My Cories are Being Eaten??

[chris]

Hi everyone,

Here's my _current_ community stats:

6 Black Neons
3 Pepper Cories
2 Plecos

Last night, to my horror, I found two dead fish. 1 Black Neon and 1
Pepper Cory and they seemed to have chunks of them eaten. Another of
my cories has part of his tail missing. What could possibly be eating
them? All of these fish should be fairly peaceful. The cory had a
chunk bitten out of his gill.

The water quality is good and the fish aren't underfed. Could it be my
Plecos?

Help!

Chris

[NetMax]

"chris" > wrote in message
oups.com...
> Hi everyone,
>
> Here's my _current_ community stats:
>
> 6 Black Neons
> 3 Pepper Cories
> 2 Plecos
>
> Last night, to my horror, I found two dead fish. 1 Black Neon and 1
> Pepper Cory and they seemed to have chunks of them eaten. Another of
> my cories has part of his tail missing. What could possibly be eating
> them? All of these fish should be fairly peaceful. The cory had a
> chunk bitten out of his gill.
>
> The water quality is good and the fish aren't underfed. Could it be my
> Plecos?
>
> Help!
>
> Chris


Ahh the black sheep of the tetra family, the carnivorous Black Neon
(closely related to the banned Black Piranha), probably died in a battle
to the death with the Pepper cory cat (the fish version of the
Sabre-tooth cat. Sorry, couldn't resist ;~).

It's not unusual for fish to be picked apart after death, so murder may
not have been the cause. Some plecos are opportunistic omnivores, but
they are not exactly accomplished hunters against something small like a
Neon (they have better luck with larger fish they can hold down while
they scrape their meal off). I think plecos also lack the jaws to bite a
chunk out of a tailfin.

I don't know what's happening in your tank, but maybe you should vary
their diet? *seriously*, can't hurt, spirulina wafers and zucchini for
the plecs, bottom feeder pellets for the corys and plecs, brine shrimp
for the Neons, bloodworms for the corys. If there is a problem
(diseases, fungus, immune system) then healthy fish are their own best
defence against pathogens.

In the meanwhile, post all your water parameters, gH, NH, NO3 and pH, and
your tank details (size, filtration and service interval). Perhaps there
will be a clue there.
--
www.NetMax.tk

[Carol-Ann]

"chris" > wrote in message
oups.com...
> Hi everyone,
>
> Here's my _current_ community stats:
>
> 6 Black Neons
> 3 Pepper Cories
> 2 Plecos
>
> Last night, to my horror, I found two dead fish. 1 Black Neon and 1
> Pepper Cory and they seemed to have chunks of them eaten. Another of
> my cories has part of his tail missing. What could possibly be eating
> them? All of these fish should be fairly peaceful. The cory had a
> chunk bitten out of his gill.
>
> The water quality is good and the fish aren't underfed. Could it be my
> Plecos?
====================
I've never had a Pleco kill anything but have seen them feeding on a fish
that had died. I've never seen them eat newborn fish either. They remind
me of scavengers. They'll eat what's available.
--
Reel McKoi.... frugal ponding since 1995...
My Pond & Aquarium Pages:
http://bellsouthpwp.net/s/h/shastadaisy
~~~ }<((((o> ~~~ }<{{{{o> ~~~ }<(((((o>

[chris]

Alright, I have an update I think. I was looking at another of my
cories that is swimming kind of funny. On his left side there seems to
be some kind of fuzzy protrusion or swelling. His gill is very red on
that side and the fin on that side seems unable to move so he has a bit
of trouble swimming straight but seems to have LOTS of energy.

Could this be some kind of parasite? Could he have caught this by
eating the other fish? I think i confused the last cory with having a
part of him eaten, but it could have just been this swelling that
burst. How could I treat this if I figure out what it is?

Thanks for everyone's help, this newsgroup is excellent.

Chris

[Carol-Ann]

"chris" > wrote in message
oups.com...
> Alright, I have an update I think. I was looking at another of my
> cories that is swimming kind of funny. On his left side there seems to
> be some kind of fuzzy protrusion or swelling. His gill is very red on
> that side and the fin on that side seems unable to move so he has a bit
> of trouble swimming straight but seems to have LOTS of energy.

## That doesn't sound good. :-(

> Could this be some kind of parasite?

## It sounds more like an injury. The fuzz would be an infection.

Could he have caught this by
> eating the other fish? I think i confused the last cory with having a
> part of him eaten, but it could have just been this swelling that
> burst. How could I treat this if I figure out what it is?

## It sounds like an infected wound to me. It doesn't sound like a
parasite problem - but they could have started the infection. I always used
Furicin with good results when fish had such injuries.

> Thanks for everyone's help, this newsgroup is excellent.

## I wish I could be of more help.....
--
My Pond & Aquarium Pages:
http://bellsouthpwp.net/s/h/shastadaisy
~~~ }<((((o> ~~~ }<{{{{o> ~~~ }<(((((o>

[chris]

Well, I woke up this morning and the fish with the fuzzy extrusion on
the left side of his belly was lying on his side. He's not dead, but
he's having trouble staying upright and the fuzzy extrusion is gone,
and all that is left is a red welt. Woe is me, what is going on?!?

