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My first experience with cories has not been a good one. They are breaking my heart. I first got them last year...all Schwartzi cories.

I ended up getting 12 cories total from the same source. Four in one tank and eight in another. They all seemed pretty healthy albeit a bit small with scrawny barbels that worried me. Eventually they all plumped up and grew nice barbels except for one which just had stumps, but he was doing ok. All was good.

Then two of the four cories in the one tank died a few weeks apart of an unknown cause. After waiting a month or so make sure the remaining two were ok I moved them to the other tank with the other 8 cories. (10 cories) Again all was good for at least a month.

Then another died weeks later. I then had a freak ich outbreak in this tank. Strangely enough the cories were the only fish to never get any ich spots and they (along with all the other fish) survived the month long round of treatments without any visible signs of stress. Then they started gradually dying off again. I thought at the time maybe it was a latent affect from the ich or meds. Down to 5 cories.

In all instances only one cory appears ill at a time, all the other fish of all species appear perfectly healthy. They go from healthy to at death's door in a matter of a few days. This is why initially I thought these were isolated incidents.

When I got down to 5 cories left with one not looking so good I admitted something else was going on and decided to try to treat them all in a hospital tank. One died before I could get the tank fully setup, and now another died today on day 4 of the meds. Down to three now They still look healthy but I am continuing to treat them anyways with Maracyn II

From lots of reading the best I can figure is they have some type of bacterial infection like septicemia. Symptoms are extreme weakness, not eating, a bit of a darker coloration, and a very slight reddening at the base of some of their fins. Some of them got so weak at the end they stopped moving and just rolled along the bottom current getting scratched and banged up. I had to euthanize a couple of them because of this.

If the Maracyn II doesn't work what else can I do? I hate to see them suffer like this. I know some people will say problems like this always come from bad water or diet, but I don't think this is the case. All the tanks are lightly stocked and planted and I always test the water...no ammonia or nitrites, nitrate is always under 20ppm but often closer to 0ppm due to the plants. I feed a variety of dry and frozen foods.

This is so frustrating and sad

Mo,

Sorry for your loss.

You treated your tank for 4 weeks with Quick Cure for Ich?
I had Ich twice and even when only using quarter dosages every other day I got rid of it within 2 weeks.

Please describe the Ich cure process a little more detailed.
Once completed, how did you remove the med etc from the tank?
What water changes did you do in that period and how often?

Ingo

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The Corydoras may have been wild caught & if your tank has a high temperature, they cannot stand it too much. I have great problems here in Malta with the heat in summer & i already had 5 deaths. The heat is a great problem with Corydoras keeping.




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When I said the ich treatment lasted a month I didn't mean I used the quick-cure for a month. I used that less than two weeks if I recall and only at a half-dosage. It took a month before the tank got back to its normal temp and salt levels because I was gradually lowering the temp from the 86F treatment level and doing partial water changes to remove the salt. I know the ich outbreak and treatment would cause them stress, but for some reason they were the only fish to never get spots. They were dying off before the ich outbreak just as they continue to now.

The normal tank temps are 78F, although the water sometimes gets up in the low to mid 80s on hot days. This summer I put in a room air conditioner so it never got really hot. What is considered ideal temp for cories, and how different is it for the wild caught ones?

If these three last cories survive, I am going to have to get more eventually because I don't want them to be alone...but I also don't want to introduce more into an environment that may be bad for them.

Symptoms are extreme weakness, not eating, a bit of a darker coloration, and a very slight reddening at the base of some of their fins. Some of them got so weak at the end they stopped moving and just rolled along the bottom current getting scratched and banged up.

Seems like it hasn't been a good cory-keeping month for some of us. One of my cory just died from the same symptom you described (see http://www.fishprofiles.com/files/forums/The%20Hospital/62571.html?200508040100 for pics). The other corys in the same tank now have similar red spots to what you described (I posted some pics in the above thread - do they look familiar?), although they're still active and eating. Some have suggested internal parasite instead of bacterial infection (which was what I initially thought also). How long after you noticed the redish spots did you see the wasting symptoms?

Anyways, I can't offer much help obviously, just commiserating on your loss and letting you know that you're not alone.

-P

I have seen several threads about cories dying of unknown causes lately too. I still have 3 left now and they have finished their round of antibiotics in the hospital tank. They seem healthy, but I plan to keep them in there for awhile longer. I might try using some medicated food for internal parasites as well just to be safe.

Then I plan to move them to a different tank and try to keep the temperature lower...hopefully in the mid/lower 70'sF if possible. I did some reading and found several people say that although cories can survive in higher temperatures, they won't last long and won't be healthy. I did research before buying them and thought 78F would be ok, but now have found other sources saying that is much too warm for long term exposure.

Mine showed very little physical signs of illness. The reddness at the base of the fins was very faint. Only a few showed anything more than that. In those cases I believe it was caused by being rolled around the bottom of the tank after becoming too weak to swim.

I'm not sure I will ever figure out exactly what was wrong with them, but hopefully I can get the last 3 through this.

From lots of reading the best I can figure is they have some type of bacterial infection like septicemia. Symptoms are extreme weakness, not eating, a bit of a darker coloration, and a very slight reddening at the base of some of their fins. Some of them got so weak at the end they stopped moving and just rolled along the bottom current getting scratched and banged up. I had to euthanize a couple of them because of this.

This doesn't sound like septicaemia to me, I think it's more likely you are dealing with some kind of intestinal flagellate infection. Jungle Parasite Clear should help. Check my posts in the linked thread as well.