3 of my 5 Corys died :-(

[TheLyght7]

I lost my pleco last week :( So I thought I would try out a new bottom feeder and went for some green corys.

On Monday, I bought 3 to see how they would do before I added more. Unfortunately, one died the next morning. So I blamed it on the shock on switching over to a new tank.

I took him back to the LFS and got 2 more corys, thinking a bigger group would help them relax more. So of the 4 I had Tuesday morning, I lost 2 more over the night...

I'm lost and really concerned for my fish :( I added 5 small tiger barbs last week and they have had no issues *knock on wood*

I have a 65 gallon tank
Topfin 60 filter (I know it's not strong enough, I'm working on getting a better one)
A few live plants
5 sunburst platties
5 red wag platties
5 black skirt tetras
3 Dalmation mollies
1 Angelfish
5 tiger barbs
2 of 4 green corys :-(

I do weekly water changes of at least 25% and I tested my water this morning after changing it because I lost the 2 corys over night and here's a picture of my testing strip.

http://postimage.org/image/7ytxmg71h/

My nitrates seem high but that's probably due to the dead fish, even after the small water change so I know I need to work on lowering that down.

Any suggestions on how I can improve my tank for my corys? I'm open to any suggestions and would appreciate any feedback. Thanks!

[mizzoutank]

any issues with your water paramaters and the bottom feeders are the first to have issues.

I dont see that the ammonia was tested. But first and foremost, you really should try and get the Liquid Master Test Kit by API. Those results are far more accurate than those strips. The strips are not reliable.

So to guess....
ammonia spike from dead fish/tank issues....causing the deaths.
bad batch of fish. I've had 11 cory's over the past month or so, and 4 were just not strong enough for the transition of tank to tank. So now I wait about 3/4 days to purchase the fish to let the strong ones survive the initial shock of being transported to the lfs.

In other concerns that I notice.
Your tiger barbs and angel more than likely won't work out well once that angel grows and its fins get all big and "flowy" barbs love to nip at slower fish/long fins...and it'll be way to tempting for them not to harass your angel.

[TheLyght7]

Yeah, I ran out my ammonia tests so I need to grab some more today after work, I'll pick up that Liquid Master Test as well. Thanks for the suggestion

I'll verify that my water is stable and then try adding some more. I just feel so bad so I want to make sure I'm not bring a fish home to it's inevitable death

As for my angels and barbs, I thought the same thing but I read a few other posts on these forums saying that keeping the barbs in a decent sized school will keep the nipping to each other. So far they've been leaving my angelfish alone and focusing on each other but I am keeping my eyes on them :-D

[mizzoutank]

Great! Let us know the results of the test.
Make sure you shake/weight the appropriate amount (as listed on the instructions)


Good luck w/ the barbs, in the next week or two double that school to 10. 5 wouldn't be enough to keep the nipping to themselves.

[TheLyght7]

Okay, so after getting the Liquid Master Test and doing a 50% water change this morning, my nitrite is at 0 ppm, my ammonia is at 0 ppm and my nitrates are between 5 and 10 ppm. So I'll do another minor water change tomorrow to lower the nitrates and then try adding some more cory.

[mizzoutank]

The values that we need are before a water change.

After a water change, the levels are going to be desirable...hence why you do the water change in the first place.

So tonight, don't do the pwc, take the params, post them and we'll be able to figure out more.

20ppm nitrates would be the highest acceptable level. 5-10ppm is a good reading on that.