15 Gallon Tank Pale looking albino corydoras

Hello!
I have 4 albino corys and 5 harlequin rasboras since 4 months ago. All the corys were looking same before, with a white-yellow color and the red looking line, which is their spinal. Since 2 days ago I realized one of my corys looks more white, like pale than the other 3 corys, he’s just lying down in the bottom and he moves just when I drop food. Does anybody have an idea of what could be? I posted pictures to compare the difference of the type of white color of the corys. Thank you

 

What are your water parameters? I've heard that fish tend to pale when their water parameters have changed or aren't great. Is it acting any different than before? Is it eating and moving around or acting lethargic? Have you changed anything or done anything new the last few days?

 

What are your water parameters? I've heard that fish tend to pale when their water parameters have changed or aren't great. Is it acting any different than before? Is it eating and moving around or acting lethargic? Have you changed anything or done anything new the last few days

I just measured The water parameters and they are:
pH: 7.6
High pH range: 7.8
Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 20

I had never had the nitrates as high as now. I guess I’ll do a water change.
I have been dealing with algae growth, I changed the light time from 10 to 8 hours per day. I change 25% of water every 2 or 3 weeks. Since I have seen my nitrates higher now, I guess I should do nuggets water changes and more often. Please confirm me this part.
Could that be a reason?

 

I just measured The water parameters and they are:
pH: 7.6
High pH range: 7.8
Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 20

I had never had the nitrates as high as now. I guess I’ll do a water change.
I have been dealing with algae growth, I changed the light time from 10 to 8 hours per day. I change 25% of water every 2 or 3 weeks. Since I have seen my nitrates higher now, I guess I should do nuggets water changes and more often. Please confirm me this part.
Could that be a reason?

Your parameters are fine really. 20 nitrates isn't too bad at all and I doubt that could be doing it, though you should keep them below 20 with 20 being the max. Most do water changes every week but if your fish aren't very messy it's fine to do it how you are (maybe every 10 days would work best?).

Is he eating and everything? Is he active or lethargic? Color loss can point to an internal bacterial infection in cory according to another thread Albino Cory blanched white and flipping upside down | Freshwater Fish Disease and Fish Health Forum | 466632 but he doesn't look thin at all (which is a bigger sign that it is a bacterial infection). What are you feeding them, by chance? And is he eating or are the others eating before he can get to it?

 

What is it fed ?

 

i feed my corys bottoms feeders pellets. I have gravel as substrate, but I made an island to sink their pellet. I also smash it a little bit so they can eat it easily. Today the Cory looks very lethargic, just like yesterday. I put some food next to him and he woke up swimming around like pushing all his energy out to get the food, but then he ended up just laying down on the other corner of the aquarium motionless. He doesn’t get upside down or anything like that yet, but it’s hard for him maneuvering his turns. He advance a few inches and then lays down until he gets more energy to move again
Last night I did 50% water change and vacuumed good the substrate. I don’t know how to help him or what he could have, I just hope he will make it and it won’t contagious anybody else in the tank I don’t have a hospital tank
I could trap him easily with my hands and I put it in a cup to see his body shape and symptoms. I think he’s slowly dying, but I can’t tell what made him sick I was feeding him with tweezers straight to his mouth and at the beginning he was eating, but slowly slowly he ends up without energy at all… I’ll keep him in the cup until he gives up I guess, or should I put him back?
now he’s laying on the side looking like dead but he’s still breathing. I really don’t know what to do

Hi,

Can someone help me? I posted another thread explaining about my sick cory, but I haven’t found help yet.

he was very lethargic, very white looking and it was very hard for him to maneuver his turns. I fed him and he tried to eat first, but then he didn’t move anymore. I could easily pick him out with my hands and I put him in a cup (I don’t have a hospital aquarium ) now he looks like dead inside the cup, even laying down, but he’s still breathing.
I put 1 drop of PraziPro in his cup just to see if it could either help or just bring his destiny faster. I have not hint of what could have made him sick. Everybody else looks happy and healthy.

3 days ago I fumigated my apt and I sealed the aquarium for 5 hours. It wasn’t fog fumigation, it was water spray. Everybody seemed fine after I opened the tank.

I did a 50% water change last night and now I added 1 bag of carbon in the filter. I’m just trying stop whatever made my fish sick.
The fish is dying slowly I think, and I don’t think it’s good idea to put him back in the tank with the others.

