Best approach for a corydoras quarantine

[Alice B]

I'm a little careful where I buy my fish @Byron. I have bought fish with ich, in January 2020. And I haven't bought anything from that store since. I also bleached my tanks afterward.

 

[AdoraBelle Dearheart]

First week of having the fish in quarantine, all is going fine. The fish are in great colors and feed well, no issues.
However i read on other forums and articles about corydoras species tanks and how the corries are all over the tank and plants and near the surface.
I understand mine are only week in so still adjusting to the new environment, but should they exhibit more behavior?
I wonder if they are truly ok since they hang out at one spot, mostly together, sometimes investigate substrate but otherwise just stay motionless and are very skittish.

I have a group of six Sterbai, and mine are the same way. I did have them as the only cories in one tank for a while - sand, tons of live plants and hiding places, should have been cory heaven, but found them to be very shy and skittish compared to my bumbling, always active and much less skittish bronzes. They had a favourite hiding spot where they all huddled together the majority of the time, coming out for meals once I'd backed away and given them some distance.
I've heard others say that their Sterbai cories tend to be the same way.

I wound up moving them to a larger tank in with my nine bronze and two albino aeneus cories, and now with the two rescue spotty ones and three Venezuelan cories. The Venezuelan's are nearly always at the front, not shy at all, explore all over the tank. The spotty and bronzes aren't shy either, and they all mix together during the day, when chilling out and sitting around. The Sterbai still have a favoured hiding area where they tend to stick together more, only really mingling with the others at feeding times, and tend to do their schooling about later at night, when the lights are off.

I suspect that they're naturally a more skittish and wary species, maybe the predation pressures are different in the area they evolved in, and that makes them naturally more wary? But I've had them a few years now, successfully bred the bronzes and pygmy cories naturally in their own tanks without inducing spawning, but the Sterbai are the only ones that haven't just bred spontaneously in their own tank. So I also thought I must be doing something wrong with the Sterbai, wondered whether they were stressed or unhappy, but I suspect that might be their natural behaviour. I wonder what Ian thinks, @Byron ? If some cories are naturally more skittish because of environmental pressures they have evolved to live in, perhaps?

 

[Beastije]

I asked around other keepers and most have same experience with all but albino. Albinos are not shy cause they are basically blind (which btw is cruel) and thus not that scared.
They also mentioned cycles of behavior, resting, finding food, sometimes near surface, but most often scared and skittish. So maybe we just want miracles

 

[AdoraBelle Dearheart]

I asked around other keepers and most have same experience with all but albino. Albinos are not shy cause they are basically blind (which btw is cruel) and thus not that scared.

Oh no! I didn't know that But I should have realised, having had two people in my life with albinism. I have two albinos One had been returned to the store because the owner didn't want a tank anymore, I felt bad for her al alone, and got her so she could mingle with my bronze aeneus. then got a second albino so she "had a friend", which I know is silly! Now I'm glad that the albinos haven't spawnedl At least they're now in a nice big tank with lots of other cories. They have no problem finding food, nice big chunky females. I won't breed any albinos now that I know that though. I find my bronzes to be just as fearless and dopey, bumbling around and not worrying if I'm near the tank and watching.

But the Sterbai still remain more skittish, sticking to their own group, and having a favourite hiding spot where they spend most of their time. Have had them for about two years now, I think.

They also mentioned cycles of behavior, resting, finding food, sometimes near surface, but most often scared and skittish. So maybe we just want miracles

At least we know it's probably not something we're wrong - they're not skittish and hiding away because something is wrong with your set up, or as a sign of stress or illness. That it's the same behaviours other hobbyists have found with them.

 

[Beastije]

I have another conundrum to ponder with you guys.
It has been two weeks today, since the sterbai went into the quarantine.
They look ok, but 2 weeks is the minimum, I know that. However, the shop ordered my new fish a bit too early, so I have 10 hatchetfish, wild caught, waiting for me for pickup tomorrow or tuesday.

I could put the hatchetfish with the corydoras to the 54l quarantine, they are indeed going to the same tank at the end of the day. But they are wild caught and they may infect the sterbai with something and could mean all of them will need to be treated. Or I could move the corydoras to the main tank, and hope for the best.

