Help...Cory problems!

[Coleallensmom]

My 8 year old son has been begging for some corys ever since we set up our 36 gal, so I finally took him to our LFS the begining of this week and bought three peppered corys to get us started. All seemed well on night #1 but in the morning when I woke, one was stuck to the filter intake of our AC 200. I rescued him and since I don't have a hospital tank set up, I just monitored him in a bucket of tank water for a bit. He seemed fine, so I put him back in the tank. One by one the other two also have gotten stuck (they all look slightly different, so I am able to tell them apart). The one that got stuck this morning was stuck really well...I don't know if he's going to make it. However the first cory seems to be well- is feeding and swiming all over like normal. What is going on? The corys are rather small at the moment, but a healthy fish wouldn't get stuck like that would they? I just don't understand and I am getting frustrated!

 

[Vircomore]

I've never had an AC filter before, but looking at a few pictures, it seems like they have extremely small strainers (the part that sucks in water) for the amount of water they supposedly process, which could be focusing the suction to the point the the fish can't pull out of it.

If you have some clean, new sponge that you can cut to fit around the intake of the filter, you might wanna try that.

 

[HN1]

Did you cycle this tank?

Healthy fish will not get trapped in the intakes.

 

[Coleallensmom]

Tank is cycled. Tested water yesterday (API FW test kit) just to check and everything was/is fine.

 

[BigJim]

I've found several fish living in my ACs, but I'm pretty sure they went up the tube voluntarily. A healthy fish won't get stuck to the filter.

Put the cories in the hospital tank for a while and feed them well. It could be something as simple as malnourishment or your acclimation procedure.

 

[Coleallensmom]

Thanks, BigJim. I had one of my snails climb up onto the spout of my Aquatech filter once, but I've never had a fish get stuck on an intake before. Unfortunately, my hospital tank is gone because my son took it over to use as a terrarium for his hermit crabs who were in need of a new home now that the weather is changing and the temps are a bit colder in the house, or I would have put them in there immediately upon bringing them home.

Idk if it was the right thing to do, but I ended up taking them back to my LFS this morning. My son is not going to be a happy camper when he gets home from school, but I was terrified I was going to kill them. I've only lost one fish since I had the tank set up (an angel) and it wasn't a pleasure!

 

[BigJim]

It was a good call taking them back. Cories are usually hardy fish and good swimmers. I spent fifteen minutes yesterday trying to net a baby panda cory. Every time I'd get close, he'd dart away into the moss.

Don't give up on cories yet. They're a lot of fun when they're healthy. At the LFS, look for active fish with good barbels. Cories use their barbels to root through the substrate and sweep edibles towards their mouths, so they're important.

 

[Coleallensmom]

Thanks for the encouragement. The LFS I went to had so many little ones in a tank, I couldn't tell which fish were what when the worker netted them out/bagged them. They had a handful of Emerald corys in a different tank that were quite a nice size, but I wasn't sure if I wanted such a large species. There is one other store in town, maybe I'll check out what selection they have next time I go in.

 

[Bigzmey]

Thanks for the encouragement. The LFS I went to had so many little ones in a tank, I couldn't tell which fish were what when the worker netted them out/bagged them. They had a handful of Emerald corys in a different tank that were quite a nice size, but I wasn't sure if I wanted such a large species. There is one other store in town, maybe I'll check out what selection they have next time I go in.

Corries are all very peaceful independently of size. From my personal experience the quality of fish stock and in particular corries vary greatly in LFS. I bought corries on several occasions, it could be just me, but I had better luck with grown corries then with juveniles.

 

[Coleallensmom]

Yes, my thoughts exactly re: grown corries vs juveniles. If I decide to take the plunge again, I will definitely try to look for some that aren't so young!

 

[BigJim]

Young cories are vulnerable if you don't feed the well. I lost a bunch of panda fry when I went on vacation.

 

[i3k]

Were the cories acclimated properly?

 

[Coleallensmom]

I normally float my fish/add small amounts of tank water to the LFS bag over a period of time (30-60 mins) before I net them and add them to the tank. Should I be doing anything different?

 

[cwt]

I've had a couple of juvenile cories get stuck in exactly the same way... it's not a health issue, as far as I could tell. They just happen to lean into the intake. I suppose you could put some sort of prefilter on it.

 

[Coleallensmom]

I've had a couple of juvenile cories get stuck in exactly the same way... it's not a health issue, as far as I could tell. They just happen to lean into the intake. I suppose you could put some sort of prefilter on it.

Thanks for the feedback..that makes me feel a bit better. My immediate thought was ill health, but the fact that it only happened at night time and only on my Aquaclear and not my Aquatech filter had me wondering exactly what was going on. I guess I'll never know, but I learned my lesson...no more baby fish for me..

 

[i3k]

The way you do it is fine. I was just wondering.

But as others have stated, a healthy fish should be able to get away from the pull from the intake. It might be that your cories got stressed out/fatigued from the transfer and just didn't have enough strength to get out of the suction.

I normally float my fish/add small amounts of tank water to the LFS bag over a period of time (30-60 mins) before I net them and add them to the tank. Should I be doing anything different?

 

[libbyb]

I normally float my fish/add small amounts of tank water to the LFS bag over a period of time (30-60 mins) before I net them and add them to the tank. Should I be doing anything different?

I like doing this better than the drip method which involves using tubing and siphoning the tank water into the new fish container. I think the drip method is too quick. I like to take the time to get the fish used to the water.