Hmmm? Which Cory?

[brant]

I have a 29gal. kit from my lfs it includes a wisper 40 filter and a wisper 40 heater pluss I added awispertech 80 air pump and lots of rocks wich i made 2 nice caves and a nice peice of drifwood (ilove the water color I tink it brings out the color in my fish). I set it up around the 6th. of Dec.(my birthday)on the 10th. I had the temp. stable and gravel residue settled(yes I did rinse it profusly And Murffy's law apllys to aquariums to)so I went back to the lfs to get fish for to cycle the tank not knowing anything I took what they told me to which was 2 dalmation mollies(R.I.P),2 rosy barbs(colorful and active my golden retrievers favorite fish to watch YUK nose prints on tank),3 serpae tetras(colorful and inquisitive),2 pearl danios(zip zip zoom),2 black skirt tetras(they like my dog),5 zebra danios(they need to switch to decaf),and 2 gold danios(wich look like the pearl danio) but anyway my test kit tells me cycle is working ammonia dropped nitrite went up as did nitrate so now I would like to ask do I have room in tis tank for say 5 cory cats and if I do could you nice people suggest some different kinds I like spots or strippes and antics. Thank you for any information. P.S. I will wait for cycle to be over before getting more fish just want to know so if I do have room I can make shure lfs has what i want when I am ready.

 

[Toirtis]

You had best be on top of some pretty frequent partial water changes, as you have more than twice as many fish as you should have already.....without very careful twice daily testing and those water changes, you will likely lose a good 6-8 of those remaining fish. How long have the fish been in there, and what are your current ammonia/nitrite levels?

You may wish to go with Corydoras trilineatus (often sold as 'Julii corys'), as they seem to fit your esthetics.

 

[brant]

Ammonia .5 ppm. nitrite .5ppm. nitrate 10 ppm. as of 8 pm last night.I had to do a water change of about 12 gal on the 24th and I tested on the 25th ammonia was 1 ppm. nitrites .25 ppm nitrates 5 ppm. The fish have been in there since the tenth of tis month and I was expecting to do 30-40% change per week or at 30 ppm nitrate wichever comes first.

 

[RoK]

Since the tank is not cycled and there are fish, IMO, you should be doing a minimum of 40-50% every other day. Also, make sure the ammonia doesn't get any higher than 1ppm, that's too high for fish! You should try to bring a bunch of the fish back.

 

[Fishyfanatic]

Panda Cories are also very cute. They stay relatively small.

 

[brant]

well talked to fish store return not an option but I did ad an aditional filter to add to biolode capabilitys plus redundancy I added a marine land biowheel set up it is only a 100 but it was all I could fit in the opening but since I added it the cycle under way checked this morning ammonia still .5ppm,nitrite 1ppm. nitrate20ppm. Plus I will be getting a 20 gal hexagon tank(from someone who gave up) and hopfuly have it set up by sunday so I am going to move all of the danios to it to split the load some. will keep you posted.

 

[krap101]

micro cories are pretty cool too

 

[Lonewolfblue]

well talked to fish store return not an option but I did ad an aditional filter to add to biolode capabilitys plus redundancy I added a marine land biowheel set up it is only a 100 but it was all I could fit in the opening but since I added it the cycle under way checked this morning ammonia still .5ppm,nitrite 1ppm. nitrate20ppm. Plus I will be getting a 20 gal hexagon tank(from someone who gave up) and hopfuly have it set up by sunday so I am going to move all of the danios to it to split the load some. will keep you posted.

Doesn't matter how many filters you add, cycling is still going to take 6-8 weeks til you are fully cycled. Biowheels are really good filters too, once they are cycled. I've heard of people getting a used biowheel from their lfs and putting it on their new filter to help speed the process up. Might want to check and see if it's something they could do to help.

 

[mattrox]

I usually do cycles with fish and to twice daily 30%+ pwcs. Somedays one 50% change works. Depends on the levels of Ammonia and/or Nitrite. I have had Rams spawn during a cycle and the cycle lasted about 4 weeks.

Now, I don't recomend cycling with Rams, just that a fishy cycle can be done with no adverse effects. I have an 80 gal tank and the cycle was with a very low bioload so wastes from 5 or so fish will not get to high levels as quickly as the same fish in a small tank.

It is a good idea to reduce the load. Keep testing and keep up the pwcs. What about C. sterbae?