Which is less risky in your opinion?

 

[AdoraBelle Dearheart]

I have another conundrum to ponder with you guys.
It has been two weeks today, since the sterbai went into the quarantine.
They look ok, but 2 weeks is the minimum, I know that. However, the shop ordered my new fish a bit too early, so I have 10 hatchetfish, wild caught, waiting for me for pickup tomorrow or tuesday.

I could put the hatchetfish with the corydoras to the 54l quarantine, they are indeed going to the same tank at the end of the day. But they are wild caught and they may infect the sterbai with something and could mean all of them will need to be treated. Or I could move the corydoras to the main tank, and hope for the best.

Which is less risky in your opinion?

That's a really tricky call, and it's got to be a personal decision really. Were the Sterbai tank bred then? (I know that's more likely than wild caught Sterbai, but asking in case).

I guess logically, it's a case of which tank is easier to treat, if something comes up. If you move the Sterbai into the main display tank, how large is it, and does it contain delicate fish and plants/inverts that might not handle medication well? It's also cheaper to medicate a smaller quarantine tank than a larger display tank. Are your shrimp in that tank? Because inverts especially are at risk with many medications.

In your shoes, I'd likely add the hatchet fish to the QT with the Sterbai, and keep them both in QT for a month. Extend the sterbai's QT since they will have been exposed to new fish. Likely easier and less risky that way, can medicate the QT more easily if either species shows signs of trouble.

In this case, I would probably examine the hatchet fish closely on arrival, before adding them to QT. Use buckets and a drinking glass if you need to, to check them one by one, looking for signs of ich, fungus, damaged fins etc, any signs of disease or illness. If they look okay, put them with the Sterbai in QT and do the month for them both.

If any of the hatchet's look as though they might have something though, I'd personally have a harder time knowingly adding diseased fish to the tank when the Sterbai look healthy. If the hatchet's seem to have something, it would have to be a personal decision whether you want to move the sterbai to the main tank and risk just doing a two week QT, add the hatchets to the Sterbai and hope they can also make it through whatever disease and treatment happens, or whether to set up an emergency, second QT in something like a large plastic tote to isolate the hatchets.

 

[Beastije]

Yup, the sterbai are tank bred in same or similar water as is mine.
And yes, the main tank has other hatchetfish, filter shrimps, some amano and sensitive snails, so medicating the main tank is out of question. I did an esha2000 a year ago for some fungus on some sterbai and lost a bamboo shrimp

Your suggestion sounds the best, will inspect the hatchetfish carefully for obvious signs of illness and decide based on that. A plus side of having the sterbai with the hatchetfish would be the obvious cleanup they could perform on the food that the hatchetfish wont eat, which is everything that is not on surface.
I am going to check my air compressor and maybe go replace it, this one seems to be insufficient for so many fish in such a small tank. Though if last time experience is true, the hatchefish will be 1cm large max.

 

[Alice B]

I'd find another quarantine tank, keep sterbai in quarantine, and set up a 40 liter with a good lid for the hatchet fish. That's me. How I ended up with a shed full of spare aquariums

 

[Byron]

Which species of hatchetfish? Those in Carnegiella are very sensitive, and notorious for ich though this does not need to mean definitely, there are steps to prevent this as much as one can. The larger silver species in Gasteropelecus are somewhat more hardy. The also-larger and stunningly beautiful "platinum" species in Thoracocharax are I suppose somewhere in between, but less of an ich risk than those in Carnegiella.

I always leave any of these fish in the store for one to two weeks before I will acquire them. In your case, if this is a reputable store, ask them if they will hold the hatchetfish for at least one week (minimum), if you pay for them, and get whatever acceptable condition they may offer if the fish should die in the store. Ich is the main thing I would worry about here. It is easily cured with heat, these fish are fine with heat but no medications. With this the case, I suppose acquiring them immediately might be OK, and in Europe you probably have better conditions for fish and stores than here in NA where SE Asian-sourced fish are so full of disease.

