Corydoras wont stop dying

[bianca_m35]

Don't be sorry for asking questions! Ask as many as you need, that's what we're here for we'd much rather help you with question so that you and we know that we've taken the right steps

Listen to Essjay's advice regarding products! The API Stress Coat is fine for what you need right now, it'll make your tapwater safe to use in the tank when dosed properly. But in the longer term, it's better to use a higher quality product once you've used this stuff. Essjay can explain which products are better quality and why, and which ones to avoid!

Remember that the best thing for the fish and for removing ammonia/nitrite/nitrAtes is fresh, clean declorinated water and large frequent water changes. While a water conditioner is essential to make your tap water safe, we also don't want to add too many other products and chemicals to our tanks. Only the essentia

Awesome! I will get prime next time I just couldn't find it at first until after I bought them.

I would use the amount for the whole tank at the first water change which will remove the chlorine in the new water and also treat the chloramine already in the tank.
After that, if you use buckets to refill the tank, add the Stress Coat to each bucketful of water at the dose rate for that bucket (eg bucket holds 3 gallons so use enough to treat 3 gallons water in each bucketful). But if you refill with a hose, add enough Stress Coast for the volume of the whole tank, and add it before you start to refill.

Okay. I will do a 70% water change and dose the whole tank.

How long after I dose and change the water should I do a test for ammonia?

 

[Slaphppy7]

Awesome! I will get prime next time I just couldn't find it at first until after I bought them.

Okay. I will do a 70% water change and dose the whole tank.

How long after I dose and change the water should I do a test for ammonia?

24 hours

 

[bianca_m35]

Okay just filled the tank and dosed with the water conditioner, kind of replanted the plants, stood the huts up, and put the air stone in!

 

[AdoraBelle Dearheart]

Okay just filled the tank and dosed with the water conditioner, kind of replanted the plants, stood the huts up, and put the air stone in!

Good job!

How much of the water did you change out? How are the fish (especially the cories) acting now?

 

[bianca_m35]

Good job!

How much of the water did you change out? How are the fish (especially the cories) acting now?

70%! And they really like the air stone except the cherry barbs lol. They keep trying to float up into it.

The Sharks are both in the huts along with the plecos. And corys are either swimming around fastly or in the air stone.

 

[AdoraBelle Dearheart]

70%! And they really like the air stone except the cherry barbs lol. They keep trying to float up into it.

The Sharks are both in the huts along with the plecos. And corys are either swimming around fastly or in the air stone.

Speaking of the huts, you do have too many bottom dwelling fish, and in the wrong numbers I'm afraid

Would be best to go back and read @Avel1896 's posts about the sharks, cories, loaches etc, and see whether you can return some of the fish, or if you're able and willing to rehome any.

In the meantime, all of them - loaches, sharks, plecos, and cories need a lot of hiding spaces, and all (besides cories) are territorial. Not liking sharing their spaces. They all feel happier and are more likely to come out into the open, oddly, if they they feel secure that they can dart away under cover at any time. The more places to hide, the more options they have to define their own territory in the tank, the less aggression and the more you'll see them.

Your tank is very open at the moment, and that makes fish feel exposed, and vulnerable to predators. Need more plants and decor to create hidey holes and blind spots for bullied fish to escape the view of more aggressive fish, like the sharks - more rocks, driftwood, pleco caves, etc needed.

If you have more flowerpots you can use, add those for now! Stack a load of them in the corners and around the edges of the tank, leaving some open space towards the front for the cories and as a feeding area.


PVC piping can be used to. Not the prettiest, but that or more flowerpots would help out for now, while you sort out the stocking and learn more about the requirements for the species you do want to keep

Edited to add last paragraph.

 

[Bruce Leyland-Jones]

And, of course, you're certain that the glue holding the labels onto those pots isn't toxic to the fish.

 

[Avel1896]

Some of you may have forgotten that airstone raises pH as long as it is below 8.4 and OP is 7.8 tapwater and 7.6 tankwater.....
I think Cories do not need pH to be raised.

 

[bianca_m35]

Some of you may have forgotten that airstone raises pH as long as it is below 8.4 and OP is 7.8
I think Cories do not need pH to be raised.

7.6

The tap water is 7.8

 

[bianca_m35]

Speaking of the huts, you do have too many bottom dwelling fish, and in the wrong numbers I'm afraid

Would be best to go back and read @Avel1896 's posts about the sharks, cories, loaches etc, and see whether you can return some of the fish, or if you're able and willing to rehome any.

