# Please help our corydoras - we are finding them dead with reddy brown gill marks!



## fishomat (Nov 5, 2009)

Firstly many thanks for reading this!

We have a small tank including 4 blood-fin tetras, 3 cherry barbs, 3 peppered corydoras and 3 albino corydoras.
Well we did... The blood-fins came first, then the peppered corydoras, then the cherries and the albinos arrived at together. Things were fine for a 2-3 weeks days, then one by one the albino corys died. The first one we found wedged under the aerator, when we removed him he had reddening under the gills. The next one was dead on its side with browny red marks around the gills and we think the third one was similar.
Now one of the peppered corys is gone too - found hanging limp in a plant - we got him out of the plant, he was still alive for a bit, then we later found him on his side with the red around the gills too.

All other fish, including the other two pepper corys seem fine.

There is melafix in the water at present.

Tank size: 35L
pH: 7
ammonia: 0
nitrite: 0
tank temp: 26

The tank has been up and running since June - we had a bit of a fiasco with a few neon and cardinal tetras to star with before we moved on to the others. We lost a blood fin under the filter a couple of months ago, but all been fine apart from that. The filter is running, we have a working aerator, some living plants. The tank has a fair bit of algae, which we clean once a week and we do a 10-20% water change with bottled water once a week.

There are one or two tank ornaments and the substrate is fine gravel. (2mm or so in diameter)

Any assistance would be much appreciated as we don't want to lose anymore fish!!

Thanks.


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## teddyzaper (Aug 30, 2009)

well first we need your water hardness, alkalinity, nitrate levels, because some cories are sensitive to those.
i would take out the areator because it is bad for the plants and reduce the amount of time the light is on to reduce algea.


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## Rohland (Aug 20, 2009)

It would also be fair to say that your tank itself if slightly overstocked. However I dont know whats killing your fish.


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