FishLover66
Fish Crazy
- Joined
- Jan 5, 2012
- Messages
- 204
- Reaction score
- 1
Hi all. I can't figure out what is going on with the Sterbai cories I've purchased recently. Last Saturday, I purchased two baby Sterbai cories (they are about 1/2 the size of the two I currently have in my display tank). I added them to my 10 gallon, cycled quarentine tank (very slowly deducted water from bag and added my aquarium water while bag floated in tank, and then netted them out of the bag and dumped the bagged water). The water parameters in my tank are good--pH 6.6, 0.0 for both ammonia and nitrites, and nitrates are 10.0. Water temp is 78 deg F. I have an Aquaclear HOB filter, heater, and plastic plants in the tank--no substrate.
The only other fish I have placed in that tank was a school of 6 neons which are now in my display tank--and they all look healthy. There was a week where there were no fish in the quarentine tank.
One of the cories seemed a bit inactive when we got him, and he died overnight on Sunday. The other one seemed ok yesterday, although I still didn't see him eat anything and he mostly hung out in some plastic plants. I went back to the LFS I purchased them at yesterday and received a replacement for the one that died. He tested my water and found that it was fine. Unfortunately the other original cory died last night, so I'll be heading back to the LFS after work to get another replacement.
I'm just afraid of the new ones dying, since I have no idea why they died. I tested the LFS's water while I acclimated the replacement fish yesterday, and found that his tank water is very similar to mine, with the exception of very high Nitrates (6.6 pH, zero ammonia and nitrites, but at the highest level for nitrates, which surprised me). Anyway, if I acclimated the fish slowly to the temp and water parameters of my tank, wouldn't the lower nitrates in my tank be a GOOD thing?
The only other thing I can think of is that I only purchased two and they are alone in a 10 gallon. Should I just add them to my display tank so they will have the company of the other two adult Sterbais? I'm thinking they may have died of stress/anxiety or something? Is that possible?
.
The only other fish I have placed in that tank was a school of 6 neons which are now in my display tank--and they all look healthy. There was a week where there were no fish in the quarentine tank.
One of the cories seemed a bit inactive when we got him, and he died overnight on Sunday. The other one seemed ok yesterday, although I still didn't see him eat anything and he mostly hung out in some plastic plants. I went back to the LFS I purchased them at yesterday and received a replacement for the one that died. He tested my water and found that it was fine. Unfortunately the other original cory died last night, so I'll be heading back to the LFS after work to get another replacement.
I'm just afraid of the new ones dying, since I have no idea why they died. I tested the LFS's water while I acclimated the replacement fish yesterday, and found that his tank water is very similar to mine, with the exception of very high Nitrates (6.6 pH, zero ammonia and nitrites, but at the highest level for nitrates, which surprised me). Anyway, if I acclimated the fish slowly to the temp and water parameters of my tank, wouldn't the lower nitrates in my tank be a GOOD thing?
The only other thing I can think of is that I only purchased two and they are alone in a 10 gallon. Should I just add them to my display tank so they will have the company of the other two adult Sterbais? I'm thinking they may have died of stress/anxiety or something? Is that possible?
.
