Cat fish, cory's and glass cats

[Annie]

Hello, I too am confused about asking questions. I have been all over the web and I need help!!! I have a new fish tank. 10 gallon with a flourescent light. I have had the tank now for 2 months. I started with 2 glass cats, a tri colored shark, 2 black mollies and just added a regular corydoras cat fish. Now here is my dilema. The 2 glass cats are very shy. The one is very dark in color although still transparent and the other is clear. The darker one often will lay on it's side appearing to be dead, but when I jiggle the tank or knock on it, it gets up and swims away. Now the other is doing the same. Do they play dead? Could they be sick or something. If anyone out there has these kinds of fish, please let me know what you think. Also I just yesterday got a corydoras. It had one pinkish area near the left gill and is not active at all. Now today the other side now also looks dark pink. I just found it lying on it's back and thought it was dead. I touched the tank and it moved. It has since settled down on the bottom and now the 2 glass cats are lying on their sides right next to this one, so all three appear to be dead, but I know they are not. Is this normal? Please someone help and give me some info if you can. I would greatly appreciate it.
Annie

 

[finatic]

Annie,

What is your PH and temp? I have glass cats and they never lie on the bottom. Always swimming and clear. What are you feeding them? Corys like shrimp pellets as a supplement to the flakes that fall to the bottom. I had 6 panda corys. I now have 2. The other 4 got pink spots and died off 1 by 1. I know what you mean about them looking dead. Mine did the same thing, but did eventually die. I don't know why. I still have the 2 from the original batch and they are just great. Welcome to the forum.

Finatic

 

[Elisabeth]

Hi Annie
Welcome to the forum.

I've got glass cats and corys and I've never heard of them doing anything like that. My glass cats tend to spend most of their time hovering in a shoal. I've never seen mine lie on the floor.

Glass cats are shoaling fish and like to be in groups of 5 or more. If you just keep one or two they will be very shy and may not survive very long. Also corys should also kept in groups of three or more. They too don't like being on their own, they get lonely. My advice would be to get 3 more glass cats and 2 more corys.

 

[anniemae80]

hello Finatic,
Thanks for the reply! Temp is between 76-78 degrees. The PH is 7.0 . I noticed also that they don't seem to like the light. When the light is off they both (glass cats) swim around and seem to be okay, but the minute I turn on that light, the either hover near the top facing away from the light on the oposite side of the light, or as soon as I turn it on, the darker one always lays on it's side on the bottom. The other clearer one then just hangs around the darker one. I will take your advice and get more companions for both species. I'll give that a try today and will keep you posted!
Thansk, Annie

 

[anniemae80]

hello Elizabeth,
Thanks for your reply.
I will add mor glass cats and cory's. I can not imagine what the problem is except to say that do appear to be lonely! I will get some more today and will keep you posted. Thanks very much,
Stacey

 

[William]

I read that glass cats need regular feedings of livefood such as bloodworm in order to keep them in peak condition. I do not have the fish myself so I am not sure but a bit of livefood to supplement their diet may well help give them added nutrients.

 

[anniemae80]

Hello William,
I feed them freeze dried blood worms, tropical flakes and crunchy food pellets. I have seen them eat blood worms and flakes, but I also noticed that they like to eat when the light is out. I guess they are really shy!!!! Anyway thanks for youtr input.
Annie

 

[reg2k2]

Isn't that a bit much for 10gal.??

Welcome, Annie!

 

[William]

Just saw it was a 10 gallon tank, you will want to trade in your shark as it will grow up to 14" long and keeping it in such a small tank will stunt it and lead to it living a much shortened life as its internal organs grow but its exterior remains the same size For keeping a small shoal of glass cats you'll really need a 20gallon minimum any chance you can get one?

 

[Pufferpack]

Hi anniemae80..Welcome to the forum

 

[Jamnog]

hi welcome to the forum sory to hear about ure glass catfish sounds like its ill. im not shure jiggleing the tank and tapping the glass is especially good for them as it says on the tanks at my loacal fish shop not to do it (stresses the fish apparently) as for cures im shure the people here have some thaughts.

 

[Tanked]

welcome annie. I would definatly recomend getting a 20 gallon tank for that stocking level.

 

[kevin007]

bonjour annie, don't worrie i'm not french, lol

 

[Jesse]

Hey! I have a 10 gallon too...but I believe I have too much fish in it. Not to worry! I am getting a 33 gallon soon! Oh and forgot....WELCOME!

 

[clothahump]

What filtration are you using?
Is the tank properly cycled?
How do you perform your water changes?
Can you give us the parameters for the tank?