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I don't know whats up, but they are all breathing somewhat hard and one is laying on his side looking half dead I turned the lights off, but no other actions yet.

I upped the filter intake so there would be more O2 in the water, since I also have fry in there and figured they'd like the lesser flow.

The temp is 80, 0 for ammonia nitrate and nitrite, I don't know where my PH kit is but all of my tanks are usually around 7.5-8.

The tank is 20 gallons and has 4 cories in it and a few platy/molly/swordtail fry that are all doing well and bouncing around the tank like nothing is the matter at all. I've got fluorite substrate with some plants on the bottom. I've got an aquaclear filter that filters 120 GPH with only filter floss in it, was rinsed a few days ago.

The cats were just bought yesterday and were happy at the LFS, were brought straight home with no huge temp swings, temp acclimated and placed into the tank(which is the same method I use for saltwater inverts with no losses and water that is a good bit different than my LFS')

What should I do?

Don't know. 2 are dead tonight, and the other two still don't look too well. I think I'm going to return all of them to the store tomorrow instead of just the two dead ones

May those cories RIP

I think the water pH is a bit too high for them. How about bringing it down to 7 gradually.

Did you do the proper acclimatization for the new cories? Tell us more.

Btw, do appreciate that you can read up this link when posting on health related issue.
http://www.planetcatfish.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=4248

As I said, I don't know exactly how high the ph is. I can't find my kit, unfortunately. A lot of my stuff got lost when we moved last. . .

I acclimated them for temperature and let them go in the tank. As I said, though, that's the way I learned to do saltwater stuff and I've never had a problem with losing anything, and figured that fresh was a bit more forgiving?

Np about reading the link. Figured it was there for a purpose

Also I have 4 other species of cories in my main tank in another room, which are fine. So I don't know if it is something with just this tank? When I had a 10 gallon with female bettas I had some albinos in it and they were okay with the temp and same water conditions. If that means anything. ..

Whenever introducing new Corys into a an established tank I will take it very slowly, not just float the bag until the temperature is equal, but very slowly introduce them to the new water. This is done by placing the new fish in a largish container, a 2 gallon bucket would be fine, and then using a piece of airline syphon water from the tank that the new fish are to be housed in. Once the bucket id full,catch the Corys and put them into their new tank and throw away the water in the bucket and top the tank up with new water.

This method will ensure that there are no sudden shocks from drastic water parameter differences.

What species of Cory are they, 80ºF is a little on the high side for most species.

Ian

Or at least as far as I can tell. Same markings and general colours. So if I am right, they should be okay in 80 degrees.

I did come up with a thought though. When I took the dead two back to the store today, the two I didn't buy were dead in the tank(:() could it be that something happened to them when they were shipped?

[mod edit: User persistant Cat-eLog Link --Mats]

Probably a good sign, both of the remaining ones are acting like cories! They're swimming next to each other, then going up to the top, back to the bottom, searching around on the ground, then sitting around for a bit. Hopefully this means that they'll be okay. ..

The cat-elog states 77ºF to 85ºF , which I think is too high, the waters in some areas of the species range may reach the low eighties at times in the height of the dry season, but to keep this species in the high seventies/low eighties constantly, to me would not be a good thing. Having kept this species off and on for twenty plus years, I would favour low to mid seventies (72ºF to 77ºF).

Ian

Hm, okay. If they live I'll put them into my bigger tank, which is in the mid 70s. Is there any sort of cory that stays under 2.5" that will be okay in 90 degree water?