Iron waffle

I have an albino cory catfish. I noticed he was lying on his side. My dwarf gourami would check on him(he's my helper) but he would move away. He had never done this before. He wouldn't eat, so I put him into a 10g QT tank with my live plants. I checked on him and let's just say he went to a better place. My spotted cory has lost his friend and he was one of my favorites. when i took him out of the tank, he had a cut on his stomach, but nothing else. All the other fish are completely happy. What went wrong?

Temp 77
ammonia/nitraite 0
nitrate 15
pH 7.4

clinton1621

If the cut was deep enough he may have punctured his swim bladder, or the cut was probably infected which could also lead to a swim bladder infection, sorry for your loss =(
Do you have any sharp objects or substrate he could have injured himself on? Corys have very soft "skin" because they are scaleless fish and its easy for them to get injured

Lucy

I'm really sorry you lost him.

Iron waffle

All the sharp objects are the gravel, maybe that's the problem...

clinton1621

what type of gravel is it??

ShaynaB

It was probably a bacterial infection caused by the wound he had. I'm sorry that you lost him.

Cory cats need smooth gravel because they're so sensitive. I'd try getting some cory cats of the same species for your other little guy in the tank. They like groups.