Chris

[Carol-Ann]

"chris" > wrote in message
oups.com...
> Well, I woke up this morning and the fish with the fuzzy extrusion on
> the left side of his belly was lying on his side. He's not dead, but
> he's having trouble staying upright and the fuzzy extrusion is gone,
> and all that is left is a red welt. Woe is me, what is going on?!?
============================
I think you're just going to have to let it go and move on. Sometimes they
die and we never know the exact cause. I recently bought 5 small pearlscale
goldfish for my sunroom. All were doing great. One morning I fed them and
all eat and looked fine. When I went back after dinner one was dead!!! It
never acted sick. It had no marks on it, no sores, no fungus.... not even a
torn fin. I could hardly believe my eyes..... :*( Worse yet the shop
was too far to return it for a refund.
--
My Pond & Aquarium Pages:
http://bellsouthpwp.net/s/h/shastadaisy
~~~ }<((((o> ~~~ }<{{{{o> ~~~ }<(((((o>

[Liz]

The following URLs link to pages about fish diseases. The actual link
may go to a specific disease that has nothing to do with what your fish
has, but you should be able to navigate from there to an index or
similar type page. Hopefully you will find pics and descriptions to
help you ID the disease:

http://www.fishdeals.com/fish_diseases/stressdisease.shtml

http://www.fishkeepinguk.co.uk/disease.htm

http://faq.thekrib.com/disease-fw.html

http://www.pkpets.com/pets/fishdisease.htm

http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/aquariums/1770

http://www.aquarticles.com/articles/management/Keefer_FishTB.html

http://www.fishpalace.org/Disease.html

http://www.exitfive.com/fishdoctor/skinbody.html

....I got these from a thread on a forum elsewhere, so I don't know how
good any of them is, but I'm sure you'll find somthing useful.

I would not just ignore it and hope it goes away - quarantine the fish,
research and treat him (and others / the tank, as needed, to avoid it
spreading and killing more fish).

Liz

[Elaine T]

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chris wrote:
> Well, I woke up this morning and the fish with the fuzzy extrusion on
> the left side of his belly was lying on his side. He's not dead, but
> he's having trouble staying upright and the fuzzy extrusion is gone,
> and all that is left is a red welt. Woe is me, what is going on?!?
>
> Chris
>
It's a bacterial infection of some sort, causing ulcers on the fish. The
fuzz was a secondary fungal infection. It's not clear how or why the
bacterial infections suddenly started, unless you bought new fish or had
water quality problems. Try feeding all of your fish Jungle's antibacteral
food. In addition, quarantine all the affected fish and use Maracyn 2
along with the food.

Good luck - your fish are pretty sick.

- --
Elaine T __
http://eethomp.com/fish.html <'__><
rec.aquaria.* FAQ http://faq.thekrib.com
PGP public key available at https://keyserver1.pgp.com/


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[chris]

Well, I rushed home from work today, Furan 2 in hand to start treating
the tank and my poor cory was foud dead at the bottom of the tank. The
other two cories look ok, except for one is missing the bottom of his
tailfin. I think the infection is Furunculosis from the pictures I've
seen on the internet in my research. Can anyone confirm that I might
be correct and whether I should dose the tank anyway to try and prevent
further infection.

Thanks,
Chris

[Liz]

Chris,

Any chance you could post a photo of the fish somewhere - would make it
a lot easier for others to help with the diagnosis. If you don't have
a place, and want me to put it on my web site, post here and send me an
email (I don't check this email account often, so post here so I know
to look at the picture) and I'll put it up on my web site for a while.

Liz

[chris]

Unfortunately, the fish has already been disposed of. I've started a
Furan-2 cycle to see if it helps yet another cory that seems to be
showing similar symptoms this evening.

We'll see what happens.

Chris

[Carol-Ann]

"chris" > wrote in message
oups.com...
> Well, I rushed home from work today, Furan 2 in hand to start treating
> the tank and my poor cory was foud dead at the bottom of the tank. The
> other two cories look ok, except for one is missing the bottom of his
> tailfin. I think the infection is Furunculosis from the pictures I've
> seen on the internet in my research. Can anyone confirm that I might
> be correct and whether I should dose the tank anyway to try and prevent
> further infection.
======================
This may help. Do a really thorough gravel vacuuming to remove as much
"mulm" or curd as possible, and replace the water as usual - then medicate!
I always got a better response from meds that way.
--
My Pond & Aquarium Pages:
http://bellsouthpwp.net/s/h/shastadaisy
~~~ }<((((o> ~~~ }<{{{{o> ~~~ }<(((((o>

