FishProfiles.com Message Forums

i have a lonely pair of Corydoras paleatus (peppered or spotted corys depending on who you talk to)...they are the lonely survivors of a strange illness i couldnt diagnose or fix that caused the loss of their companions. whatever hit the others didnt affect them, and i wanted to get more to give them a propper school again....however, none of the LFS's can get them...no special orders even, they just arent available from their suppliers.

so, now...what to do...the LFS 's I go to havent been able to order them for months, and who knows when they will be able to.

i have had horrible luck with the chain petstores in my area...there are several, but they have been responsible for my un natural fish deaths in the past...everything i have gotten there has been sick...i would say i was screwing up, but the private petstores have never given me any problems.

so, my options are:

A. wait for the LFS to be able to order them again
B. try my luck with a chain store again (last corys were from one...)

or

C. mix corys. i have been told that intermingling cory varieties is not benificial to either of them, but it may be months till they can get spotteds ( have been checking a while now) and i no longer have my 10 gallon quaranteen tank running...im scared to dump chain petstore fish in my 30 gallon with all its occupants. would mixing the corys be a horrible idea...or would leaving the two by themselves for possibly as long untill next summer be more detrimental than mixing varieties?

anyone have any suggestions?

Hi Reun , I fairly new to Corys myself but I'll give you my 2 cents worth . I have Julies
& Panda's in the same tank and they seem to school with each other quite a lot . In
fact its very normal to see a julie and a panda swimming and having fun together .
So if I were you I'd get some of the other types as I think they are much happier in
bigger groups even if not the same .

Anyway the purists may disagree , but thats my experience so far .
Hope it helps .

Enjoy
Garry

C.paleatus are quite common & i think that you'll get some from your LFS in a few weeks time. In the mean time, try to see what happened to the other Corydoras. Maybe the ph lowered or something similar happened.

A few months ago, i lost some Corydoras due to this problem, so i suggest you to check the water parameters.



http://www.flickr.com/photos/corydoras/
Member of the Malta Aquarist Society - 1970.
http://www.maltaaquarist.com

this was months ago jason....months and months...i have been waiting for the LFS to get some peppereds in for quite some time, when they got sick i asked around and looked on the internet.

all water perameters were normal and only some of the corys were affected...their barbels decayed to bloody stumps and they had pink inflamation behind the head. they stopped eating or swimming at all...i tried everything, and i keep my tank very clean cause everyone figured it was gravel trapping ammonia and other nasty stuff in the substrate, but i take the aquarium apart every month or two and clean every last bit of the substrate i cant get due to decor...and water changes at the time were 30% weekly.

the others were not affected by it whatsoever, and no substate was changed or any other changes to the tank at all...had the school for a few months and everything was great then all of the sudden several got sick.

however, i still dont know what to do...i mean, the two i have are rather timid, but most likely because they are by themselves.

i dunno...im scared to try brand x chain petstore again...and i dont think you are supposed to mix cory varieties...what should i do?

Sounds exactly what one of my albino cories has. Disappearing barbels, ratty tail and furry side fin. The only thing I can think it is is a left over disease from my guppies called Acute Columnaris. I had just gotten the guppies over it and this little cory got it.

I have been treating with pimafix which doesn't seem to hurt him, being a catfish and all. I do also quietly catch him and apply neat to his affected areas every day as well as in the water.

The barbels are growing back now. Unfortunately the side fin was too far gone and fell off but the wound is healing and he is eating again like crazy. Due to his sore mouth, I have been spoiling him with bloodworms and tubliflex worms as he can just suck them in.

When my ph was low, the barbels of the Corydoras disappeared in a few days & most of them died, but some survived & the barbels grew back. So from now on, i always keep a piece of limestone in the tanks.

Well, if you want more Corydoras, you can get some spotted ones (colour markings like the C.paleatus) & hopefully they'll be less shy & school more.

Some Corydoras that come in mind are C.schwartzi, C.paralellus, C.garbei & C.kronei.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/corydoras/
Member of the Malta Aquarist Society - 1970.
http://www.maltaaquarist.com

well, i moniter my PH closely....the ph in my water is actually quite high untill it is treated prior to going into the tank...it still goes in slightly high (7.2) but i do a 15% water change twice a week, and the tanks ph stays at a even 7.0...i have a fair amount of driftwood in there that seems to help keep everything balanced.

from what i can find out about these guys is that is right in their range...

<shrug>

weird thing was...the other corys were not affected by the disease or conditions or whatever caused the symptoms...they had no barbel erosion or other ill affects...

Not all of my Corydoras where effected with the low ph problem. I had a mixture of 6 different species in the tank & even, not all from the same species.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/corydoras/
Member of the Malta Aquarist Society - 1970.
http://www.maltaaquarist.com

hrm...they were of the same variety...and unless my kit was off the ph was stable... -shrug-

well, i still have to figure out if i want to risk going to a chain petstore without having a quaranteen tank set up...

Just be extra carefull. I always use a quarantine tank, for about a month or so.

Good Luck with your Corydoras.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/corydoras/
Member of the Malta Aquarist Society - 1970.
http://www.maltaaquarist.com