Pygmy cories

[jollysue]

Did you see the weiztmani? Wow! If I only had $250 for a flock of them!

How are you homing all your new guys?

 

[Inchworm]

Hi jollysue

With the jury duty, it sounds like you have a full day ahead of you!

Today I should be getting 5 each of C. reticulatus, C. armatus and C. pastazensis, and 7 C. virginiae. I'm especially looking forward to the pastazensis because they have such cute little faces.

The white one with the stripe was the C. arcuatus, also known as the skunk cory. Here's a picture of some of them with my black C. aeneus:

Sorry about the spots on the glass, ) (I wasn't planning on posting this pic) but aren't they an attractive fish? I had these two species together for a few weeks, in a 20 gallon long, but then I needed the tank to grow out my black fry. I'll be updating that thread soon too.

You have quite a bunch coming too! Corys and bettas are a great combination! The betta I have is living with my young pandas and they do just fine together.

Do you mean apple snails?

And yes, the weitzmanis are interesting, and I've thought about bidding, but I just don't know.............. Guppyman is offering C. sarareensis and they look pretty good too.

Too many corys to choose from, too little money!

 

[jollysue]

What is the virginiae/sangama about? What is the /sangama part?

I just took a little break and went to look at guppyman. Oh dear. too many goodlooking fish. I saw lots of fish to drool on.

Your crews are grubbing on the worms--Bloodworms? They look very happy with the accommodations.

Yes, apple snails. It's his first sale. He's 14. I think he's a little excited.

I will have 6 female bettas for a tank and 5 boys. I guess I could put 10 cories in the 40 with 6 ladies. Might be interesting.

Yes the arcuatus are attractive in that in your pic.

Did you see my post? The leucomelas came out to say hi. When I'm sure the tank is healthy again, I think the leucomelas can go in the big tank all together.

The weitzmani are $50 a piece. That's a lot to put together a proper family.

I've put it off all I can. I have to get ready. I'm sure it will be interesting.

Sue

 

[Inchworm]

Hi jollysue

Yes, those are bloodworms. I much prefer to give them live food, but at this time of the year my lfs has trouble getting good blackworms. If they don't look good when they arrive he refuses them. Once the weather cools a little more the supply will be more reliable.

My shipment of corys arrived a little over 3 hours ago and I'm still adapting them to my water very slowly. They arrived in very poor condition and, with the exception of the C. reticulatus, I think I'm going to lose some of them.

I'll post more later and have pictures too.

 

[jollysue]

Oh No! Please keep me updated on your newbies. I'm so sorry. I pray they perk up, and God gives you wisdom.

I got my Pulchers, so I will email Bryan tonight to set up the shipment.. I would like to mention your concern.

I just got home and it was a warm one in town. It's been 5 or 6 years since I was at that end of Fresno. Our trial was postponed so I'm free. They offered me a spot on the ABOTA (some org.) as a mock juror. The kicker is I get a free lunch and $75. Hehe

I do hope you new pals do well.

 

[Inchworm]

Hi jollysue,

I'm glad you had a good day. I always wanted to be on jury duty, but every time I get called for stand-by, my number doesn't come up. Of course, that's the way things sometimes seem to work out.

Well, the except for one that I thought was DOA but actually revived to live a few minutes longer, they are starting to look alright. I got the delivery at 11:45, sorted them out and divided them into 3 containers, and then took the afternoon to add 1/8 cup of water at a time to gently change the pH. It was 5:30 before I had them in the tank.

Give me a few minutes to look at the pictures I took and I'll show you how they arrived. I will say that I emailed Bryan and he was pretty quick to respond, which made me feel a bit better.

Oh, and that's good news about the pulchers! They look like nice ones too.

 

[jollysue]

So you lost one? Which one? Did you ship USPS Express confirmed?

What did Bryan do?

The rest are well?

 

[Inchworm]

Hi jollysue

Here are the first pictures:


Here's the box they arrived in. I left the cat in the picture so you can get an idea of the size of the box. It was secure and taped nicely, and showed no damage from the trip.

This is what it looked like inside:

Here's the one that died. It was one of the pastazensis. It was a beautiful fish too.

I have to get back to Bryan about this. I let him know about the fish that died, but told him I would see how the rest of them did and email him this evening.

And yes, it was USPS Express Mail.

 

[jollysue]

Hi, Inchworm, I'm sorry,

That's how my bettas and pygmies came . In separate bags, except the cories were 5 to a bag, so 5 bags of 5 pygmy cories. Then they were packed in a secure Styrofoam box which was firmly fit in a well wraped cardboard box. All of mine were vital and healthy--30 fish. I can't count the cories but I haven't seen any dead ones.