[Elaine T]

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA256

chris wrote:
> Unfortunately, the fish has already been disposed of. I've started a
> Furan-2 cycle to see if it helps yet another cory that seems to be
> showing similar symptoms this evening.
>
> We'll see what happens.
>
> Chris
>
Be careful with Furan 2. It's a very good choice for an antibiotic
but the methylene blue in it will kill your plants and biofilter.
Remove your live plants and test for ammonia while you treat.
Reseed the tank from another tank or with some Bio-Spira when
you're done treating.

Good luck!

- --
Elaine T __
http://eethomp.com/fish.html <'__><
rec.aquaria.* FAQ http://faq.thekrib.com
PGP public key available at https://keyserver1.pgp.com/

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[chris]

This is a little off topic, but why does everyone seem to hate you? As
soon as you started posting, there were lots of posts calling for your
head. Figure I'll get a less rabid response if I ask the accused,
seeing as all your posts to me have been helpful.

Chris

[Liz]

Chris,

Ignore it. This group has been invaded by trolls who post junk,
off-topic, and who fake headers (one has started posting as "Elaine"
(not Elaine T) in an effort to confuse and cause problems). The same
person will also post under multiple names. Look carefully at who's
been here a while (scroll through older messages) and who avoids the
junk - listen to those people.

Do NOT reply to the junk, even if they begin to slander your name - we
will all know it's nonsense and will ignore them.

Liz

[Gill Passman]

NetMax wrote:
> "chris" > wrote in message
> oups.com...
>
>>Hi everyone,
>>
>>Here's my _current_ community stats:
>>
>>6 Black Neons
>>3 Pepper Cories
>>2 Plecos
>>
>>Last night, to my horror, I found two dead fish. 1 Black Neon and 1
>>Pepper Cory and they seemed to have chunks of them eaten. Another of
>>my cories has part of his tail missing. What could possibly be eating
>>them? All of these fish should be fairly peaceful. The cory had a
>>chunk bitten out of his gill.
>>
>>The water quality is good and the fish aren't underfed. Could it be my
>>Plecos?
>>
>>Help!
>>
>>Chris
>
>
>
> Ahh the black sheep of the tetra family, the carnivorous Black Neon
> (closely related to the banned Black Piranha), probably died in a battle
> to the death with the Pepper cory cat (the fish version of the
> Sabre-tooth cat. Sorry, couldn't resist ;~).
>
> It's not unusual for fish to be picked apart after death, so murder may
> not have been the cause. Some plecos are opportunistic omnivores, but
> they are not exactly accomplished hunters against something small like a
> Neon (they have better luck with larger fish they can hold down while
> they scrape their meal off). I think plecos also lack the jaws to bite a
> chunk out of a tailfin.
>
> I don't know what's happening in your tank, but maybe you should vary
> their diet? *seriously*, can't hurt, spirulina wafers and zucchini for
> the plecs, bottom feeder pellets for the corys and plecs, brine shrimp
> for the Neons, bloodworms for the corys. If there is a problem
> (diseases, fungus, immune system) then healthy fish are their own best
> defence against pathogens.
>
> In the meanwhile, post all your water parameters, gH, NH, NO3 and pH, and
> your tank details (size, filtration and service interval). Perhaps there
> will be a clue there.

Hi Chris,

A quick question - what type of Plec's do you have? Some Plecs have been
known to suck the slimecoat off slower moving fish (not sure they could
catch a cory though) - do a quick google on "pleco slime suck" - you
should get over a 1000 hits. Just wondering if this might be your
problem and that the wound has become infected - the fin nipping could
be one of the tetras taking an opportunistic nip at an already injured
fish.

I have two Plecs - one lives in a mbuna tank and doesn't fail to take an
opportunistic chunk out of whatever poor fish the Mbunas decide to
murder (as they are veggies I'm sure it is the Plec doing this) - a
Snowball Plec. In my other tank, I have a Queen Arabesque who was
largely vegetarian for at least the first 6 months of being in the tank
- he now takes a lot of catfish pellets and sinking tabs which are
mainly for carnivores.

Just thinking, depending on your Plecs (as some are vegetarian whatever)
it might be worth feeding catfish pellets or sinking tabs to supplement
their diet - if they are slime sucking this might be a way round it

Gill