My odd cories...reply from PFK

[Staffylover]

Good luck with catching them VM, I know its a lot of work to run another tank but will be worth it to save you some of the worry, I had this kind of issue with Danio, tried several treatments with no luck so assume they had some hereditary weakness, some got visible tumors but not all, they were cheap fish to buy but not after purchasing a load of treatments! It was very frustrating and has certainly put me off getting any more, a friend had a similar thing with neon dwarf rainbow fish, so I suppose its a risk with any of the really popular little fish? at least if its poor stock it wont be likely to affect your other fish.

[BigBen]

Two nets makes catching Cory's a lot easier if you have a 2nd.

[VikingMummy2015]

Closer look at the corpse....hole in its underside. Nibbled or exorcist parasite? One eye is missing too so potentially it got nibbled by the others before I found it, but it was upright so...


My LFS guy came back with “bought from a breeder. Lots still on the go so far as I know. I know guys with them in their discus tanks”. So, yeah...I’d love to support local and his prices are fantastic but I’m not putting up with poor stock and “it’s your problem” attitude.

Had a thought. If I can, I’ll catch all remaining sterbai and pop into QT bare bottom tank. Then set up ghost’s old tank for him to go back in (given it might be better for him too). Then I’ll rescape the flex with the new sand when it arrives and have the sterbai in there permanently. If they survive and get bigger, I can then reconsider replacing the substrate in the Roma and move them back.

[BigBen]

I would put a bit of sand in the Qt as glass grows more bacteria than sand. I have seen this issue in Cory's before, usually small fish from the start but for the complete sunken belly like that I'd guess they have a bad case of worms, particularly because you've said earlier you're overfeeding.

[VikingMummy2015]

New plan.
Get ghost’s old tank out of storage and check it’s all working. Jug him and Pumpkin for the time it takes to empty the Flex, transfer over substrate etc. Transfer his media over, add Stability and release from the trusty jug.

Leave a small amount of substrate in the flex, add some of my wood and a couple of Anubias and stems for cover. Add spare media from the Roma filter. Attempt to catch as many of the 9 sterbai as I can and transfer to the flex. Worm the flex and Roma.

Once the new sand arrives (Thursday ish), wait until the wormer has finished its course, then replace the old flex substrate with it and plant up properly as a Cory tank. Pray they survive and thrive.

[BigBen]

Sounds like a good plan. Fingers crossed for you and the fish!

[plankton]

Sorry to hear.
Hope the wormer arrives quickly and you can get this sorted.

[Staffylover]

I like your plan, I see on your other thread you are well on with it, must have kept you busy for the day, good luck with catching the cory, I find draining most of the water off helps most for fish catching but still it's never easy, the downside of having such great plants, it makes for difficult fish catching, hope Ghost has settled and not too stressed by the move?

[VikingMummy2015]

I am pooped . I am just going to try to get the cories as and when I see them, if I can’t get them in a concerted attempt! But definitely waiting for the new sand to arrive first because I can’t cope with the dirty water again and again. I had to drain and refill the 29L twice, very very slowly to minimise agitating the soil.

Ghost seems settled; I’d forgotten how nosey he always was in the kitchen when I’m washing up etc! I’m worried there’s another bit of fin rot starting (I think some of it has been him sitting against the intake grate of the flex because I spotted him there the other day). If so, I’ll have to keep Pumpkin the nerite in a takeaway tub or something because then both tanks will be unsafe until I get the Cory tank going. Annoyingly he’s my son’s favourite of all things aquatic , otherwise I’d just offer him up locally free.

[VikingMummy2015]

@DoubleDutch here’s the response