Why do Sterbai Corydora's cost so much?

[Inchworm]

OK, I've said this before, and it looks like I'll have to say it many, many more times, so here goes............

Corys need lots of clean and fresh water. This is to keep the bacteria count in the water low so that it is harder for them to catch a bacterial infection, which is the disease most likely to kill them. This can be achieved by doing frequent, substantial water changes and gravel vacuumings. It will benefit all the rest of your fish too, and will do nothing to disturb the tank's beneficial bacteria.

While water tests can tell if your cycle is off, and measure the amount of unwanted ammonia, nitrites and nitrates, it tells nothing about the bad bacteria that is living in every tank. Normally it causes no problem, but if the fish should become stressed, their immune system becomes weakened and they become prone to disease.

Sure, all kinds of things can go wrong in a tank, but the most common problems can be avoided by following this simple rule.

 

[Fishy411]

well scratch that last post. Hes dead again and another one is MIA. I dont think it is bacteria builup because i got this tank for christmas and set it up the week after. I did a water change last week after the first one died. I am REALLY confused because the greens have actualy grown from 2" to 3" and are geting bigger by the week

 

[Elisabeth83]

Hi Inchworm thanks for replying!

Yeah I actually contacted the JBL people and they got back to me and said the product is safe to use with corys. What a relief I assumed it was safe to use with them as JBL products usually say whether or not to use this product with scale-less fish. I just made myself worried but everything is good now

I don't think the fin rot is actually from poor water quality in this case. I think it's because I have young male guppies in the tank and now that they are maturing they are getting a bit of an attitude with the older males and are chasing them and nipping at their tails and bellies

I didn't treat straight away as I only saw one male with a split in his tail and slightly ragged edges and I thought ah he's just torn it or it got nipped..but then the next day 2 more males had the same thing so I decided to treat even if it wasn't full blown fin rot yet because I didn't want it to go any further

I usually do 2 25-30% water changes/vacuuming a week..as well as rinse out the sponge filter in old tank water once every 1-2 weeks.

The tank isn't heavily stocked I don't think. Theres 6 corys, 2 SAEs, 4 adult male guppies and 8 juvinile male guppies. It's a 30 gallon tank

edit: I took some guppy fry to my lfs today so now theres 6 juvinile male guppies in there instead of 8

 

[Inchworm]

Hi Fishy411

I see............

Have you checked your water parameters? It's not too likely that the tank is fully cycled yet, and if not, the elevated chemical levels would be enough to stress them with the result that an infection set in.

Even if you used some filter media and gravel from your 10 gallon tank, it would not be enough to adequately cycle the 55 gallon this quickly.

My best advice at this point, would be to do frequent tests of your water to determine what stage in the cycle it has reached and then do enough water changes to lower them. This could mean daily water changes for the next few weeks, but perhaps you will need fewer. A slow cycle, that is controlled by water changes, is the safest way to get the fish through it. And remember to be patient and not add any more fish until it's finished.

In the end you will have a lovely tank with healthy fish. You will find that it was worth all the effort you put into it to make it that way.

 

[Inchworm]

Hi Elisabeth83

I think you are probably right about the cause of your fish's illness, and you did the right thing to begin treatment early, before it got out of control.

Your tank is not at all overstocked, providing you have a good filter on it, with lots of surface area for the beneficial bacteria to grow on. It's not necessary to rinse it out so often though. It doesn't need to be rinsed out in tank water until it reaches the point where the flow is beginning to slow down. As dirt accumulates in the media, the tiny spaces get smaller and capable of filtering even more tiny particles.

And, with your regular water changes and vacuumings, your fish should always be healthy and happy for you!

 

[TorPeteO]

Hey everyone,

I've noticed at least one of my corys has gotten a bit 'rounder' recently, and I think she might have laid a few eggs. It was either her, or snails.

The eggs are about 1mm in diameter, and they're transparent brown. They're on the leaf of an amazon swordplant, there's a batch of about 10-15 of them there.

I've got a rather poor picture of the eggs, but an alright picture of the potential mother, on my website.

