Cory's sudden death

[Blackmantis]

So I took a nap this afternoon and when I awoke, there was a nasty surprise waiting for me in my tank.

One of my skunk corys suddenly died.

I believe the culprit might be the new piece of driftwood I put into my tank, which lowered the Ph from 7.6 to a neutral 7.0. It has stayed at a constant 7.0 in the past 12 hours. I honestly can't think of anything else that might have such an effect. My water parameters are normal.

The corys have been pretty lethargic in the past few weeks. I'm trying to avoid losing any other ones in there. Are there other signs or symptoms I should be on the lookout for?

[rich311k]

A drop of .6 caused by driftwood would take a few days and is not mlikely the cause of the problem. What are the parameters of the tank? How long have you had the tank?

[Blackmantis]

I've had the tank for about 2 months now. It's been fully cycled.

Both ammonia and nitrite levels are at 0.

The only thing that's different is the Ph change, which I believe came from the addition of the driftwood (a rather large piece) on Sunday morning.

[wlepse]

I did have one molly once that reacted poorly to the addition of driftwood. Not sure if it was the pH change or something else but within a week of its removal he was fine again. Oddly though the other fish were fine. Maybe your cory was just more sensitive. Sorry for your loss.

[Blackmantis]

I'm actually wondering if the driftwood was the catalyst that pushed his death and if more are on the way.

I've had these corys for about 3 weeks now, and at first all was fine. They would swim around every once in a while (which some still do) but now, much of the time they just sit there.

The barbels and fins are intact on the corys, so infection is unlikely. I keep aquarium salt levels low, only putting about a tablespoon for every 7-8 gallons so that's unlikely to be the cause.

[lowlight]

Why are you adding salt? I don't think the drop in Ph would do it even though Skunk corys are sensitive to water conditions. I would do a deep gravel vac with a 50% water change and keep the Nitrates below 20ppm and add more plants.

[Blackmantis]

Yeah, I'm going to be running to my lfs today to pick up another 2 plants. I plan on having a total of 5 or 6 plants in the tank eventually.