Panda Cory Dying

When I had my pygmy cories, some of them did this - I was absolutely certain that they'd breathed their last, waited for considerable time, tried to fish them out, only for them to come back to life and be fine. Having said that, they didn't fare very well in my tank, and I can't honestly remember whether this was during their seemingly healthy phase or just before / around the time when they started dying off in months 6-9 of their existence - I'd need to have a rummage around in my old posts to find out. That all aside, if this is of any consolation, I'm 99% sure that I've read of at least one other person on this forum (possibly Fiona and maybe Cora) who had a similar experience but theirs turned out to be fine.

So it's altogether possible that this is an odd feature of some cories but that doesn't necessarily amount to anything other than giving the fish owner a fright. I do hope that this is the situation in your case - not that you get a fright but that it amounts to nothing.

You've done all you can, so I think it'll be a matter of wait and see how things are later / in the morning ie whether s/he's sprung back to life.

Once we see how things are then, we can work out if indeed you might be doing anything wrong - which I absolutely don't think is the case other than that you're going through an undeservedly hard time fish-wise for no apparent reason.

Edited to add:
My hunch was correct re Cora - http://forums.thinkfish.co.uk/the-emergency-room/panda-cory-(playing)-dead/msg27877/#msg27877

Oh, sorry to hear this.

I'm sorry to hear that. I do sympathise, it is hard watching fish die for no apparent reason.


I think you have hard water don't you? Just how hard is it? Panda's upper limit is 12 german deg, 215 ppm. If your water is harder than that, or even approaching that level, the late cory could have been more sensitive to hard water than its shoal mates.

Thanks for all of the support.
I was feeling very grumpy after seeing the panda cory last night.
I have checked all tanks since getting home from work and everyone is ok today.
I do have hard water Sue, and I think you have a very good point about that.
It's quite nice to see everyone swimming around today, and I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it stays that way for as long as possible

Thanks @fcmf and no problem about the hope thingy. I am always hopeful when it comes to the health of the fish, but sometimes it just isn't enough.

Everyone was fine last night, well, apart from the dwarf puffers who seemed none too pleased that I'd run out of live bloodworms and was trying to feed them frozen ones, but it was that or nothing until I get to the LFS today (Friday is their delivery day), so they had to make do.

The remaining pandas seem fine and active, and I'm hoping that my spate of fishy fatalities has ceased for now.