prairielilly

I lost a panda cory just now.

I took a few days off from work this week, and this morning was sitting around having coffee and watching my fish. I noticed that I was only seeing two of three pandas...I found the third sitting near the back, and he appeared to have a red spot on his right side just behind his pectoral fin. It wasn't there yesterday, and he was also fine and swimming around yesterday. So I thought I'd just watch him close for a day or so and see if anything else was amiss. One of the other pandas had fin rot a while back from being bullied by the DG, but since I started breaking up the wafer and distributing it throughout the tank that isn't a problem any more. The one with fin rot healed up nicely, and isn't the same fish as this one.

Two weeks ago I skipped my weekly gravel vac bc my nitrates have been really low lately, 0-5. The following week (last Saturday) when I vac'd the tank the gravel was pretty dirty IMO, so I just figured I'd go back to weekly vacs and let the nitrates be low. When I vac I make sure to stir everything up so there's no gas pockets. I vac under the driftwood pieces every second time, and rinse the filter media in tank water on alternate weeks.

Yesterday I was moving some plants around and it stirred up more stuff than I expected, so I decided to do an extra mid-week vac and water change today. When I was done all the fish were swimming around and playing like they always do when they get clean water....except one panda. Couldn't find him. Finally did - in the back, upside down and dead.

I just now tested the water: 0-0-5. It's been about 1.5 h since the wc so it's all mixed in.

Outside of skipping the one vac more than a week ago, the maintenance has been like clockwork and the water parameters just fine. All the other fish are fine. I know pandas are delicate but I thought with such low nitrates it was 'clean' enough for them? the other two seem fine! I'm kind of overanalyzing this I know but it's hitting me a little hard - I feel like I did everything right and this STILL came out of the blue - first fish I've lost since I got the tank up again in January. Poor cute little panda...

Guess I just had to rant. Thanks for reading/listening.

Lucy

I'm really sorry you lost your cory. It's really hard to lose a fin baby even especially knowing you've done verything right and don't know the reason.
RIP Little guy

CHoffman

I love Panda's they are super cute..So sorry you lost one of your little guys. It's rough not knowing the cause. RIP Panda

pinkfloydpuffer

That's so sad.
I know there's been at least two members here who have lost their cories to exactly what you described. We could never figure out what was wrong with them I don't think.

haedra

I'm so sorry you had to deal with this.

You mentioned a red spot, were you able to figure out what that was?

prairielilly

Thanks guys. This one seems to hit a lot harder, I think it's because when I lost fish before it was before I found Fishlore and before I knew what I was doing, and now I thought all was well...and well, I work in science for a living, I'm accustomed to coming up with solutions to problems, and I love nurturing my little fin babies, and I'm having issues with sitting and watching them suffer and die while I don't know what the cause is or if it will affect the rest or what to do about it...sorry guess I wasn't done ranting.

The cherry's I've had in QT for about a month now, the male has had a red spot on his side ever since I got him but the female doesn't. I've medicated them for everything possible and he's no better but also no worse, and still alive; the female appears to be normal. I've been very careful to not share anything in between the tanks, when I couldn't avoid that (only have one gravel vac) I sterilized the stuff with bleach water. I always thought red spots were bacterial septicemia, but he didn't have any cuts or anything...

pinkfloydpuffer

It's always hard when they die right out of the blue like that. I lost one of my cories like that. I came home and she was just dead. I have no idea what happened. But the other two have been fine for months now since then. I guess these things just happen. I'm sorry it happened to you though.

prairielilly

Thanks PFP.

agabr123

i'm really sorry to hear that....

i lost a panda cory a while back to what sounds like the same thing, did it look like this?
Urgent Sick Panda Cory

prairielilly

Thanks Alex. Yeah, pretty much the exact same thing, except the red spot on your panda was bigger than the one on mine, mine had just a little teeny one and it was right behind the pectoral fin. So far as I know he died right after the wc. I don't think it was ammonia poisoning (in my case or yours) as only one side was affected and only one fish. I don't know what happened, I'm really not good with the 'you'll probably never know' idea, but right now everyone else is still fine and dandy (counted heads) and enjoyed their supper as per usual, and the two remaining pandas are pretty much inseparable, so on we go...

