Jendayi

I posted these pics over on the cory forum, but I thought they were so cute I had to put them here, too.



Now my little hex5 is over stocked, I know, but here's what happened. My b/f has a tank that has been cycled for a bit without any fish in it. He couldn't decide what he wanted to put in it and then had to wait until after our vacation. So on Sunday we went to the LFS and he bought some blood fin tetras and one lonely cory cat for his tank. I told him the cory needed friends, but he only wanted one. Well that little cory was so miserable in there with only the tetras, and I felt so bad for it. So while my b/f was at work yesterday I went back to the LFS and bought two more and put all three into my tank with Jett. The little cory is so much happier now that he has friends, he schools and snuggles with them and isn't acting crazy anymore. Jett absolutely loves them, he's hanging out with them constantly.

There is one problem with this happy family (aside from the tank being overstocked). Jett is such a piggy that he is bottom feeding right along with the cory cats. I had to stop feeding my snail the algae wafers because he wouldn't stop eating them, and now I have the same problem with the cats. I crushed up half of an algae wafer and mixed it with water, then I sucked it up with a turkey baster and put the mixture directly on the gravel. I was thinking that since he wouldn't see it drop from the top to the bottom he might not be interested in it. WRONG! As you can see from the pics he is just as much a bottom feeder as they are. His little belly is so fat right now, and I know that is bad for him. I was thinking that I might get a breeder net and put him in it for an hour at feeding time to give the cories a chance to eat without him gorging himself along with them. Unless you guys know of a food that the cats will eat but Jett will not?

Well, I guess I am in the market for at least a 10 gallon tank... tho where I will put it I have NO idea! In the mean time rest assured that I will be keeping up with my water testing and water changes until I can get a bigger tank and get it cycled...

nmwierman1977

Maybe try vegetables with them like broccoli(just the stem part though, not the tree part). I think they can choke on the tree part of it. They can have other green vegetables too like romaine lettuce, maybe cucumber w/o the skin and seedless, green beans w/o the seeds. Try whatever green veg you think they might like to eat. My oto cat loves the vegetables. Just be careful not feed them too much of it because then they will get lazy and when you get algae they may not clean it. I had to stop feeding Fred for awhile and then clear out the area that had algae on it, so he can eat it. Anyway, there are my ideas. Hope it helped. Jett will have a much harder time with vegetables, as long as the chunks are big enough that he can't eat it. Natalie

COBettaCouple

yea, slices of cucumber and zucchini would be good.. hopefully Jett won't like them. Since Jett has been eating algae wafer, he may have some constipation.. i'd feed them all some frozen peas thawed, peeled and torn into little pieces for a couple days. or if Jett won't eat the veggie slices, just a few pea bits for him and veggie slices for the corys.

Jendayi

Well unfortunately it may not be an issue too much longer. One of the cories died last night. I thought it must have been the one that was in my b/f's tank and just got too stressed. But now one of the remaining two is acting similar to the one that died, lethargic, not really eating and hiding. Jett is being a complete turd to the 'healthy' one and going out of his way to chase him now that he is basicly alone.

I have been testing my water twice a day and have done 2 partial water changes to control the nitrates. But everything else looks perfect. As a last resort I can pull the remaining cory out and put him in my baby snail tank, but it is only a gallon. I think the snails are big enough now so that he couldn't try to eat them. I know he will be unhappy alone, but I can't get more if I don't know what's killing them.

nmwierman1977

If you just bought them a few days ago there is a good chance that they may have had a contagious disease of some sort. Did you quarantine them before you put them in the tank with Jett? You might want to keep a close eye on Jett and make sure he doesn't get anything. Natalie

Jendayi

No, unfortunately my quarantine tank is currently occupied by 15 baby apple snails. But I moved both of the remaining cories into that tank and out of Jett's after I made that last post. I thought the same thing, tho, about them being sick from the LFS. I will watch Jett very closely just to be sure...

COBettaCouple

being corys, they could have something that won't affect Jett. liquid vitamins, clean water and whatever treats they may like to eat is about all i know to try with the corys, unless you can seperate them from Jett and treat them with some melafix.. just being very careful not to allow even a hint of a drop near the bettas.

Jendayi

The little sick one was just hanging on and hanging on, so I finally decided to try to medicate him. The one that died went fairly quickly and this guy is really fighting. I put them both in a tupperware (thanks for the idea!) with a gallon of water and maracyn/maracyn2 combo and some vitachem since I don't know what's wrong with them. I didn't want to medicate the snail tank b/c it is cycled, and putting them back with Jett isn't an option. I don't know if I'm just hopeful, but the little guy seems to be breathing easier at the moment. I'm just gonna keep my fingers crossed that he lives, and figure out what to do with them afterwards...

Callum The Cat

COBettaCouple

best of luck with them.. i love the cats, but they are so sensitive to water conditions, etc.

Jendayi

Well here's an update. The one sick little cory died later that morning, sometime after 5am when I last checked on him. So now I have just the one little cory living in my 1 gallon tank with the baby snails which he doesn't even seem to notice. I don't know what to do with him, poor little guy. He can't go back into the 5 gallon with Jett on his own, and I don't know why the others died so I am hesitant to get more. He's very mellow in his little tank with only the snails to talk to.

Thoughts? Ideas?

lolagurl

so what do you have in ur 5 gallon tank now? a betta and some tetras?

COBettaCouple

If you could find the healthiest looking cory at the store, he might buddy up and be ok.

Jendayi

In my 5g is my betta Jett and Fuji my apple snail. The tetras are in their own tank all to themselves.

I have been thinking about getting an eclipse 12g tank and either dividing it for Cujo and Romeo, or maybe starting a community tank. I saw some really nice Juli cories this weekend at a different store from where I got my doomed albinos. Would he buddy up with cories that look different from him?

0morrokh

Possibly, but it's still best for them to have buddies of the same species. Right now in my 20gal I have 3 Corydoras pygmaeus and 2 c. habrosus, and they will occasionally interact but usually each species stays in their own group.

chickadee

I had cories of 2 different types before one of mine died and I replaced it with 3 more that were the same type of the one that remained. The age of the cories make more difference than the type. The older ones usually did not bond with youngsters and stayed to themselves and eventually died. I will also say that cories do not do well at all in uncycled tanks. They are not hardy fish and are not able to tolerate the cycle process at all. So if I am reading right, and at this time of day I may not be so forgive if I have this wrong, and you have a tank that is not cycled; that may be the problem with them dying.

Rose

Jendayi

No, the 1g tank the lone cory is in now is cycled, but not heated. And the 5 gallon where I had them originally is cycled, too. My water parameters were perfect in the 5g, I was keeping up with the testing after adding the new guys...

Poor little lone cory.