I acquired 15 marble hatchets back in September 2021 from a chain store (the first time I'd seen hatchets locally in over 12 years, so I bought them, foolishly). Seemed fine in QT for 8 weeks, so into the main blackwater tank they went. A couple weeks later, within a period of 36 hours all hatchets were dead, and it had spread to the 12 green neons overnight and all were dead next morning. No idea what it was, something internal obviously. In January of 2022, a reputable independent local store imported wild marble hatchets from Peru. I waited three weeks, then went in and bought 12. All survived. I should mention that my QT is always a permanently-running planted tank so the fish always go straight into an established stress-free tank, and with these fish it makes a very big difference.

I'm not sure what to suggest on the other issue of moving the sterbai or adding the hatchets with them. I guess I would again fall back on the fact that you are probably in better shape here too when it comes to healthier fish stock than I might well be, given that the sterbai will be tank raised presumably in Czech Rep and not wild. In NA without question wild caught is much less likely to carry disease. In more than 20 years the only thing that ever came in on wild caught fish was gill flukes with some cories once. But any commercially-raised fish were prone to have something so often it was more than coincidence.

 

[Beastije]

Which species of hatchetfish? Those in Carnegiella are very sensitive, and notorious for ich though this does not need to mean definitely, there are steps to prevent this as much as one can. The larger silver species in Gasteropelecus are somewhat more hardy. The also-larger and stunningly beautiful "platinum" species in Thoracocharax are I suppose somewhere in between, but less of an ich risk than those in Carnegiella.

I always leave any of these fish in the store for one to two weeks before I will acquire them. In your case, if this is a reputable store, ask them if they will hold the hatchetfish for at least one week (minimum), if you pay for them, and get whatever acceptable condition they may offer if the fish should die in the store. Ich is the main thing I would worry about here. It is easily cured with heat, these fish are fine with heat but no medications. With this the case, I suppose acquiring them immediately might be OK, and in Europe you probably have better conditions for fish and stores than here in NA where SE Asian-sourced fish are so full of disease.

I acquired 15 marble hatchets back in September 2021 from a chain store (the first time I'd seen hatchets locally in over 12 years, so I bought them, foolishly). Seemed fine in QT for 8 weeks, so into the main blackwater tank they went. A couple weeks later, within a period of 36 hours all hatchets were dead, and it had spread to the 12 green neons overnight and all were dead next morning. No idea what it was, something internal obviously. In January of 2022, a reputable independent local store imported wild marble hatchets from Peru. I waited three weeks, then went in and bought 12. All survived. I should mention that my QT is always a permanently-running planted tank so the fish always go straight into an established stress-free tank, and with these fish it makes a very big difference.

I'm not sure what to suggest on the other issue of moving the sterbai or adding the hatchets with them. I guess I would again fall back on the fact that you are probably in better shape here too when it comes to healthier fish stock than I might well be, given that the sterbai will be tank raised presumably in Czech Rep and not wild. In NA without question wild caught is much less likely to carry disease. In more than 20 years the only thing that ever came in on wild caught fish was gill flukes with some cories once. But any commercially-raised fish were prone to have something so often it was more than coincidence.

I am getting a Carnegiella marthae, 10 pieces. I already had 15 of them last year from the same store and same supplier, though they were sold to me as marbled hatchetfish.
When I got them last year, I put them in the main tank, as they were the "first' inhabitants and they had no fin damage, no ich and only one of them died within the first day, sort of stopped swimming and spiraled down. Looked like a heart attack tbh Then I lost 9 to jumping out of the tank but never a disease.

This time the fish will be in the shop for 6 days before I pick them up. I will however raise the temp in the QT tank before putting them in, because the hatchetfish last year I put in a tank with rabbit snails and the tank was at 27° if I recall correctly.
The sterbais are tank raised in the same water params as I have, since the breeder is in the same city. I think I will move them, it will be 19 days in quarantine and that will have to do.

With the hatchetfish, I am lucky I discovered the bug bites, will be so much easier to feed them and get them stress free fast ( before I have to catch them and move them again, but we will talk about that later when the time comes )

Based on how long they will have been here and how will they look, I am still thinking about getting the otocinclus and placing them in the quarantine with the hatchets. I have three algae covered anubias, and glass with algae in the tank specifically for this possibility. The remaining two otos I have finally look well fed, and maybe they will be even able to teach the feeding habits to the newcomers. I also read about putting the spirulina paste on the stones and placing them to the fishtank as a more natural feeding way.

my two remaining otos.

