that can't afford expensive things like 10$ fish food
heck I never even heard a dog couldn't eat chocolate until I came to Canada...
my dog back home would have the same food as us..same "treats" as us..
if I tell someone my dog used to love Italian pasta with chicken people think I'm nuts

My feeling is your problem could be ammonia related. Did you record your test results from day one by any chance? The ammonia should have been in the tank early on if not now. I am not familiar with Easy Test, but on Amazon the rating for this 3-way product are:

Customer ratings by feature ​

Easy to use 4.0
Easy to read 3.7
Accuracy 3.4
(The lowest rating is for accuracy.)

I see redness around the gill area in the cory pics and that can be ammonia related. Bear in mind that ammonia can cause damage that will persist after ammonia levels have been reduced to 0.

Also, your sword is planted too deeply in the substrate and you have burried the crown, Go here and read #2 on how to plant a sword. It has a picture. https://www.aquariumcoop.com/blogs/aquarium/how-to-plant

Picking up on the plants...were these in the tank from the start? I ask because plants use ammonia/ammonium, and if growing (they seem to be in the photos, but no idea how long they have been in this tank) they will easily take up all the ammonia so few fish could produce. I never had ammonia (or nitrite) above zero because I always had plants in the tank from the first.

TwoTankAmin said:

My feeling is your problem could be ammonia related. Did you record your test results from day one by any chance? The ammonia should have been in the tank early on if not now. I am not familiar with Easy Test, but on Amazon the rating for this 3-way product are:

Customer ratings by feature ​

Easy to use 4.0
Easy to read 3.7
Accuracy 3.4
(The lowest rating is for accuracy.)

I see redness around the gill area in the cory pics and that can be ammonia related. Bear in mind that ammonia can cause damage that will persist after ammonia levels have been reduced to 0.

Also, your sword is planted too deeply in the substrate and you have burried the crown, Go here and read #2 on how to plant a sword. It has a picture. https://www.aquariumcoop.com/blogs/aquarium/how-to-plant

Click to expand...

Really helpful thank you, I think this could be ammonia. Taking the necessary precautions and hopefully we don’t lose more!