In the meantime, all of them - loaches, sharks, plecos, and cories need a lot of hiding spaces, and all (besides cories) are territorial. Not liking sharing their spaces. They all feel happier and are more likely to come out into the open, oddly, if they they feel secure that they can dart away under cover at any time. The more places to hide, the more options they have to define their own territory in the tank, the less aggression and the more you'll see them.

Your tank is very open at the moment, and that makes fish feel exposed, and vulnerable to predators. Need more plants and decor to create hidey holes and blind spots for bullied fish to escape the view of more aggressive fish, like the sharks - more rocks, driftwood, pleco caves, etc needed.

If you have more flowerpots you can use, add those for now! Stack a load of them in the corners and around the edges of the tank, leaving some open space towards the front for the cories and as a feeding area.


PVC piping can be used to. Not the prettiest, but that or more flowerpots would help out for now, while you sort out the stocking and learn more about the requirements for the species you do want to keep

Edited to add last paragraph.

Okay I will take those all into account and for the moment I have some extra flower pots lol. I haven't had much luck with plants honestly besides these and java moss.

I will update as well with a 24 hour water test!

 

[Avel1896]

7.6

The tap water is 7.8

""as long as it is below 8.4""
7.6 is below 8.4 so it's gonna raise. Bad for Cories.

 

[rlamot0024]

Awesome! I will get prime next time I just couldn't find it at first until after I bought them.

Okay. I will do a 70% water change and dose the whole tank.

How long after I dose and change the water should I do a test for ammonia?

I'm pretty sure your problem is not using conditioner. If your on city water you 100% either have chlorine or chloramine. This is why your fish act nuts during water changes

 

[nicholas2010e]

Sooo I'm really starting to get frustrated. I had 9 panda Cory's, 6 peppered corys, and 6 bronze corys. I'm left 5 bronze and 1 peppered Cory. Well I got 5 new peppered corys and now one of my bronze corys died. So peppered corys and 4 bronze at the moment.

They eat a very big range of foods, blood worms, veggies, flakes, egg, etc.

The water parameters are

Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 10
Ph 7.6
Water hardness 7

They're all extremely active and healthy, as well as eating a ton. Until I just wake up and they're dead. There's no parasites or illness either.

It's a planted tank as well

Temp is 73

Gravel and rock for substrate

I really have no clue what is going on. And it's only the corydoras dying, literally all of my other fish are fine and I had my corys for about a year now and got them all pretty young.

Other tank mates, 1 kuhli loach, 2 rainbow sharks that don't touch the corys at all, 2 red bristlenose plecos that are still young and don't go near the corys unless eating but they eat algae wafers or stems, while the corys eat the smaller bits, and now I have 4 cherry barbs who are juveniles. As well as a bunch if baby snails. They've been dying way before the cherry barbs or snails came into the tank. Their bodies when dead have no marks on them either.

I have multiple corys and find that they are some of the hardiest fish when it comes to water chemistry. I have gone 2 weeks without feeding them and they have also been fine. That being said I think we need to look elsewhere beside water chemistry.

you said they are on pebble/rock substrate. Ik they prefer sand but they can be fine on rock. Are the pebbles small enough that they can eat them but not digest them/ pass them through. This could cause impaction which is fatal.

 

[BLK]

They're eating some veggies let me get a picture.

I was watching a video recently on feeding fish veggies, particularly Zucchini. The instructor said it's very important to make sure veggies are pesticide free as she had a friend aquarist who lost many many fish suddenly after feeding her fish conventional (vs. organic) Zucchini. Perhaps this may be your problem. Something to at least seriously consider.

 

[Byron]

Corydoras cannot digest vegetable matter and if fed too much can suffer the consequences. They do not eat algae, which is a clue. They graze surfaces, including algae mats, looking for microscopic foods like crustaceans and insect larvae. I would not encourage veggie foods, i.e., don't put the zucchini etc in the tank, and if you need to feed plant-based foods for some fish don't do it more than once a week with cories present.

Cories and loaches should never be housed together in the same tank, so going forward, keep this in mind and decide which, but not both. A sand substrate will help the cories, and the loaches depending upon species.

There is no doubt at all but that the issue here was chlorine in the water, so that is now resolved. From all the data in this long thread, which I just read through again, there is no question otherwise.