Corydoras Unexpected Death

Hi,

I turned my tank lights on today to find one of my corydoodles has died 

I hadn't noticed anything wrong with him so am a bit mystified!!!  The only thing I noticed about his body that could be relevant were that he appeared to have an empty stomach and I remember being told that when their under carriage is concave it signals weight loss and he definitely showed this.

I am a light feeder, so perhaps he didn't get enough food? In fact thinking of it he did always come to the surface at feeding time and joined in the general tussle for food. I do hope that I didn't starve him to death!!! 

I've fed everyone a big meal of frozen blood worm, making sure the other cory got a good share by dropping it in front of him with a syringe and then making sure none of the other fish went near him while he ate.

I did test my water incidentally and all was fine.

FC76

Pellets are very good for cories, throw them in at the same time as feeding flake etc and they will go straight to the bottom for the cories to find while the other fish are busy.

I'm not a great believer in light feeding, and  starve days in particular. I think the logic is faulty, you have to overfeed greatly to pollute the tank and it doesn't take much observation to learn how much your fish will comfortably eat. It may be true that fish in the wild sometimes go without for a while, but that doesn't mean it's good for them. I rely on flake, granules and pellets for the main diet, live and frozen may be much enjoyed, but the prepared foods do meet all the needs in a concentrated form and are the most reliable.

You could try feeding the cory when the tank and room lights are out. Cories are active in the dark and should be able to find the food then.

And now you are down to just one, you could really do with more of the same species or this last one could become stressed.