Should we have two cory's? That was my plan, but of course, I've learned to add fish slowly, as to not overwhelm my very small and fragile tank's ecosystem. So I was waiting at least another month.
Yep, never trust the advice of employees at big chain stores! Or the small independent stores for that matter - unless they've already proven themselves trustworthy and willing to admit when they don't know the answer. Always do your own research. But I know that there's tons of misinformation out there too, and that's easier said than done... reliable sources included Seriously Fish, Wet Web Media, and some of the people here! (not all of us, some, like me, are just enthusiastic nobodies
)Cories are very social and need groups of six plus, but the more the merrier as far as they're concerned, since they live in groups of hundreds - thousands in the wild. They'll survive if kept in twos and threes, but they usually appear withdrawn, isolated, "depressed". I don't know how else to describe it, and even in small groups, don't always show the same range of behaviours as they do in a much larger group. I personally wouldn't keep less than six of one of the standard, common cories, or less than 8-10 of the dwarf cories like Corydoras pygmaeus.
Thanks. I am going to continue to do 50% water changes until I'm certain I've removed whatever toxins and chemicals my stupid idiot self added last night.
I was just expressing frustration. I did not actually mean to ban them. I'm against banning stuff. I know it has it's purpose. But I think like most people getting into the hobby (as I expressed in other threads), I thought: water + tank + fish. DONE! How ignorant I was.
Prime IS a dechlorinator.
Saying keep it simple, use a declorinator (which Prime is, Stability isn't), that Prime does smell bad, but it's all you need.Okay, so I'm going to only use Prime. I was using Stability to get my new tanks started, but will stop use. To @Slaphppy7, didn't mean to sound condesending. Wasn't trying to be.I hate this bit, because you clearly care about them and I hate the rough start you've had into the hobby! It's not fair, and a lot of new hobbyists do wind up leaving the hobby because of similar problems. I don't want that, I want more people joining the hobby, having success, and enjoying it.
Is there a chance of you upgrading tank size in the near future? Ideally, I'd want that for you and for the fish. You'll find it much easier to balance and maintain, and the choice of fish you can keep will increase a lot with a 20-30g. If you can't upgrade tank sizes, then I would return or rehome the cory, ideally rehome to someone with a group of the same species of cory. They can live for years, and as you've seen, a 5g can't really support more than 1-2, and condemning a second to live in a tiny tank without the proper amount of schooling buddies isn't much of an improvement on doing that to one.
Mollies can definitely get huge, given enough space and time! These old ones of mine lived for around eight years, in a 57g tank, and believe me, they used every inch of that space! Lovely fish, these got to around 4 inches and produced hundreds of offspring, so they really can get huge.
View attachment 165884
To help with scale, the mollies behind them, white and orange (gravid) female platy in front, and the blue guppy above were all full grown adults. These fish can get big given the change.
Gary was saying Prime stinks in the sense of the smell you mentioned, not meaning it's a bad product
No harm, no foul.
After I rescued my cory from the other 5g tank (that's described in another thread) and had him in a hospital "tank (bucket)", and added him to mine, he was SUPER HAPPY. He was swimming around throughout the tank, playing, nipping at the sand, etc.. It was great. This was for about 12 days. So I felt that was pretty solid. So I felt that although he didn't have cory friends, he did have a molly friend, and a good tank.No harm, no foul.
I like your plan, let's get these 2 5G (actually 5.5G) tanks stable and established, then once your frustrations have been alleviated, and you begin to actually ENJOY the hobby, I can almost guarantee you'll want to upgrade tank sizes...just like I did when helping my daughter with her first tank
That's what social fish do, when they are kept alone...you were misled, as @AdoraBelle Dearheart has explained above, no fault of your own....first rule of fishkeeping: NEVER trust advice from pet store employees, they are there to make $$$, not give good advice...most of the time, they haven't a clue about proper fishkeeping
I do not plan to add any more fish to this tank. I plan to get it stable for another couple of months at least, and then upgrade to a 10 gallon. If I can, I'll try to get a 15g, but not sure our space can accommodate.
New question. If the only chemical I'm supposed to use will be Prime, moving forward, and if I'm using it properly, what would one do when using a test kit and measurements are outside specified parameters? Since the test kit only measures and tells you what is right or wrong, what would you do to correct issues?
Any time you have ammonia or nitrItes, you do a WC
