# Corydoras unknown death



## Bicyclemaster (Sep 22, 2021)

Hey everybody,

I recently stocked my 10g tank and after about 3 days one of my cories died. As a side note, this is my first aquarium.

So, I let the tank cycle for about 3-4 weeks, it is mildly planted with enough hiding spots. As for the fish, I put together a female betta, a neritina snail and 2 panda cories. I did this because i wanted to see if the betta is an aggressive type and since I don't have the money for a quarantine tank (so yea, I cannot quarantine them), I thought I'd rather have 2 dead fish then multiple. If she was non-aggressive I was going to get 2-3 more cories.

I have a boyu wf 2015 filter and the heater is called "Aquazonic eco aquarium heater". They are pretty much no names.

I only added dechlorinator to the water. Since it has only been 3 days I didn't had the chance to do a water change. As for food, I was feeding the betta about 2-3 betta granules 2 times a day and half of the sinking wafers from Tetra for the cories once a day.

My nitrates and nitrites are are pretty much close to 0 since they were recently added and the ph is 7.5. I cannot test ammonia with the strips I have.

Two more things: the betta is quite gentle, she only nipped them about 3 times at the beginning and then she stopped. She would sometimes find them, look at them, then leave. The other thing is, i noticed my temperature over the night went down from the normal 25 Celsius to 22-23. I'm probably going to change the heater.

I believe he was heavily stressed from only being 2 of them in the aquarium but i would gladly appreciate your help.
I remembered something else. The cory was rapidly breathing all the time and both of them seem scared to go scavenging. Also i believe the cory was a bit redish after death, but he might have been dead for a few hours since i found him in the morning


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## inkmaker (Jun 10, 2009)

Bicyclemaster said:


> Hey everybody,
> 
> I recently stocked my 10g tank and after about 3 days one of my cories died. As a side note, this is my first aquarium.
> ~~~~~~~````
> ...


Welcome to the World of Fish Keeping! It sounds like you received an already injured Cory. You need to get the aquarium dirty for the fish. Get some live plants. Elodea to plant or some floating plant. Get the good bacteria growing in your tank. A few MALE live bearers would be a great addition. Avoid Female live bearers as a beginner. Set yourself for regular water changes. It is best to change 50% + of the tank every 4 to 6 weeks.

Give it all some time and don't worry about the death of one fish. Dechlorinate the new water and keep the change water the same temperature as your tank.

Good luck and keep them swimming.


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## susankat (Nov 15, 2008)

You need to get a liquid test kit to test your water. Strips are known to be off. Until then you should be doing water changes each week at an amount to lower your ammonia.


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