Hey, all. I'm new here.. apologies for the mammoth post and lack of an intro, but I am having something of an emergency.
A couple of hours ago, I came across some young long-finned albino cories at our local Wal-Mart. I bought them all (7). I happened to have an empty 10 gallon set up (has been sitting for 3 weeks with aeration but no filtration) in anticipation of some albino cories I nicked from my parents’ last spawn. (The fry still aren’t big enough for this tank yet.) I decided to put these guys in there for now.
There was a thin film on top of the water, but increasing the aeration and setting up the backfilter took care of this, and the water quality appeared to be OK, so (after 20 minutes of floating the bag) I added the fish. They appeared to be doing great for the first 15 minutes or so.. active, feeding, all that good stuff. Half an hour later, I returned to find several of the fish inactive, three of them laying on their backs.
The water temperature is 74 degrees (tends to vary from 72-76 depending on the time of day), and the test strip reads
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 0
Total Hardness (GH): soft (~75).
Alkalinity (KH): reads somewhere in between ideal and high.. appears closer to high (300).
pH: ~8-ish.
Could a pH/GH/KH change have shocked the fish? I hadn’t considered that our water could be problematic because the fry have been doing so well.. though I suppose they’ve spent their entire lives in it, and these guys haven’t acclimated to it yet.
My other concern is that the 10 gallon is currently residing in the bathroom.. I’m wondering if the various soaps and sprays that have been used in there might be toxic to the fish.. could these have accumulated in the water over the past few weeks? I don’t use much in the way of products.. but I’ve never had a tank in the bathroom before. Perhaps this was a bad idea.
They are doing well at the moment in a small container of water taken from the fry tank.. but this water is of the very same quality as the stuff in the 10 gallon.. and it’s not plausible to keep them in said container for any length of time, because I have no way of heating or aerating it. They will not do well sans heat, as my house is fairly cold in the winter- the goldfish tank (unheated) is somewhere in the neighborhood of 63 right now.
I would prefer not to put them in the fry tank, as it is far too small for so many fish, and the fry are still small enough that I fear they may be injured by the larger cories.
Any thoughts on how to best handle the situation?
Much thanks!!
A couple of hours ago, I came across some young long-finned albino cories at our local Wal-Mart. I bought them all (7). I happened to have an empty 10 gallon set up (has been sitting for 3 weeks with aeration but no filtration) in anticipation of some albino cories I nicked from my parents’ last spawn. (The fry still aren’t big enough for this tank yet.) I decided to put these guys in there for now.
There was a thin film on top of the water, but increasing the aeration and setting up the backfilter took care of this, and the water quality appeared to be OK, so (after 20 minutes of floating the bag) I added the fish. They appeared to be doing great for the first 15 minutes or so.. active, feeding, all that good stuff. Half an hour later, I returned to find several of the fish inactive, three of them laying on their backs.
The water temperature is 74 degrees (tends to vary from 72-76 depending on the time of day), and the test strip reads
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 0
Total Hardness (GH): soft (~75).
Alkalinity (KH): reads somewhere in between ideal and high.. appears closer to high (300).
pH: ~8-ish.
Could a pH/GH/KH change have shocked the fish? I hadn’t considered that our water could be problematic because the fry have been doing so well.. though I suppose they’ve spent their entire lives in it, and these guys haven’t acclimated to it yet.
My other concern is that the 10 gallon is currently residing in the bathroom.. I’m wondering if the various soaps and sprays that have been used in there might be toxic to the fish.. could these have accumulated in the water over the past few weeks? I don’t use much in the way of products.. but I’ve never had a tank in the bathroom before. Perhaps this was a bad idea.
They are doing well at the moment in a small container of water taken from the fry tank.. but this water is of the very same quality as the stuff in the 10 gallon.. and it’s not plausible to keep them in said container for any length of time, because I have no way of heating or aerating it. They will not do well sans heat, as my house is fairly cold in the winter- the goldfish tank (unheated) is somewhere in the neighborhood of 63 right now.
I would prefer not to put them in the fry tank, as it is far too small for so many fish, and the fry are still small enough that I fear they may be injured by the larger cories.
Any thoughts on how to best handle the situation?
Much thanks!!
