nabokovfan87

Snails sometimes. @Chick-In-Of-TheSea Yeah, totally could be a contributing factor. They generally seem healthy. Generally seem like they are doing ok. The hiding and clamped fins like that, I have one of my pandas that got the worst of an illness and he has the same behavior. I know he's miles better than he was. I had some corydoras with some lethargy and they were a new variety to me. I didn't QT them (they went into a tank by themselves) and it was a situation where I did the basic method that ACO does for the QT Trio, but not full treatment for something like internal parasites.... Meaning, after about a year or 18 months or so I opted to treat the tank for parasites finally. It's been about 2 months after treatment, a lot of stress on the tank, but everyone is doing fine and they finally perked up a bit. It might be a situation where that cory does perfectly fine for years, and then you decide to run through meds with the group and go through a few rounds of internal meds for worms. Considering the mass of snails, I would definitely recommend breaking up the wafers into 1/2 or 1/4's

I'm just guessing that the one we're looking at here is the one on the far right of this photo. It looks like it might be the smaller male of the group and literally could just be one that has to get a bit of courage to get some food. Some things that help is when you feed repashy, wafers, etc. try to break it up slightly so that 2-3 different spots in the tank can have some. Especially with wafer type of foods, if you see a non-dominant fish unable to eat that usually helps. When you're feeding something like the bug bites, feed the group, then try to target feed in the spot where you see the lethargic fish and then observe if he eats. The fin damage could be from breeding, but what catches my eye is simply the clamped fins and the lethargy. When Corydoras aren't feeling all too great and they hide in that fashion it's a concern. Something as simple as temp, an airstone, salt, or a food could perk them back up. It could be a bacterial thing (wounds from mating) or it could be an internal parasite. You can run the fish through meds in a seperate tub / tank if that's an option, or you can treat the whole tank. You can also simply observe it and keep an eye on things. Something like a salt bath might be a great way to handle it as well if you are comfortable moving the fish when need be. (do a ton of research on how to do this, but it's generally a very safe thing to do with aquarium salt, especially in lower levels). I have given my corydoras the dose Cory recommended in his 800G ich video without any issues. As he mentions, it's the dose the store uses and it's right around the "level 2" dose in the blog article below. https://www.aquariumcoop.com/blogs/aquarium/aquarium-salt-for-sick-fish This is for dosing a tank, not necessarily a salt bath for the fish. If you aren't running an airstone in the tank already, I would add one. The corydoras do really well with them and you might get some fun behavior of them playing in the flow / oxygenation. EDIT: Sorry, I forgot to mention. I do not see severe damage to the barbels on any of the corydoras in the photos. Some might be shorter or longer, but the damage (if that's what you mean) shouldn't be permanent and they should recover. From elsewhere, regarding the pectoral fin damage:

Some plants won't do well at all but some wi tolerate it. I don't know which will be ok with the treatment. On the last time I had to dose it the hairgrass didn't like it one bit. Bug bites is good for them. They also like the soilent green and can lean more towards the omnivore foods. They like to graze and it sounds like the foods you have work well for them. That is what mine are one, it's ok for them. It's a clay based substrate and not sharp. I don't think that would cause an issue, not generally. By skinniness what do you mean? Sunken belly or just generally not looking stuffed to the gills? In terms of activity is the one that is skinny not moving around at all? Is that the one with the damaged fins? Barbels could have received damage for a variety of reasons, like you mentioned the bare bottom tank can irritate their mouths. Depending on how damaged they are it could've happened long before they arrived in your care and were at a point where they couldn't regrow. I will grab the laptop and try to zoom in and examine all the photos closely to see. Simple things like ammonia burn and nitrites can cause the same types of things your seeing and as mentioned, it could be something lingering that they never fully recovered from. It is the type of situation where I view it as the meds won't hurt or harm anything and it's a possible solution to the injury and get them over the hump to be able to recover.

Parameters for the corydoras seem very solid. If anything, it could be a feeding issue (not getting enough of some type of nutrient) or it could just be something that is lingering and been bothering the fish for a while now. I would suggest treating for bacterial and dosing in some aquarium salt (if possible) for that tank. One treatment and then monitor to see if you have any improvement. Verify that the tank itself doesn't have sharp edges on hardscape and particularly keep an eye on the belly, barbels, and parts of the fish that will most commonly be dragged along the substrate and hardscapes.