 

[AdoraBelle Dearheart]

I am getting a Carnegiella marthae, 10 pieces. I already had 15 of them last year from the same store and same supplier, though they were sold to me as marbled hatchetfish.
When I got them last year, I put them in the main tank, as they were the "first' inhabitants and they had no fin damage, no ich and only one of them died within the first day, sort of stopped swimming and spiraled down. Looked like a heart attack tbh Then I lost 9 to jumping out of the tank but never a disease.

This time the fish will be in the shop for 6 days before I pick them up. I will however raise the temp in the QT tank before putting them in, because the hatchetfish last year I put in a tank with rabbit snails and the tank was at 27° if I recall correctly.
The sterbais are tank raised in the same water params as I have, since the breeder is in the same city. I think I will move them, it will be 19 days in quarantine and that will have to do.

With the hatchetfish, I am lucky I discovered the bug bites, will be so much easier to feed them and get them stress free fast ( before I have to catch them and move them again, but we will talk about that later when the time comes )

Based on how long they will have been here and how will they look, I am still thinking about getting the otocinclus and placing them in the quarantine with the hatchets. I have three algae covered anubias, and glass with algae in the tank specifically for this possibility. The remaining two otos I have finally look well fed, and maybe they will be even able to teach the feeding habits to the newcomers. I also read about putting the spirulina paste on the stones and placing them to the fishtank as a more natural feeding way.
View attachment 304132
my two remaining otos.

Yay! Otos!

Go for it with the otos! I was left with two for a long time. Then bought six to bump their numbers back up, lost one of the new ones early on, the remaining five settled well with my two. Then adopted a rescue tank of fish that included a single, pretty large oto that hadn't had other oto friends for years. He's now with mine, and seems to enjoy being with other otos again! I know we can't tell whether a fish is enjoying something, exactly, but he's always near another one or more of the others, and it makes me very happy to see it! He's larger than all the others, must be a different sub species, but that's how I recognise him out of the group. So I have a lovely group of eight, and do worry about keeping them fed at times. They do eat algae wafers and I think also some bug bites! @Byron ? Since there have been times when I've fed bug bites, and the otos have come out and seem to be feeding on them. I also add botanicals like almond leaves, they like those for the biofilm, and the sitting potential

I recently got Repashy Soylent Green for them and my plecos and saw a tip to dunk the top of a pleco cave into the gel before it sets, so it provides a large feeding surface area, like your idea with the spirulina powder, and it's been a big hit with the otos and with all the other fish.

 

[Beastije]

BTW my quarantine corydoras, excuse the horrible picture, the algae on the glass makes it hard and I know the foam under is disgusting

and my main tank sterbai

 

[Beastije]

hey do eat algae wafers and I think also some bug bites! @Byron ? Since there have been times when I've fed bug bites, and the otos have come out and seem to be feeding on them. I also add botanicals like almond leaves, they like those for the biofilm, and the sitting potential

BTW, I got cured of my idea of otos being algae eaters when I got the first batch of 10. Sucking on frozen cube of daphnia or cyclops, bug bites, bloodworms,... Sure they hang out on the glass and the leaves and like the spirulina tablets. But so do the tetras or corydoras, and they eat everything. That is why I was so sad to see 8 of them die off, when they were feeding so vehemently.
I have around 10 leaves in my tank, they are a good snack for the snails and the otos. But I will be more careful with the next batch and do the spirulina/chlorela/agar stones, or repashy, though it is not sold here that much.

 

[Beastije]

Sucky quality, I know, dirty glass but look at them

I know, it has been two days, even the hatchetfish are sometimes all over the tank panicking, but the otos so far look good

 

[Beastije]

So it has been over a week since my 10 corries from the quarantine with the 10 in my main tank and they are behaving quite oddly still.
Since the beginning they sort of deparated, the main ones are sitting under log, some of the new ones and some of the old ones are sitting on the right side near the glass and the heater.
They still glass surf, but a combo of old and new ones, in groups of three or five and the old ones didn't do that much. Unless food was involved they just sat there.
Wondering if it is still stress behavior and why they are not more together