Hello all
This is Kirby late in the evening yesterday. He was lively the day before and in the morning but was mopey and unresponsive by the end of the day.
When I realized something was wrong, it was too late in the evening to get into the LFS to water test. In hindsight I should have ran somewhere to snag a test strip or something.
His backstory is that I rescued him from a lady and her daughter that kept him alone in a 10 gal with gravel substrate for over 3 years, close to 4. The unit made it through multiple tankmates dying.
I tried my best to give him a good life after his original home. I was new to fishkeeping, and idiotically had already gotten a bunch of bottom feeders (pygmy Corys) and didn't want to also stress them out with a full 6 Cory gang, so I got Kirby one friend to at least have something on the temporary and not max out my bioload.
About a month ago, I finally got the means to start cycling a 20 long. It's probably close to a week away from finishing.
The plan was to move him there and get more peppered corys, and I am devastated he will never get to see the lengths I've gone to to try to make him happier. I feel like I took him out of one hell into a slightly better hell with "good intentions", and false promises of a better life, and I feel terrible.
What's worse, now I have this other peppered that I got to try and make Kirby feel better. Uugh. I feel like I need to send him back to the LFS so he can end up in a better home and so I can focus on keeping my other critters happy and alive so I don't have to get even more friends to possibly hurt more.
Posted by RegaultTheBrave
4 Comments
Hiya all, I forgot to mention, that as far as cause of death is concerned, my two theories are that something changed in a water parameter, or Kirby had his lifespan shortened by mistreatment for so long.
My money is on the water parameter shift though (unfortunately for my mental health) and I am going to test the water this morning.
Any advice is appreciated, even if it’s criticism.
Sorry for your loss. Don’t beat yourself up too bad, you already see your mistakes. It’s part of this hobby. You need your own water testing kit if you have fish in your tanks. API master testing kit or something similar is best. He was old, so perhaps he wasn’t able to handle to fluctuating parameters while you cycle.
I’ve found my cories happier and healthier in smaller tanks. I’ve lost a few myself such an endearing fish
I never take a fish loss well, but for some reason losing a Cory hits harder. For me, they’ve been very hardy and are such a staple in every single tank I have. Sorry for your loss🙏