Panda Cory Trouble?

[Gruffle]

Hi, has anyone had any experience keeping Panda Corys?

They're awesome little fish but I'm having trouble keeping them alive to be honest, I've had a small shoal of them in a newish tank (5 months old, fully cycled) for the last couple of weeks, with some Zebra Danios and a RTBS as tankmates, they all get on really well atm (the RTBS is a baby!) but the odd Cory keeps dying and I have no idea why

I've read that they are pretty delicate, but I don't want to have to keep topping their shoal up just to have them keep dying!

They show no signs of illness, playing with each other and zipping to the top etc like corys do, but sooner or later, one of them will start drifting about in the current slightly, its hard to describe, but its as if its more buoyant than the others and has trouble keeping on the bottom. This happens for about 24 hours, then the fish's colour fades and it dies shortly afterwards.

I started off with a shoal of 4, one died, topped them up to 5, one died overnight (had a wound on its side from the shop, i think it succumbed to it...) and now another one is floating about in the current trying to stay on the bottom

Its in a live planted tank with some driftwood and hiding places, an internal filter providing plenty of surface agitation and the of the tank is kept well cleaned, I've upped my water changes to 15% twice weekly since getting the cories so I really don't know what could be causing it!

temp - 24c
ph 6.7ish

nitrate/nitrite tests to follow

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

 

[mark.w.jones]

Ammonia, nitrite and nitrate levels would be useful as well as your current stock list and tank capacity. Pandas do not cope at all well with poor water conditions however small the problems may be. They are the sort of fish that need a well matured tank which yours is close to but maybe isn't quite there yet.

 

[Gruffle]

water stats...more to follow when i get some more tests from the LFS

60l tank
current inhabitants 4 zebra danios, 4 panda cories, 1 rtbs (less than 2" long)

temp: 24c
ph: 6.7(ish)
nitrite: 0

nitrite and ammonia tests to follow, water quality seems good, the RTBS has gone from a washed out grey and orange to a really deep black and red so i assume she's pretty happy with the water!

 

[Miss Wiggle]

yeah panda cories are very very very delicate, they need a mature tank (minimum 6 months old, preferably more) and immaculate conditions. They do better in a larger tank becfause they are much more stable, even the slightest fluctuation in levels in a small tank would be enough to kill them off.

what sort of test kit are you using, liquid or test strips?

eventually the RTBS will outgrow the tank and becomes faaaar too boisterous and agressive for the panda's.

 

[Gruffle]

Using liquid tests at the minute, need to pop to the LFS in my dinner break to get some more though lol

eventually the RTBS will outgrow the tank and becomes faaaar too boisterous and agressive for the panda's.,

Yeah I know, its all part of my masterplan so my other half will let me get a bigger tank, if all goes well, they will be in a 200L within a month or two...hopefully

To stop anymore dying, would you recommend more frequent water changes (eg every other day, for example) to keep the water quality higher?

 

[Miss Wiggle]

ok fair enough on the RTBS, always worth saying as sometimes people buy these fish without realising what they grow into!!

liquid tests are a good start, lets wait until you've given a full list of the water test results so we know what we're dealing with before trying to take action on it.

diagnosis needs to come first!

 

[mark.w.jones]

Doing loads of water changes will dilute the amount of ammonia and nitrite in your tank which is what you want to do. However, to get an accurate picture of ammonia and nitrite build between water changes you really need to do daily tests at the same time of day from just after your water change until just before your next one. This may show an increase of 0.25ppm ammonia per day for example or something similar for nitrite. What you are looking for is obviously no build up of these lethal compounds at all between your weekly water changes.

I would therefore advise a 25% water change. Then an immediate set of tests for ammonia, nitrite, nitrate and pH to see what the levels are straight away. Hopefully you will have 0ppm for ammonia and nitrite and no more than 50ppm for nitrate. If so redo all the tests 24 hours later. Record your results as you go. If at any point you get a reading of higher than 0.25ppm ammonia or nitrite then you must immediately do another 25% water change. In a matured tank you should see no rise in your ammonia or nitrite at all. I suspect that in your tank this may not be the case but we shall see .

 

[Gruffle]

Quick update....thanks for the replies!

Did a couple of water tests over the last 2 days

ammonia and nitrite both at 0, nitrate at about 30ppm

No more deaths since the weekend, the smallest fish (the one that I was worried about) seems to have recovered and is now swimming about fine with no weird floating about...fingers crossed!

Gonna maintain my water changes at 15% every 2 or 3 days till I get a bigger tank, hopefully that will keep casualties to a minimum.

Like i said, fingers crossed