dragon14
Aquarium Advice Addict
Hello everyone 
I have been speaking with another forum member about this but I wanted to make a new post to see what other corydoras owners have to say.
I have 7 adorable little corydoras pygmaeus catfish in a 5gallon tank (this is temporary, they are supposed to move in with our betta in a 10g when we are done quarantining them) with a filter and heater and some sand. I bought 5 and then three days later, I got 2 more. Both times there was a dead fish in the tank with them :/
They seem healthy to me. Sometimes when resting on the sand, a couple of them will have their fins laying down a little bit, maybe wilted is a good word. I don't think that they are clamped though. It's possible but they don't always do it and it's never all of them at once.
We have done some reading on their behavior and they seem to be behaving normally.
The other forum member that I was speaking with suggested getting Melafix and Pimafix for them as a preventative measure. Since the tank is not cycled, she also suggested getting QuickStart and StressZyme, since the medication needs to build up in the tank for 7 days, so I added that to the tank about 40 minutes before adding the medicine.
I did the first treatment today. Since we've read that catfish are quite sensitive and have no scales, it is a good idea to do a half dose, so that is what I did for each medicine.
I did a little Googling later online and some people had said their sick catfish died after using melafix. Other people said it was fine for them, but it didn't do anything helpful that they could tell.
Salt I know can also be helpful, but I read somewhere that catfish should not have salt.
My question for you all is, are these medicines corycatfish safe? Is salt safe for them? I halved the medicine dosage for the first day, and I have not tried salt at all yet.
The last thing I want to do is hurt or kill these adorable little creatures and they may not even be sick, but like I said, dead fish were in the tank with them so... I got the first five when they had just arrived that day, the other two I got 3 days later.
I just want to do what's best for them, try to get rid of anything they may have so we don't risk our betta getting anything from them and obviously we don't want them to be sick either!
Thanks so much
I have been speaking with another forum member about this but I wanted to make a new post to see what other corydoras owners have to say.
I have 7 adorable little corydoras pygmaeus catfish in a 5gallon tank (this is temporary, they are supposed to move in with our betta in a 10g when we are done quarantining them) with a filter and heater and some sand. I bought 5 and then three days later, I got 2 more. Both times there was a dead fish in the tank with them :/
They seem healthy to me. Sometimes when resting on the sand, a couple of them will have their fins laying down a little bit, maybe wilted is a good word. I don't think that they are clamped though. It's possible but they don't always do it and it's never all of them at once.
We have done some reading on their behavior and they seem to be behaving normally.
The other forum member that I was speaking with suggested getting Melafix and Pimafix for them as a preventative measure. Since the tank is not cycled, she also suggested getting QuickStart and StressZyme, since the medication needs to build up in the tank for 7 days, so I added that to the tank about 40 minutes before adding the medicine.
I did the first treatment today. Since we've read that catfish are quite sensitive and have no scales, it is a good idea to do a half dose, so that is what I did for each medicine.
I did a little Googling later online and some people had said their sick catfish died after using melafix. Other people said it was fine for them, but it didn't do anything helpful that they could tell.
Salt I know can also be helpful, but I read somewhere that catfish should not have salt.
My question for you all is, are these medicines corycatfish safe? Is salt safe for them? I halved the medicine dosage for the first day, and I have not tried salt at all yet.
The last thing I want to do is hurt or kill these adorable little creatures and they may not even be sick, but like I said, dead fish were in the tank with them so... I got the first five when they had just arrived that day, the other two I got 3 days later.
I just want to do what's best for them, try to get rid of anything they may have so we don't risk our betta getting anything from them and obviously we don't want them to be sick either!
Thanks so much
