sellers putting stuff in the shipping bags of fish...

[fishorama]

I had forgotten about the cory toxin thing. I've never had that happen since I got mine more locally & not all corys release it or not as much. I remember some people literally "kicking the bucket" before shipping to make them release the toxins before bagging in new water. Nice to see there are actual studies looking into this.

I wonder if Polyfilter works for that, it does take out some proteins plus lots of other stuff too. Carbon is likely much less expensive.

I know my husband got cory "spined" once & it hurt like heck for longer than you might think. I don't recall the species but maybe 1 of the more potent kinds? That was back in 80s, & we did kind of know about cory venom in a vague way. There were many fewer fish species regularly available than now.

Shrimp I've gotten usually have a piece of plant for them to grab onto.

 

[CassCats]

The self poisoning toxin seems to come from the gill area, not the spines, though those have venom as well and it hurts like heck. I've been jabbed once and even if it was a tiny pinprick, it felt like I got stabbed deep. Hurts more than it should.

When I order cories, I like to ask the shipper to ship them separate bags if they don't use carbon.

If you look at photos of some cories, you can sometimes even see the venom glands at the base of the dorsal fins.

Note these two, you may notice a slight pink area behind the head before the dorsal fin

Circled here

 

[fishorama]

Even with your circling, I'm not sure I see the pink gland area. I'll look again tomorrow.