20 Gallon Tank Panda Cory schooling with other Cories?

Hello everyone!
I have a 20G tank with a female Betta and a couple swordtail fry (as a holding tank until they get bigger. But I only have 2 panda cories, I keep on trying to increase the number, but they keep dying until there is only to left. So I am wondering if there is a hardier species that will school with my 2 panda cories.

Thanks for your help!

 

Cories will school together with other cories occasionally but only if they are pretty much forced. I would try to find out why the cories keep dying and see if you can fix that and then get more cories. What are your parameters?

 

I have been trying to figure out what the problems is
For a while now. My params are 0, 0, 5-15ppm, pH averages around 7.2 and my temp is around 78. I have my tank moderately planted with some algae they eat, and they get fed shrimp pellets once in the morning (I have found this to be the most successful).

 

Oh and my substrate is sand, so that there is no fin damage.

 

weird... anything new you have done recently?

 

No not really the only thing I "tamper" with is I move small plants to the tank, let them grow, and then transfer them to other tanks, or sell them. Other than that I can't think of anything else that I adjust.

 

Yeah that is weird. I have a similar problem. Fish just die off randomly with no explanation.

 

Ya, and I have been really observing if the fish pick on the cories, and all they really do is occasionally sweep by them to see what they're eating, and then swim away. No real serious aggression from what I have seen.

 

When did you set this tank up? It's the only one in your aquarium info without a start date.

I had lots of trouble when I first started keeping corys in a new tank. Once the tank had some age to it, I never lost another one. They can be very sensitive and need to be acclimated carefully.

 

Oops... I will have to fix that! I started it in late October, and I try to give the panda cories a 2 hour drip acclimation. And I forgot to mention that they don't just die the next day, they die. One at a time over several weeks... It's really weird.