One Of These Days I Will Actually Get Around To Enjoying My Tank..

[VaegaVic]

So after a major overhaul from gravel to sand, everything was going well. I added 9 pygmy corys and they seemed to thrive. I did my usual weekly water test and found that the ammonia and nitrites had jumped to over 4ppm each. I assumed this was because of the (now dry and dead) gravel.

I pressed on, doing 95% water changes for a week or so, letting the tank recycle.
On the day that the tank had finally reached 0 nitrite, a cory died..
I said "that's to be expected" and moved on, eager to replace him.
The next morning, 3 were found with swim bladder problems, instead of treating my entire tank, I just removed all the corys and took them back for the store to treat them.

I exchanged all the pygmys for 7 peppered and couldn't be happier.
Went to bed last night and now the peppered are all showing the first signs of white spot.
I hoped it was just the sand particles that had become stuck to them, but when I woke this morning, yet again, the tiny flecks were still there.

So currently I'm treating for whitespot using a general all-round med, Interpet Pond Goldfish Treatment, at a 60% dose, turned the temp up to 26 and will have to wait yet another week for the tank to stablise.

Water stats are all still dead on (ha, so to speak), 0,0,10.

One of these days, I will actually be able to sit down and enjoy my pride and joy, it just seems one thing after another with this sodding tank.

*sigh*

 

[ellena]

Oh, that sounds a right nightmare Fingers crossed it's sorted soon. I would suggest letting it settle down for a good while before adding anything else, just to make sure

 

[VaegaVic]

Oh, that sounds a right nightmare Fingers crossed it's sorted soon. I would suggest letting it settle down for a good while before adding anything else, just to make sure

Oh yea of course, only reason I added the peppers so soon was to avoid a lapse in the bacteria from the pygmys.

I'd ideally like to squeeze in another 2 peps and remove some of my guppies, they're getting old and I've set up a specialist tank just for them.

 

[Liam50]

i thought to treat white spot its better to push the heat over 30c?

 

[Assaye]

i thought to treat white spot its better to push the heat over 30c?

That only works if your fish can handle the tank that hot. Might be mistaken, but I believe peppered corys wouldn't appreciate it?

I'd switch to using an ich/velvet treatement, tbh, unless using this pond treatment is a well guarded secret for treating whitespot.

Try a blackout, unless you've got some live plants?

 

[VaegaVic]

i thought to treat white spot its better to push the heat over 30c?

That only works if your fish can handle the tank that hot. Might be mistaken, but I believe peppered corys wouldn't appreciate it?

I'd switch to using an ich/velvet treatement, tbh, unless using this pond treatment is a well guarded secret for treating whitespot.

Try a blackout, unless you've got some live plants?

Indeed, the peps can tolerate 26/27 absolute max, anymore and I risk losing them to that.
The treatment I'm using pretty much does anything, from internal bacteria to fungus and parasites (such as WS).
I do indeed have live plants, but at the same time, I need monitor if anyone dies so I can remove them.

Although saying all this guys, taking a look at them again, I actually think it could very well be sand on them, I saw a cory flick sand at another, the sand landed on his head, some fell off, other particles stayed on him.
It's almost like the sand is magentised towards cory plates

I shall keep an eye on for a few days, hopefully it is just sand, if it isn't, I won't let it get to the obvious lethal stage.

 

[snowflake311]

No when treating Cory cats for ich do NOT bring the temp up it will cause more stress. Some treatment and cause damage to corys they are sensitive to many kinds of treatment. After treating with coppersafe for a week a few of my corys had shorter barbs. They are fine now and the Barbs are growing back.

Less is more with corys. I try not to use any treatment on mine. But with ich you have to. I used just Formalin·3 and did daily wc. This worked for me and I did not lose any corys. 75 f = 23c is as high as I would keep corys at. Doing daily wc changes vacuuming the gravel is just as good as bring the heat up to treat ich.

 

[VaegaVic]

No when treating Cory cats for ich do NOT bring the temp up it will cause more stress. Some treatment and cause damage to corys they are sensitive to many kinds of treatment. After treating with coppersafe for a week a few of my corys had shorter barbs. They are fine now and the Barbs are growing back.

Less is more with corys. I try not to use any treatment on mine. But with ich you have to. I used just Formalin·3 and did daily wc. This worked for me and I did not lose any corys. 75 f = 23c is as high as I would keep corys at. Doing daily wc changes vacuuming the gravel is just as good as bring the heat up to treat ich.

The treatment I'm using is 100% safe for all fish, filter bacteria and inverts, I made sure of that before hand. I'm keeping them at 26C and have adjusted oxygen levels accordingly by re-aiming the spray bar, I won't be able to sleep, but hey, who cares..

They all seem lovely and active, eating well, and aren't actually flashing/flayling around, so we shall see.

 

[VaegaVic]

Haha, such a fool. After spending 30 mins watching the tank, I have concluded that it is indeed sand. Where the corys are doing their thing in the sand, it's flicking on top of them and getting lodged on their plates..

Silly silly Vic..

Water temp back down to 24, water change tommorow to remove meds and a nice treat of bloodworms tonight to say sorry to my poor corys.

 

[K-Holed]

Doh! >_<

 

[erk628]

Lol better to be safe then sorry though. You may want to get some carbon to stick in your filters for a couple days to help get the meds out!

 

[VaegaVic]

Lol better to be safe then sorry though. You may want to get some carbon to stick in your filters for a couple days to help get the meds out!

Normally I would do, but I'll be doing frequent water changes in the next week or so to induce spawning with the corys, that should (ideally) be enough.

Thanks for the advice though

Not only that, my external take me 40 mins to get the lid off, so that's staying shut til next month!

 

[snowflake311]

I freaked out once too and it was just sand. If they are not flashing or rubbing don't worry . If they were flashing then you might have an issue.

 

[Assaye]

Good to hear they're OK!

 

[ajs2294]

Best of luck to getting your fish healthy ASAP! it will be worth it in the end