PlanetCatfish.com

I just got back from the fish shop with a charity case. Probably not the best decision I ever made but I couldn't help myself. It is a Corydoras Paleatus that is incredibly thin. The shop proprietor gave him to me for free and does not expect him to survive. All other fish (about 30 platys) in the tank he was from are healthy including the two other Corys which I purchased.
My guess is that he was particularly sensitive to being in a small group and hasn't been eating, or perhaps was just the slowest fish in an underfed tank.
He is swimming, but not as actively as the others. His color is normal and his fins look perfect.
The other Cory's I have are from the same tank acquired two weeks prior. They are in excellent health.
I have no way of knowing the tank conditions he came from, but there were no obvious issues other than snails.
My tank is 37 gallons. Temp 78F. Silica sand substrate with plastic plants, driftwood and one rock. Levels at last test;
Ammonia 0ppm
Nitrate 10ppm
Nitrite 0ppm
Hardness 0ppm
Alkalinity 120ppm
pH 7.6
10% water change every two weeks.
Fish population; 18 Neon Tetras less than 1" long and now six Cory's 1" each.
Feeding TetraColor flakes and 1/2 Hikari sinking wafer in the morning and the flakes alone in the evening.
My plan is only to hope the larger group to school with brings back his appetite and make sure he has food available (increasing to 1 sinking wafer). I hate relying on hope. Therefore, any thoughts or related experience to help me get this little dude back to health would be welcomed.

Perhaps you should try feeding protein-filled foods, like bloodworms or mysis shrimps. Also, you should quarantine the sick fish.

yes, agree on the QT till he is well fed up and back to strength. But there is something to be said re your thinking of keeping him with more of own and making him happy. So it's a toss up? They do thrive being together.

my peppered cories loved defrosted Hikari tubifex, bloodworms, spirulina shrimp, sinking pellets and wafers of shrimp, carnivore tabs, spirulina wafers, earthworms, NLS granules. But by far there fav was the tubifex.

Thanks for the quick feedback.
I am a fool and do not have a quarantine tank, so that option is out.
He is weaker than I thought. When the acclimation was finished and I released him, he swam near my filter intake and got stuck to it. A quick power disconnect and he was free.
He has eaten some of the wafer I put in and the other fish are not picking on him. They just come up to him for a second and move on.
The wafers I have are min 32% protein, is that okay? Should I get some tubifex?
I took his pic to show everyone what he looks like but I can't figure out how to post it. I is stoopid.

def not a good sign for him to have gotten stuck on the intake, means he is very weak and may die. I hope he doesn't give anything to the other fish. Or maybe the swing in PH from the pet store to yours was too much for him in his weakened state. Did you acclimate him to the new PH? or diff in temp?

I would go get the frozen Hikari from the pet store. Bring a small cooler full of ice, like a lunch box size one so it doesn't defrost on the way home. Bloodworms, tubifex, shrimp, daphnia, all good to pick. Krill too.

I floated the bag for 30 min. then added 1 cup water from the aquarium to the bag, waited another 30 min then removed 1 cup water from the bag and replaced with another cup aquarium water, 30 more min. Poured the fish into my net over the sink and added them from the net to the aquarium.
I've been checking him about every 5-15 minutes and he is always in a different place, usually not moving.
I also figured out the posting of a picture thing. Anyone else getting errors trying to post today?

yeah, the site is going off line alot. the picture is too far away to tell much, he looks normal from that view but it's hard to see him. Give him some time. Maybe leave the tank light off, make sure they have decorations or driftwood to hide under. Sounds like you acclimated him well.

Best of luck with him! How are his barbels? Intact?

His barbels look okay. No redness, maybe 1-1.5mm.
Sorry for the low pic quality. I need to figure out how to do fish close-ups. He looks like a normal head with a two dimensional body.
I just added one cube of the tubifex worms. Yuck. Looks like somebody spit tobacco in my water. He is moving around like the others.
Thanks all for your help. Updates later (time to walk the dog).

You should get a QT. A ten gallon will suffice for a trio of C. paleatus. If you dont have any of the sorts, would you happen to have a spare rubbermaid you could use as a makeshift QT?

that's a lot for only 3 cories, lol. it is kinda disgusting. def nasty stuff, make sure and remove the uneaten ones if there are any. I used to give one cube to 12 cories. what you can do is slice it while frozen, then keep the rest, still frozen inside the little cube wrapped in saran wrap in the freezer. you cannot re freeze it once it is defrosted.

The night was not kind to Marvin. He is still alive, but barely. He is not swimming unless he gets bumped. His dorsal and pectoral fins are retracted close to his body. I can see him pumping his gills, but other than that he looks dead.
Marvin is Cory #6 and the tetras also ate the tubifex. They had all of it gone in fairly short order (less than 20 minutes).
Thanks everyone for your help. Things looked so promising yesterday. Unfortunately today it looks like he is not going to be with me much longer. All I can do now is wait.

Marvin died between 8:20 and 8:30am cst.