I tested the water parameters and it was 0 ammonia, pH 7.6, nitrite 0 and nitrate 20. I haven’t measure again after the water change.

I feed them flakes and bottom feeders food.

Help please!

 

i feed my corys bottoms feeders pellets. I have gravel as substrate, but I made an island to sink their pellet. I also smash it a little bit so they can eat it easily. Today the Cory looks very lethargic, just like yesterday. I put some food next to him and he woke up swimming around like pushing all his energy out to get the food, but then he ended up just laying down on the other corner of the aquarium motionless. He doesn’t get upside down or anything like that yet, but it’s hard for him maneuvering his turns. He advance a few inches and then lays down until he gets more energy to move again
Last night I did 50% water change and vacuumed good the substrate. I don’t know how to help him or what he could have, I just hope he will make it and it won’t contagious anybody else in the tank I don’t have a hospital tank
I could trap him easily with my hands and I put it in a cup to see his body shape and symptoms. I think he’s slowly dying, but I can’t tell what made him sick I was feeding him with tweezers straight to his mouth and at the beginning he was eating, but slowly slowly he ends up without energy at all… I’ll keep him in the cup until he gives up I guess, or should I put him back?
now he’s laying on the side looking like dead but he’s still breathing. I really don’t know what to do

I'm really not sure what else it could be other than a possible internal parasite or him just being stressed out over something that we're not seeing. You can try getting internal parasite meds (though make sure it's safe for corys as some meds are too intense). I would keep him in with the others though because moving him around could just stress him out more and without a quarantine tank he's better off having that extra room to not be stressed in.

I've heard praziquantel is safe for cory without killing bacteria. If you can somehow get a quarantine tank you can do Kanaplex and Erythromycin, but Erythromycin can kill a lot of your beneficial bacteria that maintain your cycle. Someone else might have a better idea on what could be wrong or how to treat him, but I'm honestly not seeing what it could be. I would make sure none of your other cory are acting the same as well.

 

I'd help it out of its missery.
Is that a hole in its belly ?

 

How long have you had this little guy/girl? I can't see anything obviously wrong. As sad as it is sometimes we lose fish for what seems like no reason at all.

When I first set my tank back up after being out of the hobby for a few years. I added 3 bronze, 3 albino and 5 false julii corys. Over the next couple of months I lost 3 of the false julii. After about 4 years I lost my female albino. Just last month I lost one of my 2 male albino's.

All of this to let you know. Sometimes we lose fish for seemingly no reason whatsoever. One day they seem healthy and the next day they are gone. Normally when one reaches this point there is very little we can do to save them.

 

How long have you had this little guy/girl? I can't see anything obviously wrong. As sad as it is sometimes we lose fish for what seems like no reason at all.

When I first set my tank back up after being out of the hobby for a few years. I added 3 bronze, 3 albino and 5 false julii corys. Over the next couple of months I lost 3 of the false julii. After about 4 years I lost my female albino. Just last month I lost one of my 2 male albino's.

All of this to let you know. Sometimes we lose fish for seemingly no reason whatsoever. One day they seem healthy and the next day they are gone. Normally when one reaches this point there is very little we can do to save them.

He was with me for only 5 months. I bury him already thank you for sharing your experience, this is my first fish tank and it’s pretty painful I hope this won’t happen again soon ;(

I'd help it out of its missery.
Is that a hole in its belly ?

It was just his guts or organs I guess, because they’re very transparent and on the picture it looks like a hole.

 

He was with me for only 5 months. I bury him already thank you for sharing your experience, this is my first fish tank and it’s pretty painful I hope this won’t happen again soon ;(

I am sorry you had to deal with this. It is never easy losing a pet. Even a water pet. This unfortunately is the down side to this wonderful hobby. It is going to happen no matter how well we take care of these little guys. I too hope this doesn't happen again soon.

As a group Corys normally live a long life but as you have just experienced, some we lose early in life. Right now I have well over 25 of the little vacuum cleaners in my tank. I do love these little guys.

If you have both male and female in your tank one day they will start laying fertile eggs. Cory eggs are really easy to hatch. You will have to collect the eggs should you want to try to hatch them though. All the fish in the tank including the corys will eat the eggs. Now that the weather has cooled off here my corys are back to laying eggs daily. Lots of free food for everyone.