agabr123

yeah, i checked my ammonia levels several times, and had checked them just a few days before and they were all 0ppm. i never knew what happened to him

Shawnie

oh no!!! im so sorry you lost your lil fella...I lost a sterbai when I first got them and have not a clue why either(and havent been able to find more )...nothing was apparent to the eye and my parims were good...it hurts like heck when we dont know why ...i hope everyone is ok~~~

prairielilly

Thanks everyone, the sympathy's really appreciated

So since this was (is) my first time keeping corydoras of any variety, is this 'normal'? as in are they really this delicate, like jgon said in your linked thread Alex that 'they'll be the picture of health...and then just up and die'? or are pandas more delicate than some others?

haedra

Well, I am by no means a cory expert, so I can't say this is completely true with confidence; it is just what I had heard.

But when I initially did a bit of internet research on them, I had read that pandas were more sensitive than some of the other species. But I don't know by how much, or specifically what they were more sensitive to, other than water parameters (which in your case proved to be all ok). It was one of the reasons I went with the sterbai instead, as I had read the opposite about them; that they were a little more hardy. But again, I don't know how true this is.

*edit* Actually, more delicate is probably a better way to put it, but again that is just what I had heard.

prairielilly

That's the same as I had read haedra. I don't know. I have been concerned about my filter, it's a marineland biowheel and whenever it gets clogged in the slightest the biowheel slows down or stops. Then I get frantic that my biofilter is dying off and I'll get a mini cycle. So I pretty much babysit the thing and check it at least twice a day to make sure it's still spinning properly. I monitor the ammonia regularly and it's always been zero. I haven't seen any adverse effects on the other fish and you'd think I would've if there were ammonia issues. The pH is high right out of the tap, but then there's driftwood in the tank, and anyway it's stable and they've been living happily under all those conditions for months. I've been thinking for a while now that at some point I'll shell out for an AquaClear filter and then I'll worry less (no biowheel) but it costs like $60 and this one appears to be working fine....

At this point I can accept that I'm not going to know what happened, just that I did what I could to prevent it, and I can find a comfort level with that. It's one of those times though when I really, really wish they could talk

MissMTS

I am so sorry to hear about your cory. I am the other one who lost a cory to the exact same thing. He looked pretty much the same as Alex's did. I have no idea why it died or what the red spot was from. All of my other cories in the tank were perfectly healthy and water parameters were great. Hopefully we can figure out what is causing all of these mystery death

prairielilly

Thanks so much

I've been thinking a lot (overanalyzing as per usual) and a 'red spot' on a white fish to me implies internal bleeding. So maybe something ruptured, like an aneurysm or something. Why - who knows. Maybe that's one of the reasons pandas are so delicate. It could be a species trait and there would be nothing we can do about it. Just supposition of course.

Since I'm setting up a new 10g, I'm giving some serious thought to putting the remaining 2 pandas in there once it's done cycling. It's to house some guppies, who I'd think would be a lot less bullying than a dwarf gourami (which may or may not have had anything at all to do with this...)

agabr123

i was thinking internal bleeding too, that seemed like the most plausible explanation to me. the only other thing i thought it could have been afterwards was columnaris.

prairielilly

Ok, granted, but if it were columnaris then other fish would have been affected too I think. I'm watching them pretty close and still all's well.

The more I think about it the more I think the cories should eventually go into the 10g, and I'm really starting to like the idea of replacing the filter (would cost $35 not $50!) Possibly unnecessary...but would make me feel better.

agabr123

yeah, i really don't know and it's hard to speculate at this point. i think that he may have just been a lot more delicate than my others