New Betta!

[nikkifro8994]

I got my pygmy cory cats and a gorgeous male betta today! I'll let them settle in for the night and post a few pics tomorrow. The owner of the LFS was amazed at the corys small size. He's never seen pygmys before. They're about 3/4 of an inch long. I ordered 6, but one didn't survive the stress of shipping. The betta is a stunning crown tail. Pale pink body with blue speckles and magenta fins. He was one of the few not flaring at the bettas next to him at the LFS. Hopefully that means he's more relaxed than the others and won't terrorize the corys.

 

[Ninjouzata]

Where are the pics?

 

[Malex530]

Nin is right! Get those pics!

 

[nikkifro8994]

Something's wrong with my tank, or maybe I didn't acclimate them slowly enough, but I lost 3 corys last night. So I'm down to 2. I'll see how these 2 fare for the week and add 4 more next week. I ordered 6 pygmy corys. 1 didn't survive shipping, I found 2 dead this morning. I took out all of the decor to see if I had more dead ones. I only saw 2 corys in the tank. So one is missing somewhere. I have a sponge covering my filter intake so I know he's not in there. Hopefully he was just hiding in one of the plants and is still alive.

The betta is very calm. One of the corys swam up beside and in front of him and he didn't care one bit. He isn't interested in his food, but he's probably still adjusting to his tank. If he doesn't eat by Sunday, I'll try frozen bloodworms to get his interest.

And, as requested, I have pictures. Sorry for the poor quality. My phone doesn't take great shots when it's zoomed all the way in.
This is the tank.


One of my 2 surviving corys. They're a little camera shy.


And the betta.

 

[Georgia_ofthejungle]

He is gorgeous! Crown tails are so stunning!
 
Love your stock, I plan on restocking my tank in a couple of months with a betta and 6 pygmy corys too!

 

[Ninjouzata]

That grumpy face The tank looks great, really sorry about your losses though Did you cycle the tank and did you check the parameters when you found the dead pygmies? I would imagine so but just thought I'd check.

 

[Xzavier247]

Nice tank! Nice betta! Job well done.

 

[GriffinC18]

The only thing that i would think would have killed the cores would either be 1. Shock from shipping and possibly not being acclimated to the water temperature before being placed into the tank or 2. The tank is/was uncycled.
 
check you ammonia, nitrate, nitrite, and PH levels with a test kit also.

 

[Lillefishy]

Corys release a toxin when stressed which could account for the loss of one during shipping & possibly the resulting deaths also,
how did you acclimatise them?

 

[nikkifro8994]

The tank was fully cycled for 2 weeks before I added them. It had 2 zebra danios that I took back to the store to keep it cycled while I waited for the corys. To acclimate them, I put the corys and a betta in 2 gallon size pitchers and added 1 cup of tank water to the pitchers every 15 minutes until the pitchers were full. It took about an hour and a half to acclimate them. I tested temp and pH in the tank and pitchers before adding them in. I netted the fish and put them in the tank. The water they were in never touched my tank. I tested water the next morning. 0 ammonia and nitrite, less than 20 ppm nitrate, and pH of 7.

 

[Freedom]

Love the photos, and the last one of the betta GLARING at the camera is hilarious!  He did NOT approve from that face, ha haaa.
 
Sorry for your losses.  It can be tough to get things settled in, I think.

 

[nikkifro8994]

The betta didn't like my phone at all. He flared at it for a bit but those pics are all blurry. Then he hid and glared. The two pygmys just hide when I approach the tank.

I think I'll see how the 2 remaining corys do. If they're good in a week or two, I'll add 4 more. Maybe I'll drip acclimate them like I did my saltwater fish.

For the cycle, I was doing a fish in cycle with the danios. I know, I know, fish less is better, but I can't find ammonia anywhere! I had over 10 ppm ammonia and added used media from another aquarist's tank 3-4 days after adding the danios. I saw the ammonia decline, the nitrite spike and decline, and the nitrate spike pretty quickly after adding the used media. I tested twice a day for 5 days straight after I started seeing double 0. I also tested a few hours after a water change, usually when nitrate is over 20. Every test had 0 ammonia or nitrite and a pH of 7. Nitrate was always between 5 and 20. If it was over 20, I did a water change to get it down to at least 5.

 

[Ninjouzata]

Your tank would only be cycled to the bioload of the two danios, though. You can find ammonia at Ace Hardware.
 
Stinks that these small cories are the only suitable kind for tanks this size but they seem more fragile to me.
I had 15 habrosus cories in my 20 long and lost 14 of them over a course of a few months so I'm really hoping you're more lucky than me and it's just an acclimation issue or something :C

 

[clementchee]

Wow this is nice! Thank you for sharing...!

 

[nikkifro8994]

I think it must have been an acclimation problem because there was 0 ammonia or nitrite when I tested after finding the dead ones.