The barbaxL18 thread

barbaxL18 · Post by **barbaxL18** » 23 May 2007, 01:50

[post removed by barbaxL18]

MatsP · Post by **MatsP** » 23 May 2007, 12:02

Can you fill in the informatio from the post at the top of the forum titled something like "Health questions, answer these questions".

Most important set of questions is your water conditions and the symptoms of the fish.

Without knowing what ails the fish, it's hard to come up with a cure.

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Mats

barbaxL18 · Post by **barbaxL18** » 23 May 2007, 13:57

please just delet anfd remove my membership to this forum

MatsP · Post by **MatsP** » 23 May 2007, 14:40

Ian Fuller went through a bit of effort setting this form up, so why don't you use it, instead of drip-feeding a few bits and pieces of information:

There are several questions that always seem to follow a query on Cory health. So it goes without saying that the poster of such a health question should provide as much of this information as possible in the initial post. I have made a list bleow of the information required. And if possible a positive ID/pictures of the fish concerned.

1. Water parameters
a) Temerature range.
b) pH.
c) GH.
d) KH
e)Ammonia, Nitrate, Nitrite, leavels.
f) Water change frequency
(Most LFS's will check your water and give a list of readings).

2. Tank set up
a) Size.
b) Substrate.
c) Filtration.
d) Furnishings.
e) Other tank mates.
f) How long has it been set-up?

3. Symptoms / Problem description

4. Action taken (if any)

5. Medications used (if any)

Any posts without this sort of information added will tend not to get a quick reply (or reply at all). Please help us to help you.

[If you use the "quote" button to reply, you can fill in the bits that you have data for, and it's easy to read as well as giving us all the information in one palce].

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Mats

barbaxL18 · Post by **barbaxL18** » 23 May 2007, 15:32

[post removed by barbaxL18]

Coryologist · Post by **Coryologist** » 23 May 2007, 16:15

barbaxL18 wrote: To be honest I am turned off by the tone and unfriendliness of this forum so far and perhaps I will simply not ask any more questions as I seem to get snooty remarks from people who simply need to relax and welcome a newcomer to the forum.

Greetings. People here are most helpful and friendly. The "sticky" about how to post a health question is provided to help us, help you, by getting all the pertinent information in one post.

This Forum has very few rules and but a few simple requests. If you do not feel that the way things are done here are completely to your liking, perhaps you need to evaluate whether or not you have put your best foot forward to meet helpful acquantances and future friends.

The lack of cooperation in posting properly, and high degree of sarcasm won't really encourage peeps to get in line to assist you. Like anything else in life, "garbage in = garbage out." You want an intelligent answer - provide all the required information in one post and quit belly aching that there is a way things are normally done.

All that's left for you to do now is post a description of a spotted Cory, without providing a photo and ask for help in identifying it.

How's that for sarcasm?

You know what they say, "It's a lot easier to catch flies, with honey - than with vinegar."

Not my place, I know - but it's my 2¢ and I'm spending it, here and now!

If I were you, I'd delete your posts and start over. - Frank

MatsP · Post by **MatsP** » 23 May 2007, 16:38

barbaxL18 wrote:Gee, I did not feel I was drip feeding information but rather responding to the request by the other mod of the forum. Most of what you have asked I have already provided. However I will give all of the parameters if that will help. To be honest I have been keeping and breeding Tropical fish for many years and I more looking for any common problems these fish may have that I should look out for. Is there a common problem that hits this particuler species or wild corys in general. The water is within good parameters for this species and there is no detectable Ammonia, or Nitrite. I gave the pH and counductivity but I guess I was not anal enough in giving the KH and GH as well, excuse me. The tempreture is 77f oh wait 26 c. Did I miss anything else? I would hate to bother you.

You're not bothering me, but you're also not helping yourself by not following a fairly simple request.

As far as I'm aware, there are no special problems with this species - at least, when I got some, they didn't have any problems like that, they settled in nicely as soon as I let them free in their new home. But that's obviously dependant on many different factors, e.g. what the processes of the exporter/importer/distributor involved are [they may have treated against parasites - which is indeed common in all wild-caught and also occurs many captive bred species].

I also stated the water change frequency so perhaps you should reread my post as you have asked for things I have already given.

It would actually have taken less typing to fill in the information than you've typed in your upset that I wanted ALL the information in one place, easily readable.

I also said this was a quarantine tank so I simply assumed you would know that was a bare bottom tank etc.

Quarantine tank, in my experience, can be anything from bare-bottomed to fully planted - there's obviously a slight leaning towards the more sparse decorative setup, since if you do need to re-start the tank completely because the fish got ill, then you have less to sterilize/throw away.

But it's by far not a "natural fact" that it's bare-bottom. Some sand or gravel isn't very expensive, and for Cory's, it makes a more suitable (again, in my experience and opinion) setup.

Many things I assumed you would simply know. Such as a quarantine tank being bare bottom. There have been no symptoms and I did describe what happens right before they die.

To be honest I am turned off by the tone and unfriendliness of this forum so far and perhaps I will simply not ask any more questions as I seem to get snooty remarks from people who simply need to relax and welcome a newcomer to the forum.

