Wonky Cycle And Weird Cory Behavior...

[ihassomefishes]

hey all..

i have a 37g tank..it's a fairly new tank but i completed a fishless cycle. i have some platys and added some emerald corys this morning.
i checked the water before i added my corys, and i had .25ppm of ammonia (ah!!). everything else was normal. don't know what's going on with the ammonia...i did a 10-15% water change and it's back to 0. anyone have any suggestions as to what to do? i'm worried, i don't want anyone dying on me.


i got 6 emerald corys..they're all acting like they're the only cory in the tank-it's like they don't know the others are there. they all hide or lay still at the bottom 99% of the time. i haven't seen any of them scavenging or eating, but a couple of them do swim around the tank from time to time. what's the deal? could they just be adjusting to their new home?


i'd appreciate any insight!! thanks.

 

[karin]

You'll need to keep up on water changes if you detect any ammonia or nitrites.

What is the temperature of the tank?

Just a thought, you might throw an air stone or bubble wand in there if you don't have one. When my tank was first set up I had some sort of oxygen problem and it was affecting fish. The bubble wand recovered my fish very rapidly and cory's love bubbles walls.

 

[ihassomefishes]

it's at 75 degrees. i have a 12 inch airstone, but it hasn't been on in a couple of days because my platys seem to not like it...they won't eat near the bubbles, and they won't swim anywhere near the bubble wall. i'll run it tonight and see what happens.

my nitrites are at 0, and i just checked my ammonia and it's still at 0. i added some stress zyme, i doubt it'll do anything but i figured it couldn't hurt.

 

[karin]

Your temperature looks good. How are the corys anyhow? If they are still acting strange, post in the emergency section for more feedback.
They may be a bit shocked but my limited experience is that they come around quickly.

 

[mattlee]

do the corys have a cave or something that they can hide under? a lot of corys are more active at night, i have 2 3ft tanks with just corys in for breeding and i rarely see then when the lighs are on sometimes any fish can take a day or 2 just to get used to the new environment but with any corys i have bought they are usually exploring very quickly. did you have them in quarentine before adding them to your main tank?

 

[ihassomefishes]

they seem to have adjusted and are happy as can be now. they've claimed a log as their home and all hang out there when they're not doing flips in the filter bubbles.

i lost one of them today, though..my wonky cycle is the culprit i think. he was the smallest of the lot, and i got a .25 ammonia reading after i noticed him struggling. i did another partial water change and we're back at zero. i can't find him in the tank, i'm sure he died and got lost..so i'm a little nervous about what that's going to do to my already screwy water quality.

 

[mattlee]

they seem to have adjusted and are happy as can be now. they've claimed a log as their home and all hang out there when they're not doing flips in the filter bubbles.

i lost one of them today, though..my wonky cycle is the culprit i think. he was the smallest of the lot, and i got a .25 ammonia reading after i noticed him struggling. i did another partial water change and we're back at zero. i can't find him in the tank, i'm sure he died and got lost..so i'm a little nervous about what that's going to do to my already screwy water quality.

if you have ammonia present in the water then you need to do relevant water changes to get it to 0 asap. also whenever a fish dies its a good idea to change some water even if its not due a change.

 

[Harlequins]

It probably wasn't a good move putting the cories in when you had a .25 ammonia problem to start with...

Have you found the cory that you think you've lost,if not,then i would find it and remove if its dead,this won't help your ammonia problem.

keep tesing the water twice daily if any ammonia showing then do a waterchange,has Matt said when you lose any fish do a w/c anyway.

 

[ihassomefishes]

thanks for the responses..

i did my partial change before i added the corys, and by the time i acclimated them it was back to zero.

i'm keeping a close eye on my levels..i did a 20% change yesterday, and last night it was holding at zero..the corys are happy-they're much more active than they've been..so, hopefully i can keep everything level until the tank re-cycles. does anyone have suggestions as to how to speed this up a bit? i don't want anymore fish loss if i can help it.

i did a pretty thorough combing of the tank to find the little guy, but i'm going to have to take everything out to find him i think. i'm keeping an eye on the water quality and i'm going to keep changing water every day...hopefully he'll surface. if not, as soon as i'm able i'll take the tank apart to look.