Honestly, The biggest concern is going to be ammonia, nitrites, and nitrate toxicity. The fish are in a very small tank for what they need. Imagine it being koi or something similar. It's a waste heavy system, which means water changes are your friend. Because they were in a pond previously, unknown schedule for care in both places I would suggest the following method to try to get things on track and help clean the water for the fish in question. Test your tap, so you have an idea of what water parameters are going to be for your system. 1. Test your tap water directly from the tap for any tests you can perform. 2. Aerate that sample of water for 24 hours to off-gas the water. This would be your expected water values when performing a water change. 3. Compare the results from #2 to your tank parameters. This will give you an idea of the changes the fish see when you do a water change for them. If parameters are similar, you can go ahead and change 50% of the water. At worst case you can change more water volume, but 50% is about the max that is commonly recommended. If water parameters vary widely from the tap, I would suggest sticking to 30% water changes for the time being until you're able to stabilize things and get your parameters improved. Meaning, I would recommend daily water changes right now until things improve (nitrates under 50, 0 ammonia, 0 nitrite). If you can't get water parameters improved with this, then you're looking at other solutions to solve the bioload issue. As mentioned aboved, water volume (how big is the tank), filtration, plants, and all of those things are the variables at play here when it comes to the care for the fish. The "thick green" water was likely algae helping you to fight off the ammonia and waste. It's a sign of an imbalanced tank, but this is something common in ponds due to the high light causing the algae in the water. Now that the algae doesn't have such high light, it's likely dying off, leading to the spike in waste values.

I saw these. I don't even see them available online. I ordered a bunch of fluval aquascaping stuff recently. All they had was the red ones 😞 . I see UNS has some fine ones that aren't too crazy expensive. Tropica I think might have some that I can get. For whatever reason Seachem just doesn't want customers to be able to purchase things. I have contemplated removing the red tips just to try to have something. And yeah.... right there with you. I end up using my hands, but for the small stuff (pieces that break off a stem when trying to pull algae, etc) it's so hard to do it that way depending on the substrate.

I appreciate it. I do have the ACO ones. I'm not sure why, local shops here just don't carry the L shaped ones. I do struggle with them for fine plants, especially smaller ones. Trying to pick algae and stuff it just runs right through the tips. I have seen similar issues reported in the reviews on the store page which suggested trying to make sure the ends of the tweezers weren't bent.

Hey Everyone, I'm sort of at an impasse because I desperately need a good pair of planting tweezers. The ones I have aren't the best quality or simply don't fit the use case. I have the standard "curved" (L-Shaped) tweezers that are very common but often cheaply made. The hold on them isn't great and when trying to grasp small plants they simply don't work well. I have had several times this week holding a plant in my fingers and trying to grasp the roots and that leads to the roots just passing right through the metal. I've tried to ensure the ends of the tweezers align, touch, and that they should work properly. I have also tried to squeeze hard and hold the teeth closed firmly which can result in the plant being literally crushed because of how much force that takes, especially for fine plants and very small clippings. It's like trying to use a meat cleaver instead of scalpel sometimes. The other ones I have are the fluval straight ones. Very nice, good quality, but they have giant red tips on the end and that means nothing holds well. It's not a flat contact and it's not the angled shape that makes things a bit easier to control with small plants. The shape / size of the tips as well tend to crush rather than hold. I've looked around online, I want to find something decent because when you're talking $30-50 for one pair of tweezers I would hope there isn't any issues. I can't test or use them because I'm stuck ordering online. What are your experiences and which ones do you find work well for this type of a use case?

Yeah, Hydra can be nasty from what I've heard. One of the more least desirable things to have in the tank. You could try doing a decent amount of salt to get rid of them if you need to. I'm sure there's other methods (bleach being the common one).

Very unfortunate. It does happen. 😞 Glad to hear you're excited for their new home. Sounds awesome.

Depending on the color, most corydoras / fish will change slightly. They can get a bit darker. The confusion is literally from old articles and from bad information where people are calling the "black corydoras" Venezuelan and it never was from that region, but from Europe. (Link in my signature is that clarification). It's the type of thing where it was confusion from pre-internet and it's gotten worse and worse because people are refusing to update shipping lists and so on.

That background is awesome. Well done.

