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Hi all-I have some corydoras that I picked up from an importer last December. They were part of a rescue operation and some of the bags weren't marked. The importer thought they were elegans but they're markings don't look like the pics I've seen of elegans.
A friend of mine has the Aqualog book of corydoras and the closest I can find is the corydoras sodalis? At first I thought maybe reticulatus but they lack the dark blotch in the dorsal fin.
I'm going to let you good folks help me out on these
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v461/ ... C00663.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v461/ ... C00662.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v461/ ... C00661.jpg
What's sad is that they're barbels have erroded away from the high ammonia that was in the shipping bags. The whole shipment of fish was abdonded at the the airport by the buyer so that's how this particular importer aquired these fish plus many others. Over 800 fish were DOA's in the boxes
I did use an antibiotic on them when I first brought them home but it didn't help much for the errosion. I think the damage was already done.
TIA on the IDing!
Nancy

Yes, C. sodalis.

This has to be one of the saddest things I have ever heard. How do people like that sleep at night?

over 800 fish died?

The barbels on the sodalis may well grow back - i have seen some extreme body/fin damage (not neccessarily corys)grow back so you might never tell

andywoolloo wrote:over 800 fish died?

It's because of stories like these that I don't buy many wild-caught fish, and prefer tank bred specimens where possible!

Corydoras tend to be over packed and they quickly foul their shipping losses even under ideal conditions. The losses can be very high in some shipments as this incident illustrates well. At some point all our fish were once collected wild and those that were most popular and easily bred became domesticated. Unfortunately, not all fish have been possible to breed commercially.
The number of all fish sold that are collected wild is only about 15% and the rest are raised in captivity. That really is a pretty good record, not that improvements can't be made. We have been receiving new species more rapidly than ever and compared to the past, we are seeing a remarkable rate of successful breeding of them.

On the subject of the "burnt barbels", I have rarely seen Corydoras barbels regenerate well like fin injuries. I suspect one of the reasons may be linked to the fact that the barbel is such a complex sensory structure.

These fish were bought from an Importer that I deal with..They were abandoned at Ohare airport..Another purchaser falsified his credentials and used another persons licence and falsified a credit card..The fish and wildlife people finally got him...However the fish sat at Ohare from Fri till Early on Mon when Fish and Wildlife called the Importers, we rescued these fish and there were about a dozen boxes and only a small percentage were able to be saved..Of these I shared some with her and some of the bags or boxes were not identified so they were guessed as to what they were from a laminated chart, as we all know the juveniles do not always look like the adults..So were unable to identify absolutely as bags were being emptied and trying to save as many as we could..So that should help to explain..If the importer had not rescued these fish there would have been twelve boxes of DOA fish

Normally the oxygen in the bag is only enough for 72-96 hours, of course depends on the density of the cories. Ammon and nitrate will kill them soon if there is death happened in one bag because the water quality will deteriate quickly.

I think it also depends on the packing skill of the exporter. Long journey will make the bag fragile and cause high DOA.