cory groups

[mattbeau]

I keep reading corys are happy in groups of 3-4

I have 2 peppered cories 1 male and 1 female. They have been doing great for 2 months now without any problems.
When I first started i ran into problems with ick and fungus. they were never affected. they were the first and only left when i first started, they now get along with 2 honey dwarfs, 3 oto's and 5 neon tetras.

so am i lucky or do they really need more pals?

 

[glolite]

Depends on the size of your tank. They are happier in larger groups and you can have differents types ie: 2 peppered and 2 bronze or banded corys.

 

[jollysue]

So my three False Spotted (leucomelas) Corys are just as happy with two baby peppered cories as they would be with two baby leucomelas cories? They school together so cute, almost dolfin like, but they don't school with the peppereds. They do socialize with them and sit with them, but they don't swim in sync with them.

 

[mattbeau]

Ok i mis-indentified them, they are actually marbled corydoras or Corydoras paleatus . The two corys are currently re-cycling my other 6 gallon after my dawrf puffer died, since they are the hardiest of the bunch. though im thinking of doing a fishless cycle instead and throwing them back into the main tank. I might be able to squeeze a few pigmy coryadoras or Corydoras pygmaeus in but the tank has finally stabalized and i'm afraid of over stocking

tank stats 20g

2 honey dwarf gauramis (both male) =4 in. total
2 marbled coryadoris (M/F) = 4 in. total
3 oto's unsure of sex =6 in. totale when full grown
5 neon tetra unsure of sex = 5 in. toal when full grown

some pond snails

about 15 anacharis plants
2 pengein 300 bio power filters
1 airstone
1 heater
gravel is 1-1.5 cm diamiter painted
a few hiding places with decor
stats are all good
nitrate 20
nitrite 0
ammonia 0
PH 7
80-82 degrees
moderate hardness

will pygmies get along in this enviroment?

 

[jollysue]

Mattbeau, Am I reading right? Do you have 2 Penguin 300 bio wheel filters on a 20 g. Are those the double biowheel models? Is that a 20 usg or ukg? That is some serious fltration. I thought I had it with one 350 on a 40 usg.

 

[mattbeau]

yes its crazy filteration but i had a fungus, then ick problem

I think it was one of those "well fine try this on for size" thinga

no problems now,


fish are happpy, with a tad bit of current

I'll double check the size, but im pretty sure there 300's

 

[jollysue]

It can't hurt (I don't think)

Mattbeau, you didn't ask, but here is what I've learned about ich:

Ich is a parasite. As a parasite it has a cycle. It is an 18 day cycle. The ich parasite is in all water (except when some specific method of ridding the water of it is used.)

A fish gets stressed from overcrowding, a rowdy neighbor, being chased with a net, having its home wrecked in some kind of natural disaster (the guy with the net), poor food, no place to call home or some combination of fishy difficulties.

The fish's immunity is reduced. It is unable to resist with its natural defenses an infestation of the parasite (much like a human gets a cold.) The guy with the net puts blue stuff in the water for a week and the symptoms go away and the ich on the fish and in the aquarium dies from the medication, maybe. But during a phase of the ich cycle the parasite is unaffected by the medication. I am a little foggy here and may be incorrect.

Then the guy with the net does a water change with tap water and introduces a new batch of ich. It remains cycling in the aquarium until a fish gets a lowered immunity and there is an ich treatment that manages to get rid of it. The parasite must go through a cycle with a host to survive. A tank without fish will be cleansed in 18 days.

Another way would be to buy or otherwise obtain UV sterilized water.

In addition I quarantine every fish for 18 days before I let it in the community tank. Some times if I know the lfs has used the same method or better, they have had the fish for awhile, and it's my weekend, I may shorten it a day or two. But trying to cleanse a 100 usg tank is an unhappy thought.

I may be off on a point or two, but this is generally correct. Like I said you didn't ask so I won't be offended if you're not interested. But you've had a bad time. I'd hate to see you go through something else and of course this doesn't address the other monsters out there who want to hurt our babies.

Of course good filtration reduces a lot of fishy stress.

Edit: Good pin in the forum where tetras are in the ich cycle. Much better than this. This is not wholly wrong but could be better. )

 

[Teelie]

Might be overkill on filtration unless it was plecos.

 

[jollysue]

Or goldfish

 

[mattbeau]

thankyou jolly sue,

BTW I was wrong they are BIO WHEEL 150's (dont know where 300 came from.
I dont think two 300's would fit on the back of the tank, the two 150's fit just right, with a small gap in the middle.



I know all about ich these days (not an expert of course), what i found to solve the problem was to keep the fish happy instead of medicating like crazy, after all my cherry barbs died of ick, I new i needed to act fast and the medication wasnt helping, one of the neons had a spot on its tail and i was begining to panic, the pima fix stopped working and the the rid-ich wasnt helping either, ( i never used both at the same time)

I had two very nice honey dwarf gauramis in there and two nice cury's the neons i wasnt two concerned over but part of the tank just the same.

I added aquarium salt to use as a tonic, (i know its not great for neons or corys) I did this very carefully asding just a little bit over a few days making sure to dilute the salt and introducing it slowly and stiring it up as i add it. I also raised the temp from 75 to 80. started feeding the fish other foods then flakes. the tetras love bloodworms, the gauramis love shrimp pellets and brine shrimp, and the corys will eat about anything.

today they are as happy as can be. I thought i had 2 male gauramis, but in fact I'm pretty sure its a male and female, one is really showing his colors blowing bubbles and what not while the other still looks bland (female?).

the tetras arent shoaling as closely as before and preoccupy themselveswith zipping back and forth. and well the cories just act as usual busily scouring the gravel for food.

I ended up replacing the 5 cherry barbs with 3 oto's


Happy fish are healthy fish, is my finding.

 

[jollysue]

You're surely right. Happy fish are healthier fish.

Like I said, You didn't ask; I was just poking my nose in as usual. I mostly see that people think the parasite is gone if the fish lose their symptoms. And once it is really gone it doesn't seem hard to keep it gone. I lost some fish to ich. One was one of my new clown loaches which are very suseptable. I cured the ich but it was too late for her. I watch as she slowly lost her battle with her friend clown next to her side.

I'm so happy about your Gouramis. So you may be a granddad?

I'm looking at perhaps some sparklers and encreasing my cockatoos to include maybe three colonies/territories, ie. two more males (some fancy boys)

I have a lovely cockatoo couple, and I added a couple of girls. I think her color is rising. They looked like they may have spawned before but I redecorated with more hidy places and tore the tank up doing it. Then I added the girls. I think she's about over it. They are courting again., I think.

Yeah that was my thought exactly about the two 300's in a 20 gal.: they wouldn't fit. But two 150's is good. I like more rather than less filtration. I'd rather have too much rather than too little. Any way I just might want to add some plecs ( Teelie) or waste some food.

 

[mattbeau]

im going to go ahead and move the gaurami portion to the anabanctoids.

Im almost positive there going to start spawning soon.