Well, I may not have used the right tone, but I was actually trying to help by pointing you to the "help us help you" post that Ian put together for collecting the information necessary. And I also assumed from your language, e.g. that you know about soft and hard water, know that metronadiazole, etc, that whilst you were a newcomer to the forum here, that you weren't a newcomer to the fish-hobby, and thus would understand the importance of KNOWING a lot of different things about the fish and their environment. Fish health is very often NOT about simple things like "these fish often get X, so medicate with Y", but rather a more holistic view of the environment.

If this is making you less inclined to use this forum as a resource for help, I can only appologize. It was not my intention...

--
Mats

corysrus · Post by **corysrus** » 23 May 2007, 16:39

barbaxL18 wrote:I recently aquired some wild C.hastatus. They look and act healthy but I keep loseing a few a week and lately one or two a day. I realy want to get these guys established. Can anyone one offer any advice. I would hate to lose these guys. I have been giving them water changes every couple of days. They have been eating well. They are in soft water and in a quarantine tank. I treated them with metronadizole so far. I welcome any suggestions.

This is a common occurence with this species as we bring in 5,000 pcs at a time and have the same issue with them. It's a matter of time, good clean water, Prazipro, and good quality food. Your inevitably going to loose some and the rest will adapt to their new surroundings albeit with some crapping out.

Mike_Noren · Post by **Mike_Noren** » 23 May 2007, 16:56

I don't know if this is a universal experience, but in my experience all the dwarf cories are extremely sensitive fish, which can go belly up at any time for seemingly no reason.

Most recently my C. pygmaeus, who eat well and look healthy and are in an aquarium with other catfish and inverts which also seem healthy, have started dying for no apparent reason. I don't know, they seem exceedingly fragile to me.

apistomaster · Post by **apistomaster** » 23 May 2007, 17:28

Here is my 2 cents on Dwarf Corydoras:
1. My water: pH 7.4, Total hardness 110ppm, KH 75ppm, conductivity 330 umhos/cm, and TDS 253ppm.
Temperature 26C to 28C. Partial water changes 50% twice weekly.

2. Foods: Live blackworms, bbs, microworms, occassional frozen bloodworms.

3. Set ups: 4.6 gal all glass tanks, 1/2 inch silca sand, one small piece of bogwood, hanging and sunken acrylic yarn spawning mops.

4. The Fish: Corydoras habrosus and Corydoras hastatus. 10 to 12 fish per tank.

What Bryan, corysrus, said is true. Some losses are normal. Mike Noren's experiences are his own. My experience is that Dwarf Corydoras are indistinguishable from other Corydoras as far as ease of maintenance. In other words, I find them hardy and easy to keep.

I will take some photos of my setups and return to this thread and post them. I basically keep and breed them as I do egg hanging killifish like Aphyosemion australe. If I pick up a bottom mop or the piece of bogwood, the dozens of fry go scurrying for cover.

OK, It's a lousy photo but this is my typical dwarf Cory spawning setup. I have gone to a natural method as opposed to setting up tanks to breed Dwarf Corydoras and then removing the breeders. I get just as many fry with a lot less work. My typical Dwarf Corydoras breeding setup is like the Corydoras habrosus tank and there really are 12 C. habrosus breeders plus many dozens of fry. The C.hastatus has just as many in it. I've added many minute juvenile cherry shrimp to help control algae.

Post by **Coryman** » 23 May 2007, 18:27

In my opinion anyone importing 5,000 pieces at a time knowing full well that they are going to loose large numbers, should be more responsible and should either make sure their exporters are packing them correctly, or find out how to keep them properly. Just importing thousands of fish to make sure there are enough to make a profit from to me is totally irresponsible.

There are actually two groups of C. hastatus, the described species coming from the Rio Paraguay in Brazil and Paraguay, these in actual fact do not require super soft low pH water, which could be part of the proble. The second reported and possibly a new look-a-like species comes from Colombia, I am not sure if this species has entered to hobby as yet, but if it has it may require completely different conditions.

If any Cory arrives in a poor state it will need a lot of TLC and may also need treatment for parasites such as flukes and worms, without wishing to get into a heavy debate on the subject, Prazipro is an illegal product here in the UK and there are other safer ways to treat for these parasites.

barbaxL18,

Firstly unless you wipe the all the internal surfaces of your Q tank clean, especially the base, on a daily basis I would suggest a thin layer of fine smooth grained sand as a substrate. A thin bacterial slime forms very quickly on glass surfaces and when Corys rub through this searching for food particles they are subjected to high concentrations of this bacteria, which in turn can and often does, cause internal infections as well as barbel damage. There are species, which do in fact live in environments where they are subjected to higher bacteria levels but C. hastatus is not one of them.

C. hastatus is a mid water species, much preferring to swim up in the water, so even in a Q tank they should be given an environment similar to their natural home. This would include giving them a reasonable depth of water. plenty of floating vegetation and long stemmed plants and even a few tank mates such as some small tetras.

When first purchased C. hastatus or any new fish for that matter, they should be very slowly introduced to the conditions they are going to be living in. This I do by putting the whole contents of the bag, fish water and all into a large 4 - 5 gallon (imperial) container, then using a pierce of airline I syphon water from the tank the fish are to be housed in into container. When the container is full I catch the fish and put them into their new home and discard the water in the container and add a little Interpet 'Liquisil' tonic, this may not be a product available world wide, but there are many other products that do a similar job.

Ian

The barbaxL18 thread

The barbaxL18 thread

regheahtrew

Re: Help with C.hastatus health questions and quarantine