I went back and read his whole disclaimer. It discusses the difficulty of shipping wild stock. And remarks that the wild caught have a more difficult time handling the shipping. When I think of the casualness of many deliverers I am surprised that any fish survive. He mentions that he can't be entirely responsible for the shippment's handling by the shippers.

I assume that since it was Express and delivered as expected, he will warranty the fish. It is sad that the fish suffered.

I was in Petco today picking up some Maracyn. They had some green emerald cories. Is that what they are called, w/a green stripe? They were $4.50 usd a piece. I was so tempted. But they were in with guppies or platties or mollies or some such. There were 3 or 4 dead guppies. A guppy and some of the cories were nibbling on a body. I was so tempted. But I thought, "Like I don't have enough trouble?" Almost every tank had some dead fish.

So are the rest recovering? I'm looking forward to the pics. Maybe he'll send you a little sumpin' sumpin' as the kids say.

Oh, by the way, He said in that thing on his aquabid shipping policy that he would send a starter of microworms if asked, and it was the appropriate time of year. Apparantly the worms don't tolerate the heatpacks well.

I'm for dinner now. Later,

Sue

 

[Inchworm]

Hi jollysue

They are settled in their tank now and looking better but I'm still worried about them. Overall, I think they are still pale and very jittery. Most of them seem to have their sense of balance back, but the reticulatus are all shimmying and every now and then one of them goes to the top and stays there longer than I think he should. A nice quiet night will probably do them a world of good.

Here are some pictures of them that I took a little while ago when I gave them their first feeding. The spots you see in the water are flake food.

 

[jollysue]

Yeah, you all get some rest. It's probably a pretty strange world they've been thrown into.

Who are the orangy brown ones and the ones with gold! Hahaha!!! You got some cuties. Some dark and cover will help them feel better and on a full tummy, too. They probably feel pretty exposed. Poor little guys don't know how good they got it yet.

Goodnight.

 

[Inchworm]

It looks to me that these were healthy fish when they were bagged up, and the water was clean so he most likely fasted them in preparation of shipping. They were all double bagged with the top of the first bag in the bottom of the second one to prevent corners where they could become stuck. He used Bag Buddies or some other water conditioner too. It's clear that he made a great effort to ship them safely.

Why didn't they arrive in the best condition? We will never know what happened to them between the time they left his hands and came into mine. Transportation is always the weak link in the process of buying and selling fish.

The water temperature when I had taken them out of their bags was 77.8 degrees F. This is an appropriate temperature for most corys. BUT we cannot know if it went much higher at any given time or even if it went high, low and high again given the day, night, day time frame that they were traveling.

Did they run low on oxygen? That's a possibility too. Corys, unlike bettas, are not air breathers. True, they have the ability to swim up and gulp air from the surface and absorb it through their intestines, but this is not something the can do constantly. Most of their oxygen comes from the water, and they were in very little water.

Other things could have caused problems too. They were confined when they should have been swimming. Corys are strong swimmers and most active in the dark. Can you imagine how you would feel after spending 24 or more hours sitting in a car without a chance to get out and stretch your muscles?

They could also have been tossed, dropped, shaken, etc. during the process of being sorted and moved from one vehicle or Post Office to another.

All these factors have one thing in common: they stress fish. Any one, let alone a combination of them could stress corys to the point where their immune systems are weakened and they come down with bacterial infections during the next week or so. This is my greatest fear right now. It is, after all, the seller's job to see that the fish arrive alive. It's the buyer's job to work with them after that.

 

[jollysue]

Hi Inchworm,

How're the newbies doing? How are you doing?

I'm working out the arrangements now with Bryan for shipping and payment. He will probably ship Wed. for me to recieve Thusday. Although I don't have a great confidence in USPS. But the $12 difference is hard to ignore. It is tempting to pay the extra, the more I think about it.

Synirr shipped a package to me Wed afternoon by Express. It sat last night in the substation. If they had notified me as I requested or had more updated tracking, I could have picked it up yesterday afternoon. Fed Ex would have shipped it overnight and had it on the truck for delivery the next morning. Of course tha's what the estra $12 is for.

 

[Inchworm]

Hi jollysue

A nice rest did both me and the fish a lot of good. When I woke up they were playing and I took some pictures which I will post in a few minutes. The fish are all alive and coloring up well. I fed them some frozen bloodworms and they seemed happy to have them. I am going to try to get some live food today or tomorrow when I go shopping because I think they are safer for all fish and especially fish that are still at risk.

What fish will you be getting from Bryan? Sorry, I sort of lost track of them. )

I really suggest that you pay whatever it takes to get them to you as quickly as possible especially if the weather is warm. IMHO, the little individual bags are just not the safest way to ship corys, either wild caught or tank raised. You are making a big investment here and spending a few dollars more to protect it would be the smart thing to do.

 

[Inchworm]

Here are the pictures of the corys this morning: