CoryCatastrophe
New Member
Hi all,
New to this forum. I've had a betta for about two years and recently decided to expand into cories. My local tropical fish store is run by hobbyists and has high reviews, so I decided to trust them when I bought two pepper and one albino cory to accompany my betta in my 10 gallon tank. They told me that they're happy in groups of three, and that I could do different variations. Sadly, further research and actual observation has definitely revealed otherwise. The peppered corys settled in very nicely (my betta hasn't shown any animosity toward them!) but the albino did not - After some research, I purchased two more albinos, but a week in to getting them, my heater spontaneously failed. The temperature dipped to 69F leading to the death of one of the new albinos from what appeared to be dropsy. After buying a new heater and digital thermometer, I did two rounds of kanaplex in the tank to cure the remaining new albino of his own dropsy. He recovered, and it seemed like things were getting better. The remaining two albinos were generally active, the betta was fine, but the two peppered cories spent most of their time hiding in one of the caves in my tank. I saw that they would come out to eat once the lights went out and most everyone in the house was in bed, so I decided to give them time. Its been about three weeks since this has all happened, and over the last week the albino cories have begun to join the peppers in the cave. They also stopped their activity unless its time to eat and now spend most of their time on the gravel panting. From what I can tell, they have no visual signs of parasites or wounds and their barbells are in tact, and I've obsessively been checking my water quality and it seems to be good. My pH is a bit high at 7.6, temp fluctuates between 75-79, nitrates/nitrite is 0, GH and KH are at 120 ppm, and I do 25% water changes weekly, conditioning with Prime each time and using a gravel vacuum. I feed them Hikari sinking wafers and every couple days supplement with Bug Bites chichlid formula. I'm very hesitant about getting more fish since these guys aren't doing well, but I also know I should have at least three of each type, so I'm uncertain what to do about that. Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated!
New to this forum. I've had a betta for about two years and recently decided to expand into cories. My local tropical fish store is run by hobbyists and has high reviews, so I decided to trust them when I bought two pepper and one albino cory to accompany my betta in my 10 gallon tank. They told me that they're happy in groups of three, and that I could do different variations. Sadly, further research and actual observation has definitely revealed otherwise. The peppered corys settled in very nicely (my betta hasn't shown any animosity toward them!) but the albino did not - After some research, I purchased two more albinos, but a week in to getting them, my heater spontaneously failed. The temperature dipped to 69F leading to the death of one of the new albinos from what appeared to be dropsy. After buying a new heater and digital thermometer, I did two rounds of kanaplex in the tank to cure the remaining new albino of his own dropsy. He recovered, and it seemed like things were getting better. The remaining two albinos were generally active, the betta was fine, but the two peppered cories spent most of their time hiding in one of the caves in my tank. I saw that they would come out to eat once the lights went out and most everyone in the house was in bed, so I decided to give them time. Its been about three weeks since this has all happened, and over the last week the albino cories have begun to join the peppers in the cave. They also stopped their activity unless its time to eat and now spend most of their time on the gravel panting. From what I can tell, they have no visual signs of parasites or wounds and their barbells are in tact, and I've obsessively been checking my water quality and it seems to be good. My pH is a bit high at 7.6, temp fluctuates between 75-79, nitrates/nitrite is 0, GH and KH are at 120 ppm, and I do 25% water changes weekly, conditioning with Prime each time and using a gravel vacuum. I feed them Hikari sinking wafers and every couple days supplement with Bug Bites chichlid formula. I'm very hesitant about getting more fish since these guys aren't doing well, but I also know I should have at least three of each type, so I'm uncertain what to do about that. Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated!