I've had this fish for about 3 months now, and I'm not certain what it is. Some kind of guppy I think? It came as a stowaway fry with a batch of Pygmy cory catfish.
I've had a rash of Pygmy cory deaths over the last few weeks (lost 10 of them in 3 weeks). I recently noticed this fish following around one of the cories in the tank, and occasionally bumping into one another. Could it be that this stowaway guppy has been stressing out and killing the cories? What's the best course of action?
About the cory deaths, I got 6 pygmy cories a few months ago, where the fry stowed away. A few weeks later, only 2 were alive. I wasn't able to determine why. About a month ago, I got 12 more, and quarantined them for 2 weeks, medicating with Ich-X, Maracyn, and ParaCleanse. They did fine in quarantine, but after I moved them to the main tank, they started dying off again. I tried increasing my water changes, and medicated the tank with Maracyn again. No luck, and few more died. Most of the cories died overnight, but I've spotted 2 of them flailing around wildly and bashing into things, which is definitely what killed them, though I don't know what caused them to do this.
Tank info: 20gal, 78°F, 7.8pH. Ammonia and Nitrite both 0, nitrate stays below 5ppm. Tank is 5 months old and fully cycled. kH and gH are unknown. I am running 2 sponge filters for filtration, and I run a light for 12-14 hours a day. Stocking is down to 3 pygmy cories, the one mystery fish, and a whole lot of bladder snails. Plant stocking is just a crapload of duckweed.
I'm fairly new to fishkeeping, and am becoming very frustrated that my fish keep dying and I cannot figure out why. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Posted by Nathan_Defense
1 Comment
Yes, this fish looks like a guppy, male I think. To be honest, I have no idea why your cories were hitting things in the tank, but how much do you feed your fish? Cories are quite delicate fish, they may get injured by some sharp elements of the aquarium, including gravel as far as I know. Was your tank already fully cycled when you added your fish? Did you check all the parametres after adding new animals to the tank? How often do you do water changes and how much water do you change per once? Also, I’ve heard that guppies do better in groups than as single ones. However, you should keep only males if don’t want tons of fry everywhere, as it can be difficult to manage over time.