They literally won't bother anything. They have their areas. So if you have areas for them, they will hang out there. I think it's dean, his first video on the channel he talks about how to setup a tank for rams. He does multiple pairs in a 10-29G tank. I think you'd be fine, all depending on the scape. If you have something big in the middle, they swim around, you're fine. Lots of plants helps a ton as well because they hide like ninjas in the jungle! They should also do this normally, even by themselves. They just like to have their own homes. Yours does it with food and all kinds of stuff too. Same behavior. When they spawn, literally nothing is getting in there. It's like the way grace the shark is. She has her spot, it's hers! 😂

NOPE.... it's been going on almost 2 years of algae town now. I went through the long spiel in my OP of the journal with the history of it all. I've been working with Bentley for his one tank at a time thing trying like heck to figure out what the one thing is. I've killed a good portion of some of the other algae. In my 29G Pandas / Anubias tank it's pretty much gone. In the main tank it's ridiculously stubborn and persistent.

If I had a tank. Totally would. Maybe soon. Honestly Ken, I think yours are way more rare! It's a different visual, but I've almost never seen those fish except on here. I have seen the ones I have a few times, especially all over aquabid and stuff. I'm seeing them in a ton of videos online now so prices and availability are getting a lot better. Having Venezuelan corydoras is about the same as the ones I have, I would think, but having the "black" Venezuelan variety is what people often mix up and is super rare. All amazing fish and very unique. I wish I could have them all!

I think for me, specifically tailored for freshwater there is a few musts. -KH Reading (If possible), especially for planted tanks -Oxygenation (Might be useful for some to rule out issues, having a standing probe is the way to do this I think. Cost may dictate otherwise) -Flowmeter: You can have something like what is used in water cooling, report that to the microcontroller, get some general idea for flow in some spot. This would be an easy optional add-on as long as it could last sitting in the water and function. There is also room here to have this tie into the pump directly, especially in a sump setup, so you can monitor health of equipment. This is a different thing than a hang on back style pump, but both are viable for use in freshwater and very common in saltwater. I see this mentioned above, but I wanted to clarify my own personal use case. -Dosing pump with level monitors (up to 3 slots on normal version, pro would be 5-7) -space on the outlets. Especially when it comes to big / bulky plugs or using things like timers. Having 4-6 of those as opposed to 1-2 is a must for me. -FEED MODE. Literally the one thing every single aquarium needs to have. A button. Turns everything off for 15 minutes that makes sense to turn off. A physical button that is easy to hit and it works well so I don't need to move to my phone click all this stuff off or use voice control / schedules. Hitting the button would also log the tank as being fed.

Awesome stuff 🙂

Need to get some. I have a spraybottle. It hasn't done anything in the past. I definitely didn't have the right technique, and so I am going to try again with excel or liquid carbon or peroxide. Likely will end up being all 3.

Yep. Correct. If you have very hard water, I'd recommend getting the Top fin branded 24" long lids. Verify dimensions of course, but this is why. I did not have this issue on my 75G lid, I did have it on my 30" long and 10G Lid. It does NOT mean that the top fin is better. It's definitely worse quality. You just might need to replace the hinge after a little bit.

I'm assuming Aqueon. I'd recommend you just get the normal versatop lid or make your own. 55G should (SHOULD) come with the thicker glass pieces. If it doesn't that's a no go then. (let me see if I can confirm for you). Yeah. It's not the thicker glass it looks like: Because it's not as long of a run as the 20L, I think you'd be ok. Just know it's not going to be as robust as going to a glass shop and it's going to be equivalent to the glass you'd find in a hardware store. You might be able to get the 75G kit (comes with both lids in one kit) and then cut those to what you need if you feel comfortable doing that. It would be the EASIEST way to have robust lids with higher quality glass. For reference, this is the 75G kit:

@mountaintoppufferkeeper might have some experience with this too.

Nice work! @Bentley Pascoe ^^

When you say hard water.... what are you talking in terms of GH/KH ppm? Nicely done. This is an issue a ton of us deal with, nice little trick!

Oh we can definitely help out with that. There was a rabbit hole I went down which lead to the amazing discovery of the Slate Corydoras. There is a link in my signature that talks about the issue / confusion of the Venezuelan vs. Schultzei corydoras. You can also look at my journal for a good selection of the latter (Schultzei) variety. We do have some on the forums with the black proper Venezuelan as well. 9 times out of 10.... when you see "black corydoras" they literally will be "black Venezuelan corydoras" which is almost always actually the proper "black cory" from germany (schultzei). My recommendation would be to place the order, confirm before shipping anything that it's what you actually are trying to bring in. By bodyshape, you have the ones I do. I can tell that right away. The Schultzei / Gold Flash "black" are pretty big corydoras. @Ken Burke and a few others have the darkened version of the proper Venezuelan corydoras. Here is the post where we tracked it all down with decently good photos of all 3 varieties.

@Jstewart0925 new photos? How are the little ones doing?