My endlers were fine one day and now one is dead, the other has a bent body, can't swim (lying at the bottom of the tank) and is gasping

[lavathebetta]

The low GH is no good for the endlers, they need a GH of 15 DH to stay healthy.

Having them in soft water affects their immune system. While this will not kill them outright, it leaves them prone to things that may kill them fast, such as bacterial infections, fungal, etc.

I struggled with this with guppies and they'd die within days of getting them, a few showing signs of acute columnaris infections when they were originally healthy in the store.
Learned my water is only 5 DH or 89.5 ppm, which is soft.
This affected my livebearers, while it didn't kill them immediately.

Now, I keep my guppies in a 50g tote and use Seachem Equilibrium to bring my GH up to 250ppm for them. Much healthier and all my problems are better.

However, depending on your corydoras species, they may not thrive in the high GH, so you may need separate tanks should you want to keep both.

So your low GH is a contribution to the problem you are having, so its something to work on should you want to continue with the endlers afterwards. So thats one thing solved, let's work on the rest to get these guys in better health.

thank you so much for the info, i'll def get a testing kit soon and work on getting the water right for endlers if this guy makes it or if i get some in the future (and ill make sure it works for the corydoras). idk what to do with the guy i have right now tho, i will check on him in the morning and see if he's still alive. he was alive as of a couple hours ago.

is there anything i could add to the water besides a product (like a type of rock or shells or smthn) to help get the water right?

 

[CassCats]

Crushed coral can do the same, but you may get fluctuations every water change, which is why Equilibrium is better, you add the amount you need to replace every water change and keeps things stable.

Crushed coral can also cause fluctuations with pH, but if it was just a small amount needed to increase itd be the cheaper choice but given how soft your water is, that will create a pretty big swing.

 

[lavathebetta]

Crushed coral can do the same, but you may get fluctuations every water change, which is why Equilibrium is better, you add the amount you need to replace every water change and keeps things stable.

Crushed coral can also cause fluctuations with pH, but if it was just a small amount needed to increase itd be the cheaper choice but given how soft your water is, that will create a pretty big swing.

got it. sadly the other endler passed overnight, so now i just have the 2 corydoras, going to get one more hopefully soon. thank you for this helpful information though, i will purchase equilibrium if i try endlers again, and a testing kit for gh/kh. thanks again for your help!

 

[Back in the fold]

Fish just aren't as healthy and robust as they were in the distant past. I have my own conspiracy theories as to why, mostly bad breeding. The more common fish seem to suffer the most. Dwarf Gouramis and Guppies chief among that sad class of weaklings. Another factor I blame is the use and misuse of fish medications. I know that I'm not smart enough to use them correctly. You really do need to have a bare quarantine tank to isolate the sick fish into but many times the whole tank has gone kablooey and it's too late for that. What can you do ? It has now been two whole months since I have adopted an old time practice of salting my water at the rate of 4 teaspoons per 10 gallons. The salt does not contribute to water hardness and my plants are no worse than they've ever been but I think my fish are just a little bit healthier. This was a common practice many years ago and probably for good reason. I also age my water for a week before I do my water changes. I feel that this time allows the dechlorinator to do its thing and then dissipate from the water. I also think the water improves because it is exposed to air after being in the underground city water lines.

 

[lavathebetta]

Fish just aren't as healthy and robust as they were in the distant past. I have my own conspiracy theories as to why, mostly bad breeding. The more common fish seem to suffer the most. Dwarf Gouramis and Guppies chief among that sad class of weaklings. Another factor I blame is the use and misuse of fish medications. I know that I'm not smart enough to use them correctly. You really do need to have a bare quarantine tank to isolate the sick fish into but many times the whole tank has gone kablooey and it's too late for that. What can you do ? It has now been two whole months since I have adopted an old time practice of salting my water at the rate of 4 teaspoons per 10 gallons. The salt does not contribute to water hardness and my plants are no worse than they've ever been but I think my fish are just a little bit healthier. This was a common practice many years ago and probably for good reason. I also age my water for a week before I do my water changes. I feel that this time allows the dechlorinator to do its thing and then dissipate from the water. I also think the water improves because it is exposed to air after being in the underground city water lines.

i totally agree with you about the breeding, between over breeding, inbreeding and breeding for fancy colors/looks with a disregard for fish health, it's way too easy to purchase unhealthy fish. my endlers did look healthy in the store and seemed fine for the majority of the time that I had them, but who knows, poor genetics combined with too low of a gh could have made them weakened severely enough to get sick from something and pass. i also have lightly been salting my tank as to deal with the bacterial infection that my fish had, not sure if it helped a lot but my plants were totally fine, who knows. i appreciate the info/tips on everything, thank you!