A week ago, I got an albino cory cat, a balloon molly and 3 cherry barbs for the tropicals to join the dwarf gouramis, sailfin molly, serpea? tetras, albino lyre tails, and neon tetras. This morning I found the cory cat dead, and one of the sword tails partially eaten up. What, or rather, who, could have done that?
Its a 30 gl planted tropicals tank, fully cycled for 5 months now, and around 16 fish in it.... Not that I am particularly sorry about the sword tail, my stepson got the pair for me, and I never really attached to it, but the cory cat was a darling!

albino lyre tails? - are you talking about some guppy or swordtail or other peacefull livebearer?

as for what killed your fish.... ummm its a tough one, I think you will need to check your water and look for any signs of disease if you want the right answer, perhaops it was an ammonia spike or some disease, either way whatever it is you should check your water and also do some water changes - this is always a good idea following deaths.

as for what ate your fish, it most likely was a little of everyone, once a fish dies in a community the others will generally all have a go, it is not unusual for any of the fish you own to chance upon a fish dinner when a tankmate dies.

Innes - As far as I know, an albino Lyre-tail is a type of molly, with pink eyes and a tail whose outer edges are much longer than the centre (so it looks like a lyre).

Andrea, the only suspect I can see in your tank are the dwarf gouramis - but even then, they are very peaceful fish, and meant to be algae eaters - so totally vegetarian.

Actually, do you think the cory cat and swordtail could have been fighting at all? It would explain why the swordtail had been partially eaten, but I can't explain the cory cat.

Sorry to hear about your loss!

oh ok, I assumed it was some kind of livebearer.

in fact the term albino Lyre-tail does not specify the species, just the lack of pigment and the shape of the tail, it could be an Albino lyre-tail guppy, platty, swordtail, betta, piranha or anything with a tail that could be albino....

Sorry, Innes, I should have made that one clearer. Incandisco guessed it right, its a type of a molly.
I really don't suspect the dwarf gouramis, I have them for almost 5 months now, they were one of the very first fish I got, and they have never bothered any other fish in that tank. I guess another trip to the store is in order to get another cory cat, I just love the look of those albinos!....Not that I need an excuse to go to the fish store anyway!

Hi Andrea,Do you by chance ever put salt in the tank? I know alot of people do for mollies etc. I was just wondering, I have read that cory cats don't do so well with it-although there are a few people on forum that do,and say salt doesn't bother them. I have quite a few of cory's myself,and they are normally tough little things.The only time I've ever seen one die,is when my params were really off. Chances are they weren't fighting,but that they happened to die around the same time.Any fish that comes across a dead one seems to have an urge to eat it.YUCK!!

Sharon, no, I don't have salt in with them. And the filter has been cycled for years, its one of those forever running aquaclears...Just can't kill 'em! Just a weird occurance, I think now.....Give it another shot with the cory's.....

Oh,I still have corys,probably around 20 or so. That is one fish I have always loved,and will always have in some of my tropical tanks!

andrea,

sorry to hear about your cory.

honestly, it could have been anything. cory are tough little buggers but, they also hide their ailments very well. theyll look like they are doing fine one day and dead the next. them being bottom feeders and all, they can pick up sicknesses very easily. maybe the swordtail got sick and the cory picked it up from him? who knows?

anyway, i too am very fond of the albino corys. ive got one that is about 5 years old.

Wow, 5 years old! How big is he now?

hey hun,

way i see it is, maybe they jsut didnt deal with the stress of moving ?

Kev

I LOVE the albino cories too!! They're so ADORABLE!!!

However, I had 2 die on me within 2 days of getting them!

I think it's only because I wanted the smallest ones, and they were teeny (about a cm big)!! The other cories I bought at the same time, ( down to 5 now!) have all grown in size and are very active and crazy at times!


I fished them out as soon as I saw that they were dead though...I kinda knew that they wern't going to make it! They were tiny, and the adjustment made them jus too sickly! (Well, they were sickly to begin with from the lfs anyways!)

-The fishie rescuer!

Just a side note, I would be a bit wary of adding cherry barbs to that mix. They are actually quite aggressive for as cute and sweet as they are! I absolutely adored mine but they grew big (despite my reading everywhere that they max out at one inch; mine were about 2!) and quickly, and tore up my plant tank. I was very sorry to sell them back but I traded them in for much more peaceful tetras. Also barbs really need large schools (6-8 or so) to be at their happiest. With only 3 they may be focusing their aggression too much on some of the other fish!

As for the cory, they can be unusually sensitive. What type of substrate are you using? Most pea gravel is far too rough for their sensitive barbels and they get worn down quickly. When that happens they can starve to death because they cant find food! Isnt that awful? I found that out and switched over to sand (on top of gravel since its a planted tank) and their cute little whiskers have all grown back. I have lost my share of cories though, some for completely unknown reasons.

There are just so many types of barbs,and I'll tell ya what,no matter what kind I've ever had,I've always bought at least 6because they like to school,but I've had the worse luck with all barbs! Every type I've gotten turned out way bigger than they were suppose to be,and I also was always dealing with aggression problems. As pretty as some barbs are,I stay away from all of them when it comes to my community tank.As for my corys,they are one of my loves,and all their tanks have sand or small almost soft gravel because like js said,their little barbells wear right down.

Barbel erosion in corydoras has been linked to bacteria, which would be more abundant in pea-gravel substrates because of the extent of debris trapped by the rocks.

Corydoras are a schooling fish and 4 is an absolute minimum. Your cory likely died of stress and fear.