DEAD CATFISH-PLEASE HELP!!!

[Gooose]

Hi everyone, i recently purchased discus about three weeks ago, and i asked the breeder what are the best catfish to get with discus and he said corydoras, fine. so i go to a fish store and pick up five corys for about 35dollars (albino and some other kind) put them in my tank to keep it clean and eat the left over food and about 48 hrs after i put them in they all died. they all had a patch of red on them that looked like a blood wound, i dont know how that happened, maybe the discus hit them or something, but the point is that i have a 55 gal tank, my ph is 7.6, my temp is 86, my ammonia, nitrates, and nitrites are all at 0, and i have gravel on the bottom. now that i know i cant get corys for my tank(unless i can and i dont know which kind to get), if anybody knows any kind catfish that is compatible with discus and is reasonablly affordable, and can live in my water parameters i would greatly appreciate the help.thanks so much and have a great day.

[greyhoundfan]

I'm not an expert on Corys but did you QT them and slowly adjust them to the high temps?

From what I've read C.Sterbais are best suited for discus temps. Petshop temps were probably in the 70's. So it may have been too much of a dramatic jump for them. I have some sterbais myself but they are in QT right now. I'm slowly bringing up the temp on them now, I'm adjusting 2 degrees up a week.

I'm at 82 now. I started them of at 78. I plan to keep them in QT for 3 more weeks and get them to 86. In total, I'm giving them 6 weeks to adjust to the temps. Your water parameters looks good, I figure it's just the temp shock.

[sleonard]

When I put 5 cories in my discus tank the discu immediately started attacking them. Killed 2 within a few hours and they had that "blood patch" on them too. I replaced them with Bristlenose plecos that have done much better.

Scott

[geekgeek]

I think 86F for albino is way too high. I would try sterbai, but they are expensive at LFS.

Like others say, condition them slowly. Start at 77F or whatever the LFS had them at and slowly go up for 2 weeks. Cories get lazy at high temperatures.

I use the cardinals and rummy noses as cleaners :) Don't feed them floating flakes or food that floats. Food that drops to the bottom. Soon enough they will learn to feed off the bottom looking for leftovers. After awhile, they won't even go up for food, now that food is on the gravel.

[Squiggy]

again....If your nitrates are at zero, your tank is NOT cycled...


Joe

[swinters66]

I keep my temp at around 83 and my corys are doing just fine. I did lose one albino like 2 months ago, but didnt see any marks on the body. My discus don't pay any attention to my bottom feeders. I keep spotted and albino corys.

Personally, with the red mark you mentioned and the fact that all of them died that quickly, makes me wonder if something was wrong with the corys to begin with. Next time quarantine them, watch them and see. If they do well, move them to the discus tank.

[apistofreak]

again....If your nitrates are at zero, your tank is NOT cycled...


Joe

I dont want to speakout of turn as I'm a newbie here but I'm far from being a newbie with fish, But you have made broad statement that is fundelmentaly flawed(sp?), it is quite easy to keep nitrates at 0.0 with a cycled tank, in fact its rare for any of my tanks to register above zero, most people I know who have low to zero nitrates like myself have a light to moderate amount of live plants which yummy up the nitrate as soon as its produced.

my 2c

PS I admit with no plants zero nitrates usually means non-cycled tank but not all people run discus/fish with bare bottoms (Only time I did both died :mad: , but they were only pushing 1" TL). Noting he had cories & substrate so may of also had plants, may of just done a water change before testing or does lots of water changes as many discus owners do so nitrates dont build up to measurable levels, ANY of the above is more likely than discus living three weeks in an uncycled tank, (besides if it was uncycled its unlikely that ammonia and nitrite would also test 0?)

apologies for my rant :o

Andrew

[Squiggy]

The number of plants needed to zero the nitrate produced per fish would be very large. Light plantings wouldn't do it. I stand by my statement.

Joe

[Ed13]

The number of plants needed to zero the nitrate produced per fish would be very large. Light plantings wouldn't do it. I stand by my statement.

Joe

I second it "Lightly planted" is just not good enough with the way most tanks are stock at least not with "regular husbandry". I won't deny that its possble to have zero nitrates in a mature tank thoug.

