Keeping cories alive

[dcewing]

You may have seen my separate post in this forum asking if my cories were trili, juli or leopard (or apparently many other possibilities). I have had a great deal of difficulty keeping cories alive.
My stats:
20 gal. long
Set up since July
Fairly heavily planted
Weekly pwc of 30%, well water (no chlorine/amine), treated w/prime anyway
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 5-10
pH 7.8
hardness (just have strips for this) about 120 I think

Inhabitants:
1 male betta
1 flame tetra (The rest perished one by one from a disease which appeared to affect their swim bladders. One came from the store with it. We called him Tigger as he appeared to jump up and down, couldn't maintain a stable position like the rest. Each one got it then, got worse and worse. sigh)
1 albino bushy nose pleco
4 assorted cories
2 amano shrimp
cherry shrimp (uncertain number at least 4, 3 of which are berried)
1 golden mystery snail
6 tiny ruby red ramshorn snails

Now, my problem. Last Thursday I made a trip to another town to go to a non-chain LFS. (All we have in my town is Petco/Petsmart.) Last time I had visited they had panda and dwarf cories. I went wanting one of those. However this time they had "julii" cories (which I'm pretty sure were trilis). I bought 5. I took them home in a cooler, drip acclimated them and still lost 3 withing the first 6 hours. The other 2 died in the next couple days. The tank I bought them from had a couple sickly looking ones (I know, shouldn't have bought from there :headshake2 I think they must've been a fairly new shipment and the stress of adjustment was just too much. I have since bought replacement catfish at Petsmart. One of them died this morning. Seemed fine yesterday (swimming normally, not laying on it's side). So for those keeping score, I've managed to kill of 6 cories in the last week. :sad:

Are cories difficult to acclimate? I had albino cories as a kid and they were pretty tough (as far as I remember). Or could I be doing something wrong? The water has to be pretty good as the shrimp seem to be happy.

Any thoughts on extending the life of my cories?

Carol

 

[FishBliss]

you are not from new hampshire, by any chance, are you?

For what it's worth -- from my mom and pop fish store I bought 2 (trilli/julii?) cories that were pretty good size. They have done very well. Then I went to petco (there was a sort of sickly one in there and I should have known better...) and bought 4 more -- they were very small. 2 died within 24 hours and a third died in 36. The fourth one has thrived and has become part of the pack. I was a little worried about him at first, since 3 of his buddies didn't make it and he looked lethargic for a week. But he seems robust and wiggly and full of pep now. My current thinking is that the baby ones are, like any baby, more fragile. I avoided buying replacements (NOT from petco) when I went to my little fish store because the ones they had were so little. I decided to wait a week to see if they had grown and to give them time to rest from shipment. If the same ones are there next week or the week after that then I'll buy them.

 

[dcewing]

No, not from NH. Just edited my profile to show location.

Wanna know the really sad thing, just lost another. So the score is 7 dead, 4 living. So, discouraging.

Carol

 

[OhNo123]

I don't think cories are hard to acclimate. I bought 2 a month ago (didn't have money for more) and acclimated them by first letting them sit in a cup in the water for 15 mins then slowly added water into the cup water. The cup flipped when I wasn't watching, so they got into the tank. Still alive now. I just bought 3 more friday ( the last remaining 3 at the LFS, I wanted 4) Same thing happened. When they first got into the tank with the other 2, they all were in different corners of the tank. Now, all five school together happily!

 

[irishspy]

Gosh, I've never known cories to be delicate. Hmmm....please don't think I'm trying to make you feel bad; I'm not. They've just been such hardy buggers in my experience. I'm sorry for the trouble you're having. :sad:

Possibly it's the source of the cories itself. Did I understand right that you're getting them from the same store? Maybe the store doesn't take good care of them, or they got a bad batch, or their supplier did. For now, I wouldn't add any more. Instead, I'd wait a while (a month?) to see how these remaining fish do, and then add a couple from another shop to see if they fare better.

Good luck!

 

[pinkertd]

I'm guessing it's the source of the cories. Just went through something very similar with the false julies. But they were also dropping dead left and right in the store too. Maybe that's why in my area you rarely find anything but albino cories. The store always has them. One thing I noticed with the false julies (trillies I think they are called) is that they looked like they hadn't eaten in a long time. I eventually got 4 more to add to the 2 I already had, but not without many many dead ones. I even checked a Petsmart which is in the area where I work and they have nothing but albinos.

 

[dcewing]

They are actually from two different stores. The first batch of 5 from a non-chain store (all dead now). The second batch of 3 from Petsmart (1 still living). The third batch of 2 from the same Petsmart (2 still living).

I'm wondering if my pH being a little high (7.8) is too much for them combined with the stress of shipment. Or if I'm just having a terrible string of bad luck.

Carol

 

[msjinkzd]

i had the same problem several months ago trying to up my school of brochis splendens...bought 7 and every single one of them ended up dying off (they were juvies, about an inch)...so i went to another store and bought some large sterbai and didn't lose a single one. Before I bought the sterbai, I went to planet catfish and looked up cories that do better in a higher ph and higher temp (my ph is 8.0 and I keep my tanks from 80-82)...sterbais fit the bill. Alot of the more common cories have a cooler (still tropical mind you) temp range and less flexability in the recommended ph range.

 

[Carp37]

I live in the UK, and have passed up dozens of opportunities to buy Corys because they looked in poor condition in shops- there seem to be a lot of poor quality or totally stressed, non-acclimated ones around at the moment. However, the scale of your losses is worrying. I wouldn't have thought your pH was the problem unless it's VASTLY different from the pet stores, but if theirs is high pH as well and their fish are dying, maybe they're not acclimating the fish properly if at all.

What temperature are you running at? (apologies if you've given this info- I've read the thread and can't see it). It looks like most of your livestock prefers warmish temperatures, so msjinkzd might be right in suggesting sterbai. However, my sterbai are fine now after 4 months but were seriously skittish for the first 2 months. Of all my corys the elegans and the Brochis settled in quickest, but I run my tanks moderately coolish (74-76 degrees F).

 

[Carp37]

sorry I forgot to say my pH is also slightly alkaline- c. 7.5; anything below 8 shouldn't be too much of a problem. Aspidoras are supposed to be delicate, plus one or two Corys like arcuatus, but most are reasonably robust.