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I'm posting this in the general forum although it could go a few different other ones, if you need to move it please feel free to.

When I came to work this am I noticed that my cories weren't their usualy playful selves. There are 9 aeneus, 5 peppered, 1 pygmey (I think the brown knife ate the rest) and 2 trilineus. In fact they are hardly moving and didn't eat their breakfast. The other current inhabitants are an angel, one cherry barb and the brown knife. which are all acting normal, (I haven't seen the knife in a few days and will check his cave) I have had a sick angel but she is in the hospital.
I did a 20% weekly water change yesterday and the only thing that is different in the tank is the dechlor. I ran out of bio-coat and had to use bio-safe so my ammonia reading is sky high (from the bio-safe). Nitrates are 10, nitrites are 0.
The only reading that is abnormal is the ph which is 6. Normally its around 7.2 or so. I didn't check that yesterday and rarely do. Am I running into old tank syndrome for some reason? I do add NIC every once in a while. The tank has been running since July/August.
I also did notice that the water is a little oily, but figured it was the new food I've been feeding.
Any ideas what is going on??

Last edited by doedogg at 08-Feb-2005 10:09

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I used to be Snow White, but I drifted.
~ Mae West

Well, I lost 5 cories last night and there is at least one more on its way out.:#(

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I used to be Snow White, but I drifted.
~ Mae West

Your best bet would be to do a water change to reduce the ammonia, and slowly start to bring the pH back up.. a little at at time. The ammonia spike coupled with the severe pH drop probably made it so your fishies couldn't breathe Get some fresh water in there!! Turn off the lights to reduce stress as well.

For your PH problem, I would first check the PH of the tap water. Your water company could have changed something.

The ammonia levels concern me. When did the other cories go missing and how many of them are we talking about.

They could be rotting in your tank some where causing the spike. Also the addition of the cories rotting can cause your PH to drop.

I doubt that changing the dechloro would do this. Even if your water has chloromine in it, your biofilter should be used to the addition of the ammonia with your regular water changes. And the ammonia is still readable when you use dechloros that make it safe.

its the dechlor that is causing the ammonia reading, its similar to ammolock (I ran out of my regular and its all I have). The only time I've had any ammonia readings in the tank since cycling was about a month ago when I added 2 larger (an angel and RTBS) too close together. That went away quickly and was never very high.
The ph out of the tap is about 7.6 which I checked yesterday. Sometimes its really high 8+.

Add one more cory to the lost (dead) and that makes 6.

I did a 20% water change earlier. I'm almost wondering if someone came into the office and added something to the tank over the weekend. I can't imagine anyone would do that but you never know.
The larger fish seem to be doing fine (or not showing any symptoms) and the knife fish even made an appearance today which is a rarity.
I'm at a total loss and heartbroken at the loss of the little guys.

Last edited by doedogg at 09-Feb-2005 08:51

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I used to be Snow White, but I drifted.
~ Mae West

You mention that the tank is in your office and you aren't there over the weekend. Could someone cleaning the office inadvertently gotten some cleaning or dusting agent into the tank either through the filter system or an opening in the top. You mentioned an oily substance on the surface water and wasn't sure if it was the food or not. Are any of the other fish showing any stress at this time? Really sounds like some kind of contaminant.

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Water, taken in moderation, cannot hurt anybody. -- Mark Twain

The cleaning lady is usually there when I am and she didn't come in this week. She's usually pretty good about stuff around the tank because she keeps fish herself. I'm wondering too if someone came into the office and put something in (lord only knows what). I'm dreading going to work tomorrow...it was heartbreaking finding those little lifeless bodies all over the tank.

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I used to be Snow White, but I drifted.
~ Mae West

no more deaths last night and all the corys are looking good, playing and eating. I did a huge water change yesterday afternoon and that seems to have really helped. My plants are looking pretty bad:%) but I would rather have the fish.

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I used to be Snow White, but I drifted.
~ Mae West