[Moon]

I think this is temprature related. I keep and breed Corydoras Matae and Panda. These were doing well in my fishroom with temps in the mid to high 70's. When I move some of these to my discus and altum tanks within a few weeks they strated getting red bloches on their sides and all died. All water parameters were the same in all my tanks wth the exception of high temps in the discus and altum tanks. So my conclusion is high temps.
There are some corrys that can handle high temps as mentioned in the previous posts. But not Pandas and Mataes.
Joe

[Ed13]

Hi everyone, i recently purchased discus about three weeks ago, and i asked the breeder what are the best catfish to get with discus and he said corydoras, fine. so i go to a fish store and pick up five corys for about 35dollars (albino and some other kind) put them in my tank to keep it clean and eat the left over food and about 48 hrs after i put them in they all died. they all had a patch of red on them that looked like a blood wound, i dont know how that happened, maybe the discus hit them or something, but the point is that i have a 55 gal tank, my ph is 7.6, my temp is 86, my ammonia, nitrates, and nitrites are all at 0, and i have gravel on the bottom. now that i know i cant get corys for my tank(unless i can and i dont know which kind to get), if anybody knows any kind catfish that is compatible with discus and is reasonablly affordable, and can live in my water parameters i would greatly appreciate the help.thanks so much and have a great day.

There are a couple of things here that I'd like to point out for the future:

You bought fish with out research first, only word from the person trying to make money from you;) You have no idea what the cory were and unfortunately most corydoras need cooler water and the diet should not be as high in protein
No qt period; this will ensure in the future less problemsThere are a buch of suitable tank-mates for discus just read through
http://forum.simplydiscus.com/forumdisplay.php?f=92

Use the search function it will be of great help since chances are that someone has allready gone through with what you have

Brochis splendens, Corydoras aenus, C. julii, sterbai, C gossei, C trilineatus are some that can handle the temps(not to high though), with sterbai being the most costly, beautiful and suited for the high temps. But you still have qt them and adjust them slowly to the desired water parameters

[PamelaJ]

My corydoras seemed to do ok at discus temps...even when I raised the temp to 92 degrees F for a hex treatment. But I have NEVER had any luck with albinos in a discus tank. The discus peck their eyes out. :mad:

[Kindredspirit]

again....If your nitrates are at zero, your tank is NOT cycled...


Joe


So Joe ~ if the tank IS cycled....Nitrates shld be at 10? Or no?


Marie ~ :balloon:

[Graham]

Just a comment about the nitrate levels for Joe and Andrew

While it's possible to have ''zero'' readings using our crappy inaccurate test kits it's very unusual.

The natural end product of nitrification is NO3 but if the ammonia produced is converted to ammonium and there is a sufficient number of plants to utilize it then no nitrification or very little will take place.

Plants use nitrate as a last resort and it's not yummy to them...if there is ammonium around they'll use it first without question...that's yummy :)

The average aquarium is overstocked, overfed and under water changed so NO3 will always be present.

If this tank is new and it sounds like it may very well not havean rstablished bio-film

[Polar_Bear]

Just a comment about the nitrate levels for Joe and Andrew

While it's possible to have ''zero'' readings using our crappy inaccurate test kits it's very unusual.

The natural end product of nitrification is NO3 but if the ammonia produced is converted to ammonium and there is a sufficient number of plants to utilize it then no nitrification or very little will take place.

Plants use nitrate as a last resort and it's not yummy to them...if there is ammonium around they'll use it first without question...that's yummy :)

The average aquarium is overstocked, overfed and under water changed so NO3 will always be present.

If this tank is new and it sounds like it may very well not havean rstablished bio-film

I believe he said his pH is 7.6 which would indicate NH3 not NH4, any tank that is cycled will show some amount of NO3 even heavily planted ones. The red on the corys in fact sounds like NO2 posioning, but could certainly have been a bacterial infection, or even wounds of some kind. My suggestion would be to take some water and have it tested since it sounds as though your test kits may be out of date.

[bavaria36]

I have 8 wild caught C Strebai in my discus tank with the temperature at 85 F/ 29C. They are doing just great and have grown a lot in the past month. They seem to be quite happy at this temperature

Since I added the discus two weeks ago I stopped feeding the Sterbai and let them take whatever the discus did not eat. As I have been feeding FBW and BH they have been eating a lot of protein and their pectorals and bellies have gone orange which I think indicates that they are doing well. The discus ignore them totally.

So it seems that they are Ok at the high temperatures at least for now. How long they will live is another question. I have read that high temps will shorten their lifespans.

Aaron