Why did my albino cory catfish die?

I found my cory catfish laying in the corner of the tank this morning, dead. I have no clue why. I have about a five gallon tank with one other cory catfish, and a betta. I think that the betta might have killed him, but I don't know. He seemed perfectly healthy and active the day before. I came home two days ago from a weeklong trip and I had my little brother take care of my fish tank. I just got him two weeks ago, can someone please help me?

 

Probably loneliness. They should be in groups of 5 or more...sorry for your loss.

 

He didn’t die of loneliness. You should keep groups of like 4 or more but they won’t DIE if you don’t.
He may have had some kind of disease or something wrong, or maybe your betta did kill him

 

Can you give us more details? Although corys should be in groups, I personally don't believe that loneliness was a big cause to what actually killed him.

 

He didn’t die of loneliness. You should keep groups of like 4 or more but they won’t DIE if you don’t.
He may have had some kind of disease or something wrong, or maybe your betta did kill him

Yeah that's kind of what I was thinking, my mom said that maybe he already had a disease when I got him but he wasn't showing any signs.

 

Can you give us more details? Although corys should be in groups, I personally don't believe that loneliness was a big cause to what actually killed him.

What kind of details do you need?

 

That’s a pretty small tank for any cory, even the smallest of them. Bettas are known to be pretty aggressive, so two small corys would be very stressed with a betta, which is why a larger shoal of corys is helpful for the little guys.

Is the tank cycled? Can we have numbers for ammonia, nitrites and nitrates? Corys are very sensitive so any amount of ammonia could cause a “random” death.

If the fish is new it could very well have had a disease on purchase or gotten stressed by the move and caught a disease.

 

That’s a pretty small tank for any cory, even the smallest of them. Bettas are known to be pretty aggressive, so two small corys would be very stressed with a betta, which is why a larger shoal of corys is helpful for the little guys.

Is the tank cycled? Can we have numbers for ammonia, nitrites and nitrates? Corys are very sensitive so any amount of ammonia could cause a “random” death.

If the fish is new it could very well have had a disease on purchase or gotten stressed by the move and caught a disease.

ok thank you, I'll look into it.

 

What kind of details do you need?

.. Can you fill out the fish emergency template? This way we don't have to ask a lot of questions.

 

.. Can you fill out the fish emergency template? This way we don't have to ask a lot of questions.

ill do that

 

What is the water volume of the tank?: 5 gallons
How long has the tank been running?: 1 year (I just added the coreys)
Does it have a filter?: yes
Does it have a heater?: yes
What is the water temperature?: 78 degrees fahrenheit
What is the entire stocking of this tank? : 1 male betta, 2 cory catfish, 1 mystery snail
How often do you change the water?: once a week
How much of the water do you change? : about a cup
What do you use to treat your water?: Water conditioner
Do you vacuum the substrate or just the water?: both
Did you cycle your tank before adding fish?: what is cycling?
What do you use to test the water?: I don't (Is this a problem?)
What are your parameters? : what are parameters?

Sorry I don't know some of this stuff, i'm relatively new to this and I didnt even know you NEEDED to test the water.

 

Alright, we have found the culprit! Corys are much more sensitive than bettas. Bettas can handle much worse conditions than most fish, which is why you see them surviving in bowls (trust me, they aren’t happy though!)

Go look into the Nitrogen Cycle. You will need an API liquid ammonia test kit and liquid nitrAtes test kit. After your research into a fish-in cycle, feel free to ask any further questions. Most will be answered with a brief look through this forum.

1 cup is not enough. Do a 50% water change right now and a 50% tomorrow. Then you can do less (depending on ammonia levels in the tank). You’ll want to keep the ammonia + nitrItes down below 1 ppm combined.

Rehome the cory. They are not made for a 5 gallon tank. If you want, after you finish cycling, you can grab a snail for funsies.

Get yourself some Seachem Prime. It will help make any ammonia non-toxic while you cycle the tank. It is a conditioner. It is all you need to use in the water during a water change.

 

The small filter (guess that is what it is) probably couldn't cope with the extra pollution the new fish caused.

 

Alright, we have found the culprit! Corys are much more sensitive than bettas. Bettas can handle much worse conditions than most fish, which is why you see them surviving in bowls (trust me, they aren’t happy though!)

Go look into the Nitrogen Cycle. You will need an API liquid ammonia test kit and liquid nitrAtes test kit. After your research into a fish-in cycle, feel free to ask any further questions. Most will be answered with a brief look through this forum.

1 cup is not enough. Do a 50% water change right now and a 50% tomorrow. Then you can do less (depending on ammonia levels in the tank). You’ll want to keep the ammonia + nitrItes down below 1 ppm combined.

Rehome the cory. They are not made for a 5 gallon tank. If you want, after you finish cycling, you can grab a snail for funsies.

Get yourself some Seachem Prime. It will help make any ammonia non-toxic while you cycle the tank. It is a conditioner. It is all you need to use in the water during a water change.

thank you!