Why Did My Cory Die?

[Hehoo]

This was a big cory so it could have been old age I suppose, but it seemed awfully sudden for that. My girlfriend’s cory (emerald I think) the other night suddenly started swimming REALLY strange, and had big bubble-looking, blister-ish, maybe boil-type things all over him. Then he died. Anyone know what happened? All the other fish, including the other corys in the tank, are fine. It’s a 55 gallon, a bunch of clown loaches and platys, a pleco and a bunch of corys. There were no changes recently, and I don’t remember the exact amounts but we did do a water test with those strips and they showed it was ok ... Sorry, I know that’s not very informative. There were no other signs of anything wrong, all the other fish seem ok ... It’s a planted tank ... I doubt that matters, but I dunno ... I've looked at different sites and can't find any info ...

 

[jollysue]

From the description, this was most likely a female, Although the Brochis splendens, so-called emerald Cory, don't show the extreme size differences in gender that some species do.

Test strips are notoriously inaccurate. Try to get your water tested at your lps/lfs. Most will do it as a service.

It would help if you could give some other details:

What size is the tank?
What fish, how many of each, what size are in the tank?
How long has the tank been up with fish in it? If less than a month, was it cycled first?
How long has the present fish load been in the tank?
Have new fish been added lately? If so how many? and how long ago?

The posibilities are numerous from ammonia burn, bacterial infection, fugal infection, and parasites. Here is one site's diagnosis chart for skin problems.

See if anything sounds familiar.

I am assuming you do not have any pictures.

 

[Hehoo]

I'll try to get the water tested again, I do know that it's free around here. It's a 55 gallon tank, had been going with the fish for easily a month. We made the mistake of not cycling previously, so we know about that need. It's technically my girlfriend's tank, so I'm gonna have to list the fish from memory. All of the fish had been in for a while, nothing new ... A 5 inch pleco, about 6 clown loaches 3-4 inches, two 4 inch glass catfish, a few polywags/platys/swordtails (I'm ashamed to admit that I can't tell the difference unless I actually see the sword) all those are small, and corys ... They hide so I'm not sure how many, could be 6 ish ... Wow, I feel inattentive that I don't know what's in her tank better ... I think that's it. Mostly clown loaches and corys as those are her favorites. Everything in there had been in there for a few months and that only happened with that one cory. Sadly, you're correct, I don't have pictures. We did try, but only have a camera phone and it really didn't show up. I'll see about that diagnosis chart though ...