I'm not really a begginer but.....

[Ethos]

Ok, so a few weeks ago, I was looking around my tank and counting my fish (I do that from time to time) and I noticed I was missing one! So I looked to see who iot was and it was my albino cory! So I searched under rocks, driftwood, everywhere!
Then I saw it! It was right out of a creeper movie! The side of a albino cory! I dont know how to explane it, but it was really only half of my cory!

I cant figure out what happened. It was in a semi-aggresive tank with the biggest fish a dwarf flame gourmi. Could my gourmi have eatin it?

 

[rdd1952]

Since I have set up my heavily planted 75 gallon, I seem to have lost 4 corys (since they stay hid so much, I really don't know how many I have left but am sure of at least 2) and 1 SAE. I never found any of them except on dead cory. All that I have in the tank is 10 black phantom tetras, the 6 (originally) spotted corys, 4 SAE (starte with 5 but one disappeared the first 2 days I had them) and 4 small (about 1" long) angels (only been in the tank a week). I assume they died and were eaten by the other fish. That's the problem with a heavily planted tank. It's really hard to see all your fish at once and if one gets sick, you are lucky if you see him to know it.

 

[Ethos]

so could a cory have deteriated in less that 48 hours like that though?

 

[sylvia]

Not unless something ate it. What other fish are in the tank? The gourami is deffinately not the culprit.

 

[rdd1952]

UPDATE: I actually still have at least 4 of my corys and I believe all 5. As I said, my tank is heavily planted and the corys stay toward the back, behind the driftwood so I rarely see them except at feeding time. Last night, I dropped in a slightly larger than normal about of shrimp pellets, turned out all the lights and got my flashlight. I stood there shining the flashlight on the tank to see how many came out. I know for a fact that I saw 4 of them and believe I saw all 5 but they dart in and out so much it's hard to see them all at once.

As for deteriorating in a day, I'm sure they dont' but if they are at the back of the tank or stuck up under the leaves of a plant, there's no way to see that they are dead. The one that did die was under one of the rock caves at the front so I saw and removed him.

 

[gadazobe]

Most fish eat fish - if your cory died then he would be eaten very quickly. How he died is a different story - what else is in your tank? Or it might have been a natural death - is your tank new or stable?

 

[eudielynn]

It's a good possiblity that the gourami is the culprit. I have one that terrorizes every other fish in my community tank. Usually they will only get aggressive with other male gouramis, but not this guy. I've lost 2 otos, a dwarf frog and one of my guppies has a big chunk out of her tail right now. I thought it was my betta doing it until I took him out of the tank and then saw the blue dwarf gourami going nuts nipping on everything in sight. I had to yank him out of the big tank, and I guess he's going back to the LFS if I can't find him another home. Every fish is different. I bought this one from my LFS when I told them I wanted peaceful fish for my community tank and they recommended the dwarf gouramis. Another lesson about listening to the LFS employees.

 

[FishEnthusiast]

My guess is the poor thing died and the other fish took advantage of the situation and had a little snack. As for the gourami not being the culprit, he may not have killed the fish, but if it was already gone, there is a good chance the gourami had a nibble. I have seen my gourami do that with a tetra that had passed away. JMO.

 

[Ethos]

I have the gourmi and 2 domins, and 1 tiger barb, small though. Only about 2 1/2 months old. The tank was established by atleast 7 months at the time. Could the small tigerbarb have done it?

 

[akitty6552]

I'd suggest that nothing killed the cory, rather he just died and that afterwards something ate it. Cory's can be finiky and have a tendency to die, at least from my experience.

 

[gadazobe]

If tiger barbs are kept singly then they are notorious fin nippers - they are best kept in schools of at least 6 or 7 - then they keep themselves happy. I doubt that it was the tiger barb that caused the demise of the cory - at 2 1/2 months I don't think that he was big enough to be such a danger. I really think that the cory died of a natural cause - possibly it was a weakling - and that the other fish had an inbetween meal snack.