Why do Sterbai Corydora's cost so much?

[CathyG]

Hi!

I have two Surinam Cories, and one Peppered. I used to have another Peppered, but she died after I thought I had successfully treated her for a small injury to her side, and ever since her death, the male Peppered became more reclusive. I have recently moved them all into a larger tank, and all three cories have become more outgoing, having seemingly found each other, and now school together.

My sister is breaking down her tank at the moment (due to toddler and new baby making large demands on her time) so I am taking some of her more beloved fish. Yesterday, I introduced her cory to my tank.

Well my Peppered cory has just gone nuts!!! (see pics) Immediately that he found the new cory, he follows it everywhere, nudging it and piggy backing it wherever it goes. He even chased curious Danios away from the new arrival! I have never seen this behaviour before; it does not look aggressive, it looks excited, playful and inquisitive, is this normal? They are not even the same breed! (What is the new Cory btw? my sister was told it was a Haraldschultzi (?)

The new Cory seems completely unphased by the attention, even nudging and chasing my Peppered when the attentions drop. Have they just "hit it off"? Today, all four Cories were swimming together, my three happily following the new guy!

Ideas, anyone?

 

[tayman]

Corys need to be in groups of at least 6. If your tank can support it, add a couple more. I currently keep 10 corys of 4 different species in my 55 gal. My small c.delphax hangs out with the 3 c. paleatus, and the large c. delphax spends his time with 3 c. aeneus. My 2 c. albinos seem to do their own thing independently. I think your sister is right about the species c. haraldshultzi. Good luck....

 

[Lenna]

One of my corys has gotten sick very suddenly. It was fine last night, but now it's lying on it's side. It is still breathing and trying to swim. The barbels look like they have been damaged. Could one of the other fish have attacked the cory? I have fine sand and the other corys are ok, so I don't think it's the substrate. is there any hope for the little guy? What could have caused this sudden change? The water parameters are:
ammonia 0ppm
nitrite 0ppm
nitrate 5ppm
pH 7.2

Thanks

PS I did a fairly major water change 2 days ago (approx 40%) with vacuuming.

 

[Inchworm]

Hi Lenna

If your profile is up to date, the corys are in the 40 gallon tank with the angel fish and the tetras, right?

Unless the angel attacked him, or he got caught in the filter or decorations, it's probably a bacterial infection. That can cause barbel damage too, and can get bad either slowly or very fast.

What doesn't seem to fit, is that you just did a water change. Perhaps he was already infected. Usually a water change will help prevent or even cure minor infections.

If you have MelaFix, you could give it a try, but I think his situation is too advanced for that. Since you live in Australia, I'm not sure if you can get antibiotics, but if you can, treat him with either Kanamycin, or Maracyn 1 and Maracyn 2. Or, if you can get the UK meds Waterlife’s Myxazin or Interpet’s Anti-Fungus and Finrot, you might give them a try.

It might also be a good idea to do some extra water changes in your tank, just in case there is a lot of bad bacteria in there. Unfortunately, your water tests only show chemical, not bacteria levels.

Good luck, and please let me know how he is doing.

 

[Lenna]

I'm afraid it was too late, he died a few hours later. Thanks for your advice all the same. I'll make sure my sig is correct too.

 

[Inchworm]

Hi Zombies

I've never known a cory to eat snails, unless they were already dead. Even once when I had a population explosion of them, and there were zillions of snails of all sizes in the tanks, they never touched them.

 

[Inchworm]

Hi CathyG

Your corys are happy and just being playful. They definitely act differently when there are more of them, than when there are just a few. Why not get some more, if you have room?

Now, haraldschultzi and sterbai are similar in appearance, so I'll just give you a link with pictures of both.

http/www.scotcat.com/factsheets/corydoras_sterbai.html

Great pictures!

 

[Elisabeth83]

In my 29 gallon I've noticed 2 of my male guppies tails are a bit shredded. One has a large split in his tail with slight ragged bits on the end of his tail and the other has 2 small splits in his tail as well as a thin spot that looks like it its gonna become a hole. I decided to use JBL ektol fluid in the tank which is a general disinfectant and treats fin rot among other things.

Anyways I have 3 albino corys and 3 pepper corys in the tank. I read on the bottle as well as many other sites about JBL ektol and no where does it say do not use on scaleless fish..it only says do not use on invertabrets.

After I put the medication in though the corys started darting around like mad for about 30 seconds. Now they have calmed down but they still seem a bit more active than usual.

I would think that the medication would be ok to use with them as neither on the bottle, instruction sheet or all the sites I looked on said not to use on scaleless fish.

What do you think??

 

[CathyG]

Thanks Tayman, and welcome to the forums! I am intending to take my sister's two bronze cories too, I just wanted to introduce them gradually (though both bronzes will go in together).

Thank you too, Inchworm! I didn't think it looked aggressive, so am pleased they are being friendly! LMAO! What a greeting for the poor chap though! They seem to have settled today (48 hours after their introduction), and though they are still close by, there is no piggy backing (well not as much anyway lol! )

Thank you for the link, I did wonder about it being a Sterbai, but the link cleared it up. It is definitely a Haraldschultzi! He has Lovely colouring

Thanks again, people!

 

[Inchworm]

Hi Elisabeth83

One of the problems we have being an international fish forum has to do with the different medicines that are available in different countries.

I have never seen, or even heard of that product; I doubt it is available in America. If you are in doubt about how to use a product, I suggest you look on the bottle for a website or phone number. Here they often have toll free numbers for customers to call.

Otherwise, if your corys have settled down, they will probably be OK. Finrot is a common disease among corys and I would really think that if it was bad to use on them, they would have a warning on the label.

Finrot is a bacterial infection that is usually the result of insufficient or infrequent water changes, and prevention is always better than treatment. In the future, why not increase the frequency and amount of cleaning and water changes you do, and take care not to overfeed so that there is any food left over.

Good luck, and please let me know how things turn out.

 

[Fishy411]

Well i decided a week or two ago to get some more cories after having bad experiences with pandas. I am now down to 2 Albinos. One died this morning. No visible signs except for a small red dot where the pectoral fin meets the body

 

[keeper-of-fish]

hmmm to bad I have had good luck with my 3

 

[Apache]

Sorry to hear about your loss, as they are great little fish. So far, we have had good luck with our current four corys (the first two were lost due to my newbie cycling mistakes...). I love them, but they can be sensitive to certain conditons (meds, bad water chemical params and the like)...

Good luck with the remaining...

 

[Fishy411]

i really cant understand it. I left him in the tank because he was still breathing and when i got home..... Frankenfish Lives! he was swimming around fine. Its confusing because if anything diede i would suspect it to be the tetras.

 

[corykitty516]

wow ... a few weeks ago I had a cory die with a sore under his fin. He didnt magickly resurrect though. Then I lost another for "no reason" the other day. Dont know why ... he had been gnawed at by the time I found him. Maybe corys are prone to die mysteriously this time of year ??? My water params are great with Nitrate at about 20 ppm, everything else at 0, and pH at 7.2.

What are your water params like?