# Cory Cats dying off



## Steeners (Mar 28, 2010)

Hey guys,

It's been a long time since I posted here. The last time I posted was when I discovered camallanus worms in my fish. I was about to give up this hobby all together after starting up back in March.

I treated my tank twice with levamisole and that seemed to do the trick. I had two rainbows that I thought were goners, very thin, lost their colours and not eating at all. They made a total recovery and are now doubled in size. Their colours are coming out and they are looking healthy and happy. 

I lost a peppered cory during that time and I figured it was because it most likely was too weak from the parasite. After a month, I lost my little albino.

Before I get into more details here is some info on the tank:

55g - lightly planted
PH: 7.4
Temp: 78
Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: ~10-15ppm

I did have a slight ammonia reading when treating with levamisole of about ~0.25, no nitrites. I kept up with the water changes every other day and that put things under control again.
I do a weekly water change of about 35%.

What I am noticing with my corys is that their barbels start to get short. The second batch of corys that I got, about 5 are the first ones to start showing this and are dying off. When I notice the short barbels, they will die within a month.
The original 4 corys that I have are fine, long barbels and acting like their cory selves. I'm wondering if they need more hiding spaces, they are not as active as they used to be and seemed frightened ever since the rainbows came in.
I am using fluorite which I have read that is not good for these guys and their barbels. But my original 4 corys are perfectly fine so far and I have had them since the very beginning of my tank setup. Any advise as to what I should be doing here? I feel like such a bad fish mommy  

Maybe I shouldn't be keeping corys at all in this tank.... ? Setup my 10g with sand and put them in there instead...? Any recommendations on type of sand? I really like them, they are quite adorable.
Any recommendations on what bottom feeders I can keep on fluorite? or something to keep the gravel clean? I do have MTS in there too along with two bristlenose plecos that seem to be thriving.

Thanks you all for your help


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## arc (Mar 11, 2010)

No experience with fluorite but my research in the pass came to the same conclusion about it being bad for cory cats. If the their barbels are indeed getting damaged then it could be true about fluorite. I've put albino cories in a 10 gallon bare bottom QT tank and they did great so you could put your new group in something like that and see how they do.

The original 4 cories may have learned to avoid the fluorite and hence doing better.


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## Hitch (Apr 26, 2009)

I would also blame it on the flourite, the particles are too sharp for most if not all bottom feeding catfish. And if the barbels are too damaged, corys dont survive well. (So assuming there isnt any other bacterial infection which is affecting the barbels, I would say its the flourite).

So I would put them in another tank with sand or barebottom.

As for sand, any would work as long as you have washed it thoroughly. I personally dislike silica sand, since its a pain to work with. But things like play sand from your local hardware store works fine.


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