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| Posted | Whodunnit ? - who munched my cory ?! |
| 28-06-2005 16:17 by Chris Turnbull |
Hello there, am a new person on here and a new aquarist, my first proper tank completed the cycle after about 3 weeks (I primed one tray of the filter with the active media from a BiOrb I'd been cycling for a few weeks but realised was too small !! - which seemed to help a lot)
I've just over a dozen fish in there now, the original three black neon tetras, the six neon tetras that followed after the ammonia and nitrites calmed, the 6 leopard corys, one 3" rusty pleco and a new pleco (name begins with G - didn't write it down, need to drop in the shop to look !) it las leopard-like colourings, only an inch long at present. Odd thing is, sometime between lunch and teatime, one of the smaller corys, say half an inch long lost its tail, I found it floating face up, without his rear fin, looked like it'd just been sliced off - or bitten. So.. whodunnit ? - not the tetras surely, nor another cory - so big or little pleco ? - the chladoflora ?? :^) Is it possible it go its tail caught in the filter inlet ? - can fish generally escape the flow - mine is a bit mighty, aquapro4, 1200l/hr. Keeping an eye on the remaining fish.. watching those tribbles especially ! Chris |
| 29-06-2005 03:18 by Alan |
Is there direct access to the impellor for the fish or is there a sponge in the way? If there is a barrier between the impellor and the fish it will not have been this.
I suspect it may have been one of the plecs (you do sometimes get a rogue or a one off episode of completely uncharacteristic behaviour with them) if the pump can be ruled out but it is unusual that you describe the tail as looking like it has been sliced off, is it a clean cut? If so it maybe that the fish caught his tail in some decor and sliced it off trying to escape I have seen a fish do this unfortunately it happens so quickly its difficult to intervene before this happens. Is the fish still alive? Sometimes when fish recieve an injury like this especially if they lose all of the tail to the base it can lead to death. If only part of the tail is missing and the base is still intact I would suspect a full recovery could be on the cards but I am concerned about the irratic swimming. Corys can breath air which is why you often see them darting to the surface they have a small chamber in their head that holds this. If the level of oxygen is a little low in the water your corys will be racing to the surface quite often if this is the case I would check your water as it may be polluted or you may just need to increase the surface agitation of the water to aid gas exchange. Either way the problem you have with the fish you have in the tank is odd, I would be more concerned about the behaviour of the fish than the lack of tail unless it appears to become infected then it may be advisable to use some Melafix to counter any bacterial infection that may occur or if you suspect fungus treat for fungus accordingly. I recently bought a cichlid for one of my tanks and a polypterus kindly removed its tail one night, the cichlid has recovered and is now growing fast and about 5 inches long at the moment, the tail grew back within a month (the whole tail and it did get infected)and there is no sign of the injury so providing everything is ok water wise in the tank I would suspect a full recovery is possible. One thing to look out for with corys are their barbels if you have a sharp gravel substrate this can damage them and it seriously hinders their feeding and they often die. I prefer to keep them on a sand substrate but smooth gravel is equally good, they love live daphnia by the way. |
| 30-06-2005 19:06 by Chris |
Thanks for the advice, I should have made it clear the cory was already dead. I've discounted the filter as I watched a tiny tetra, what, a third the weight if the dead cory swim right past one of the intakes of the ext filter without so much as a swerve, just too weak to have trapped the cory, the whole rear fin and tail stem had gone !
Must be one of the plecs then, maybe the new, small one. Thanks re daphnia, my local shop gets them, the fish get them for a day or two every now and then, the tetras swarm into them too but enough remain. I've lots of water disturbance with the dozenish water jets from the ext filter output squirting across/into the surface and a few bubble makers too. Yep, smooth gravel and sand, they scour it constantly, really like my corys, lovely pink glow from inside them too. |
| 09-07-2005 13:05 by ABC |
It wasn't one of the plecs for sure. It was probably a piece of equipment - most likely the filter. |
| 14-07-2005 14:41 by Alan |
ABC I would say you can never discount the possibility it was a plec they are a surprisingly territorial fish I had a Royal panaque that used to be a real pain firstly it used to fight with other catfish big syno's around a foot long. It also used to hang on the side of large silver dollars presumably eating the mucus from them. I had also witnessed it shred the tail fin of one syno very quickly before I was able to intervene.
As with all fish you do get rogue's I also bred some green sword tails one of the off spring was so aggressive I had to house it in a malawi tank where it successfully lied and in fact was quite high on the pecking order killing a few mbuna twice her size to get there. One thing I have learnt in 20 years of fish keeping is that guidance in books is exactly that guidance it is not always going to be right and there are always exceptions to the rules. |
| 19-07-2005 17:54 by abc |
Yes Royal panaques can be rather agg. My one killed another one at just 2" long. However I still do not think it was a plec as they are relatively clumsy swimmers as apposed to the speedy Corydoras. Many plecs suck the mucus of large fish but this is not a sign of aggression - its a free meal. |
| 19-07-2005 23:34 by Ph |
I would have thought the cory died of some sort of water quality cause or in fection and then the other fish picked on it once it was dead. i see this happening all the when i lose fish. the fins and tail are the first things to go and the prime suspects are the buenos eires tetras i have and then my plecs move in to take over! |
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