Do these sounds like potential cory eggs? Any help you folks could give me would be much appreciated.

(P.S. I was going to post this in the Breeding Advice forum, but I guess it's read-only now. Thanks again!)

 

[Dwarfs]

Are the eggs in a jelly like sac? That's what pond snails have eggs in, but I fon't know what type of snails you have

 

[lighter]

If you have access to this medication called melafix i strongly recommend you use that. It's catfish friendly, tried that with my plecos and cories and it heals those broken fins fast!

 

[TorPeteO]

The snails I have are just pest snails. They were hitch-hikers on some plants in my aquarium. I don't notice any sort of jelly sac, just the eggs adhered to the surface of the leaf.

 

[Inchworm]

Hi TorPeteO

I cannot tell much from the picture, but if they look like this, they are indeed cory eggs:

http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showto...=0&#entry600033

You are lucky to have had C. delphax spawn spontaneously. I would pick the leaf off and move it to a small bare bottom tank until they can hatch. This will take place in between 3-4 days at normal temperatures. Do not worry about the color since different species have different colored eggs, and they change color with age.

Be sure to add an airstone to create a good flow of water over the eggs. This will help avoid fungus taking hold on them. You could also add one drop of Methylene Blue per gallon of water, but it's not necessary if the water circulation is up to par.

Here's a link that explains how I set up a breeding tank for them. Please scroll down on the thread:

http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showto...l=breeding+tank

Good luck and please let us know their progress.

 

[SRC]

I recently (tonight actually) acquired a new cory. It is a very cute one too imo. But the person who gave it to me had no idea what kind it is..so I went looking to see if I could maybe find out. (it's a tan color with stripes made out of dots...with a clear dorsal and a spotted caudal).

Anyways, I ran across this website and after doing a search didn't find anything here about it..so I thought I'd post it up.

http/www.nettaigyo.com/corydoras/encyc/index-e.html

I cannot beleive just how many types there are..it's mind boggling.

 

[Inchworm]

Hi SEC

That's a great site! I could (and have) spend hours there just looking at all the lovely corys.

For identification purposes, this is probably the best site to use:

http/www.planetcatfish.com/catelog/calli...ra/g_thumbs.htm

It contains every commonly available cory and then some. There are more, know by "C" numbers instead of names, but it is much less usual to find them.

I hope you have, or will be getting at least a few more corys to keep him company. Corys are schooling fish and are much more happy when they have companions.

 

[SRC]

Well I already had 1 cory, I had 2 but one evidently died because I can't find it.

I had a Paleatus "peppered"

and a Aeneus "gold".

The peppered is the one I think died (either that or it's turned invisible lol..cas there's no where to hide I couldn't find it).

I think this is the type cory this new one is...it's the only one I could find that is anywhere near close to similar.

Called a Schwartzi

He's a little bigger then my Goldie, but even the goldie and the peppered never really socialized much...they each stayed to their respective corners lol.

Is there a place to buy certain cories? because my LFS or LPS never have anything except the peppered, green, and gold ones. After going through these thumbnails, and the other site...there are some I would be very interested in buying..should they not cost a arm and a fin lol.

 

[-cAtFiSh-]

my julii cories barbels have gone. this happened when i had panda cories but i thought it was because of the gravel so i changed to sand. unfortunately my pandas died a while ago so i recently got the juliis. their barbels are very worn down and i dont know what could have caused this. they do like to shove their faces right deep into the sand but this wouldnt be the cause would it?
how did this happen and how do i get them to grow back?

 

[nitro]

The only two reasons for barbel erosion i know is of a rough/sharp substrate and of high nitrates, there is lots of discussion whether or not nitrates do erode barbels.

Because your using sand i doubt its due to a rough substrate.

I would suggest checking forhigh nitrates, if they are over 25ppm i would do soemthing about it like frequent smaller water changes or adding a few plants that use alot of nutrients to get your nitrate down to 15ppm or lower.


To grow them back you just need decent water quality and over time they will grow back, do not expect them to grow back in couple of weeks though.