Ok, this last cory apparently has 9 lives like cats. Last night he kept falling onto his back. Then he would freak out and race to the surface, then he would fall on his back. At one point I was going to get the net and help him towards his final resting place. Instead, I did a 30% water change and thought I'd check back in the morning. This morning, he is upright and just chilling on the heater. I'm at a loss...I think I'll just keep doing water changes and no more gravel upset.
Dying Cory Fish
- Thread starter RJLB119
- Start date
DoubleDutch
Fish Gatherer
What do you feed your Corys?
DoubleDutch
Fish Gatherer
What kind of flakes / pellets. High protein ones for Corys are 95% carnivores?
I'm not sure if there is any way to answer this, but is my cory suffering? I mean, is it cruel for me to keep him in this tank while all these water issues are happening and he has no other cories? I don't really have any other place to keep him. At this point, he's not eating (from what I can tell) and he rarely moves. That could be because he's lonely. Or maybe he's in a lot of physical pain.
He's eating again! He's swimming around to find the flakes I dropped in. I'm tempted to pick him up some friends...I figure the daily water changes have kept the pH in check (it seems to be around 7.4 when I get home from work, right before I change about 25%). And he's very inactive and scared without buddies. Any opinions about getting more cories? I know everything is better in a larger tank, but my SO was not thrilled about the 10 gallon to begin with.
daveg6529
Fish Fanatic
Corys, do like company.
He has survived this long with your potential water problem, maybe a couple of tank mates may help.
He has survived this long with your potential water problem, maybe a couple of tank mates may help.
Meeresstille
Fish Addict
So sorry you had such a hard time getting started with this hobby and losing those fish! I think I would try and re-home the remaining cory or exchange him at the LFS for a different fish. Salt and Pepper Cories need to be in a group of at least 6 to feel safe, and they need a lot more space than a 10 gallon can provide. I have a group of pygmy cories and would not feel comfortable putting those in a 10 gallon, even though they are way smaller than your salt and pepper ones.
Also, while your tank is empty you can make the changes that you want to your substrate and decor.
Something that sprung to my mind is that plant you don't know the name of. Can you post a picture of it, maybe someone here can identify it for you! Possibly it is not even an aquatic plant! And another fish idea that would work in your 10 gallon is a male or female Betta. A 10 gallon Betta tank can look quite stunning with live plants and well placed bog wood!
Also, while your tank is empty you can make the changes that you want to your substrate and decor.
Something that sprung to my mind is that plant you don't know the name of. Can you post a picture of it, maybe someone here can identify it for you! Possibly it is not even an aquatic plant! And another fish idea that would work in your 10 gallon is a male or female Betta. A 10 gallon Betta tank can look quite stunning with live plants and well placed bog wood!
Thank you for the advice. I'm hoping he can survive in that environment until Thursday. I plan on getting a bigger tank. I have done tons of research on aquariums, but it seems I am much better taking care of my dog and cats. They are easy!
Everybody has different advice regarding fish. I still can't figure out what the smallest tank size is for them. I'm about to upgrade to a 20g long. Hopefully that will be enough room for 6 cories and a 6 neon tetras. But some people say nothing smaller than 30g for salt and pepper cories. I might be able to swing a 29g, but my boyfriend is not a big fan of this new hobby. I'm attempting to keep it low key...
And the plants are both water plants sold at the LFS. They love whatever I am doing with the water.
Thanks!
Everybody has different advice regarding fish. I still can't figure out what the smallest tank size is for them. I'm about to upgrade to a 20g long. Hopefully that will be enough room for 6 cories and a 6 neon tetras. But some people say nothing smaller than 30g for salt and pepper cories. I might be able to swing a 29g, but my boyfriend is not a big fan of this new hobby. I'm attempting to keep it low key...
And the plants are both water plants sold at the LFS. They love whatever I am doing with the water.
Thanks!
Meeresstille
Fish Addict
A 20 gallon long is a nice tank! The neons would be happy in there.
I think the conflicting information you are finding comes from the 2 different corydora species that are named similar.
Corydoras habrosus, common name salt and pepper cory, http
/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salt_and_pepper_catfish
and Corydoras Paleatus, common name peppered cory, and sometimes misnamed as salt and pepper cory. http/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corydoras_paleatus
You would need to find out which of the two you actually have! The smaller of the two is the Corydoras habrosus, which would be fine in a 20 gallon long tank.
As to the plants, it does happen that a plant that is not aquatic is being sold for use in an aquarium. The danger can be that the plant will rot and be bad for your water quality.
Also, I'd be worried about the possibility of a toxic plant to leak toxins into your tank!
I think the conflicting information you are finding comes from the 2 different corydora species that are named similar.
Corydoras habrosus, common name salt and pepper cory, http
/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salt_and_pepper_catfishand Corydoras Paleatus, common name peppered cory, and sometimes misnamed as salt and pepper cory. http
/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corydoras_paleatusYou would need to find out which of the two you actually have! The smaller of the two is the Corydoras habrosus, which would be fine in a 20 gallon long tank.
As to the plants, it does happen that a plant that is not aquatic is being sold for use in an aquarium. The danger can be that the plant will rot and be bad for your water quality.
Also, I'd be worried about the possibility of a toxic plant to leak toxins into your tank!
RJLB119 said:
As pointed out above, I think that there's some mixing of species and requirements. C. habrosus (aka salt and pepper cories) require no more than a 20 long - these grow to roughly 1.25 inches long. C. paleatus (aka peppered cories) grow much larger - upwards of 3 inches. These, I believe, are the ones being referenced based on the 30 gallon suggestion.
You'll definitely want to ID them before you get more. If he's an albino, he's probably either a C. paleatus or a C. aeneus (aka bronze cory) - these are the two most common albino species available. I've never heard of an albino C. habrosus, I suppose its possible, but I doubt that that's what you've got.
If you have a C. paleatus, a 20 long should work for a group of 6...
C. paleatus
DoubleDutch
Fish Gatherer
I have about 80 Corys and I seem not to succeed keeping my favos Salt and peppers alive. Others don't seem to have any problems with them, but I have constantly. Got one old female that's surviving all new company that I am adding. I will do a last attempt with 10 I can get from a home-breeder. If that doesn't succeed I'll skip the Salt and Peppers. Grrrrr
Salt and Pepper = habrosus (dwarf) Peppered = paleatus (no dwarf)
Salt and Pepper = habrosus (dwarf) Peppered = paleatus (no dwarf)
Ok, the good news is I finally got my 20g long. Yay. I put some of the old gravel into old pantyhose and put it in the new tank. I transferred one plant and all the large rocks from the old tank. I filled the new tank with very fine gravel/ larger sand (mesh???) and put a mix of old and new water (to ease the pH change for the fish).
The bad news is I have ammonia in the new tank so I can't transfer the fish. Maybe I need to let the filter run another day. I was hoping it would be a quicker process.
The other bad news is that when I went to the store to get the tank, I saw that the scientific name for the cory was on the side of the glass and it said C. paleatus. Yikes! I have peppered, not salt and pepper. Which means I need to get more C. paleatus to make this one happy.
The bad news is I have ammonia in the new tank so I can't transfer the fish. Maybe I need to let the filter run another day. I was hoping it would be a quicker process.
The other bad news is that when I went to the store to get the tank, I saw that the scientific name for the cory was on the side of the glass and it said C. paleatus. Yikes! I have peppered, not salt and pepper. Which means I need to get more C. paleatus to make this one happy.
Similar threads
Most reactions
-
390 -
356 -
273 -
255 -
248 -
204 -
177 -
174 -
153 -
114 -
114 -
106 -
100 -
100 -
87