Peppered school. Again!

I stopped at my petbarn this morning to get prime and wafers but came out with 7 cories. I'm not sure how that happened. Anyway, now that they've followed me home, I need to make sure they're going to be ok. The last school I had met with various bad luck, and I don't want to see any of these guys end up the same. They're floating in the 38g with gravel substrate, one angel, a killI and 10 cherry barbs. There's a couple of snails too.
I contemplated putting them in my larger sandy tank but there's a lot going on in there at the moment and I'd be worried there would be issues.
So I'm going to acclimatise them very slowly. I might add some extra plants for hiding, and put up a driftwood cave fir them. Is there anything else you can recommend?

 

I have to give up on cories. I can't keep them alive. 3 have died in 3 days. 2 were floating at the surface which they've never done before. The tank is about a year old, well established. It's got my oldest fish in it and they don't even get sick, let alone die. I've got no problems with schools other people say are difficult and sensitive, so why are cories so hard?? Temp is 26, readings are 0,0,5, 7.4 pH. sounds fine, as far as I knew.

I think I may set up a Cory only tank and see how that bodes for them. I wonder if they can share with cherry shrimp? I'll try my new fish guy, too. His fish have an incredible 100+% survival rate (they even breed). No more petbarn cories. In fact, no more petbarn fish ever. Their fish are too fragile.

 

Have you considered quarantining all corys in future?

 

Have you considered quarantining all corys in future?

They don't survive quarantining either. I've got 2 in the qt at the moment. Hopefully they'll do better. They didn't come from the crummy shop.

 

Just asking but do you have copper water pipes in your home and do you use tap water in your tanks?

 

I do use tap water, with either prime or stress coat each time. I'm not sure about the pipes. The house is really old, and I'd think they'd be clay pipes if they were anything old... But they could very well be copper. Now that you mention it though, there could be copper somewhere along the line. I don't have much long term success with snails either, which could indicate copper in the water. This is worth looking into. thanks for the tip.

One more is very close to dying now, I expect. I thought it was dead yesterday, and got distracted before I could scoop him out. I went back a while later and he was nowhere to be seen. He'd brought himself back to life and all was well. I don't think it will stay that way.