New to owning Corys, have a few questions

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flyingpenguin28

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Hello everyone! I'm hoping someone can help me, I've searched and can't seem to find an answer.

I bought a 10 gallon tank, put the water, heater, filter, and AquaSafe/EasyBalance drops in, and then let it sit for about a week. Each time I tested the ph and it was always between 7.2-7.6 (i used the strips).

I got 4 danios, waited about a day, then went back and got 1 molly and 1 mickey, waited another day and went back and got 2 corys. All of them were great for about a week, but last Friday I couldn't find 1 of the corys. I looked under every plant and rock and even took the filter apart to make sure it didn't somehow get into it. Nothing. So Sunday, I bought another one. Monday morning both were there, but now I can't locate 1 of them again.

The woman at the pet store said nothing in the tank should have messed with/eaten it for any reason. Is it possible I'm missing it somehow or that it's buried under the gravel? I'm so sorry if this sounds dumb, but it couldn't have just disappeared...could it?

The other fish are still doing great
 
The woman at the pet store is wrong. All fish will eat a dead fish. I'm afraid the first lesson in fish keeping is don't believe anything a fish shop worker tells you until you have researched it for yourself.

If you have tested using strips, you will be missing a vital test - ammonia. This is the first ting to show up when fish are added to an uncycled tank (ie a tank which does not have any/enough bacteria to deal with all the ammonia made by the fish, and the nitrite made from it.) You need to buy an ammonia tester asap. Any reading for ammonia or nitrite that is not zero is bad for the fish.
Neither Aqua Safe nor Easy Balance is a bacterial supplement so you are currently doing a fish-in cycle. The first part of this link explains what cycling is; the second part is how to cycle the tank before getting fish, which you can't do as you already have fish.

Until you get that ammonia tester, you need to do daily water changes of around 75%. Live plants will help, as will using a bacterial supplement such as Tetra Safe Start or Dr Tim's One and Only. They'll help, but not cycle the tank instantly; you'll still need to do water changes to keep ammonia and nitrite at zero.

What are the readings on the strip for nitrite and GH? It is a bit soon for nitrite to show up, but the GH is important for choosing fish. Mollies and platies need hard water while danios and cories are soft water fish.



And I'm sorry to tell you but there are a few other problems as well regarding the fish you have. We can discuss these later.
 
Thank you for replying! Oh, no one there told me about testing ammonia, nitrite, or GH. Is there any best tester? I will go tonight and get the tester for ammonia and nitrite and a bacterial supplement.
I feel now like I should have come here first, instead of relying on the pet store to answer my questions.
 
Ammonia and nitrite testers are the most important at this stage. For GH, look on your water provider's website, you need a number and the unit of measurement rather than some vague words.
Shop workers rarely mention the need to match the GH range of fish to your tap water but they usually do mention testing for other things so they can sell you a test kit. Liquid reagent testers (the kind with test tubes) are more reliable than strips, which don't usually contain an ammonia tester.


When you said you tested the pH with strips I assumed you meant the kind that test for pH, nitrite, nitrate and a few others ;)
 

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