One of my new bronze cories has a cut on its side. It is feeding and behaving normally.
I've not seen any signs of aggression between any of the fish (zebra danios, bronze cories, leopard cories). The bronzes are quite nervous, and tend to panic e.g. if I approach the tank - they dart away and hide, or dart to the surface and then dive down. I suspect he's bashed it on some decor during a panic - does this sound possible? I have some plastic bogwood, shipwreck (daughter's choice...), the usual pump inlet, heater etc. and have just noticed a sharp looking stone which I think came in with a plant and has been exposed by water changes stirring up the substrate.
The cories have only been there 5 days, and came from shop pH 7.2 to my horrible tapwater pH 8 (8.2 at worst), which I guess was also stressful.
The cut looks clean, it's small and red with no sign of swelling or anything else. He doesn't seem to have any other damage, and the other fish all look OK.
My book suggests that if he's otherwise OK I should just leave it, and raise the tank temperature a little to speed up healing. Does this sound like good advice, and is there anything I can do (apart from keeping the water quality as good as possible) to make sure it doesn't turn into anything nasty?
Thanks for any advice.
4 x small zebra danios
2 x bronze cories
2 x leopard cories
Tank size 70 litres
pH 8 (tried and failed to lower this with pH minus, gave up after adding the cories)
Ammonia zero
Nitrite: trace (less than 0.1)
Nitrate: 40 mg/l (tap water is about 20 here)
Tank temp: 75 F - this rose during the recent warm weather but is now stable.
Filter is built into the lid, with a sprinkler bar over carbon cartridges, sponges, and ceramic 'noodles'.
Water always treated to remove chlorine and chloramine.
Liquid fertiliser added for plants at recommended dosage.
SafeStart (bacterial additive) added with new fish.
Water changes: daily this week due to nitrites (see below)
Tank contents and history:
Tank was run for 2 weeks without fish and with plants, small amount of media added from another tank. Nitrite peaked at 0.3 then dropped to zero. Ammonia was consistently zero after first week.
4 x small zebra danios were added nearly 3 weeks ago. NH3 0, NO2 below 0.1, fell to zero.
4 x cories added Sunday (5 days ago). I think I've seen a mini-cycle since then which is just completing:
There was a trace of ammonia the next day (below the lowest reading on the scale), zero ammonia since then.
There was a trace of nitrite Tuesday, and I started doing 20-30% water changes daily. Nitrite rose to 0.1 Wednesday, Thursday, so continued daily water changes.
This morning (Friday) the nitrite has dropped so it's barely visible, only if you look at the test tube at an angle, definitely below 0.1.
I've not seen any signs of aggression between any of the fish (zebra danios, bronze cories, leopard cories). The bronzes are quite nervous, and tend to panic e.g. if I approach the tank - they dart away and hide, or dart to the surface and then dive down. I suspect he's bashed it on some decor during a panic - does this sound possible? I have some plastic bogwood, shipwreck (daughter's choice...), the usual pump inlet, heater etc. and have just noticed a sharp looking stone which I think came in with a plant and has been exposed by water changes stirring up the substrate.
The cories have only been there 5 days, and came from shop pH 7.2 to my horrible tapwater pH 8 (8.2 at worst), which I guess was also stressful.
The cut looks clean, it's small and red with no sign of swelling or anything else. He doesn't seem to have any other damage, and the other fish all look OK.
My book suggests that if he's otherwise OK I should just leave it, and raise the tank temperature a little to speed up healing. Does this sound like good advice, and is there anything I can do (apart from keeping the water quality as good as possible) to make sure it doesn't turn into anything nasty?
Thanks for any advice.
4 x small zebra danios
2 x bronze cories
2 x leopard cories
Tank size 70 litres
pH 8 (tried and failed to lower this with pH minus, gave up after adding the cories)
Ammonia zero
Nitrite: trace (less than 0.1)
Nitrate: 40 mg/l (tap water is about 20 here)
Tank temp: 75 F - this rose during the recent warm weather but is now stable.
Filter is built into the lid, with a sprinkler bar over carbon cartridges, sponges, and ceramic 'noodles'.
Water always treated to remove chlorine and chloramine.
Liquid fertiliser added for plants at recommended dosage.
SafeStart (bacterial additive) added with new fish.
Water changes: daily this week due to nitrites (see below)
Tank contents and history:
Tank was run for 2 weeks without fish and with plants, small amount of media added from another tank. Nitrite peaked at 0.3 then dropped to zero. Ammonia was consistently zero after first week.
4 x small zebra danios were added nearly 3 weeks ago. NH3 0, NO2 below 0.1, fell to zero.
4 x cories added Sunday (5 days ago). I think I've seen a mini-cycle since then which is just completing:
There was a trace of ammonia the next day (below the lowest reading on the scale), zero ammonia since then.
There was a trace of nitrite Tuesday, and I started doing 20-30% water changes daily. Nitrite rose to 0.1 Wednesday, Thursday, so continued daily water changes.
This morning (Friday) the nitrite has dropped so it's barely visible, only if you look at the test tube at an angle, definitely below 0.1.
