Entry #3 - New Fish!

[Katie B.]

On 4/1/2022 at 8:51 AM, Odd Duck said:

Do you have a T or Y fitting so you could split and add another air stone?

No, but I could get one!

[Odd Duck]

On 4/1/2022 at 8:53 AM, Katie B. said:

No, but I could get one!

You’ll almost never go wrong with extra air for sick fish as long as there isn’t so much current they can’t deal with it.

[Torrey]

On 3/31/2022 at 8:20 AM, Katie B. said:

I appreciate your feedback! I have watched Irene's and Cory's videos on cycling but I haven't seen the others you mentioned so I will look into them! 😃 (over the past month I have never done so much youtubing in my life and now I am members of 3 channels and can't stop researching all the things 😆)

So, my hangup is that Cory said when you see growth that you can slowly start adding fish. I see lots of growth but still high ammonia and nitrite levels so am I right to avoid adding even hardy fish until those are down??

I know I would love to go, and would probably make it happen, if I wasn't due to have a baby at the end of July 😆

@Katie B.I can't remember if it was Biotope Biologist or someone else... but somewhere around the forum is a spread sheet on meds and oxygen. As was said above, it's always worth having extra air available. I have had incidences where a water change wasn't needed, just more air.

I had missed where you had already ordered the fish when I replied yesterday, I apologize. Cories, snails, shrimp, and a few other fish and most inverts can be sensitive to meds and salt, and require a bit more observation during treatment. Odd Duck and Colu are pretty reliable for med treatment, and the whole forum is great for support.

You can't know what you don't know, all you can do is take careful notes and try not to repeat things when you discover they don't work in your water, for your fish, in your tanks.

I used to follow up most of my fish advice with something along the lines of "mileage will vary", perhaps Ishould add it to my signature. 

[dasaltemelosguy]

I think this is it?

 

 

[Torrey]

On 4/1/2022 at 8:23 PM, dasaltemelosguy said:

I think this is it?

 

 

Thank you!!!!!

 

[Katie B.]

I want to thank all of you for your help and support through my most recent trial and error. Since adding an air stone to the other side of the tank & aquarium salt, all five fish are doing great!

I recorded a video of breakfast this morning, hope you enjoy it 😄

[jwcarlson]

I lost two sterbai corys right away after I got a group of 8 of them from a LFS.  They looked rough when I got them.  Lost them during the med trio (about 1 day in and the other day 3 maybe?), but don't think it was the meds fault, as everything else was fine until they showed signed of another infection.

I am not a farmer or a professional in any field like this (I'm an electrical engineer and I fancy myself a biology lover), but I've done tropical fish, hactched/raised chickens (both egg layers and broilers), and small business raising/selling honey bees.  I genuinely believe that some animals just aren't going to make it and a additive nature of disease, stress, and sometimes meds are too much.  There's a difficult balance of waiting long enough to help reduce stress and treating early enough to avoid the disease reaching lethal levels.  Death and loss is an unfortunate part of the hobby... but it certainly does stink.  I maybe should have been more specific in my earlier post asking if you had an airstone.  I've always kept air running in my tanks 24/7.  Now it is typically sponge filters with air stones in them, but even 15 years ago in my oscar tanks with two big HOBs I'd still run a 10" air stone curtain thing buried in the substrate (when the oscars allowed them to be buried).  Have always thought of it as "cheap insurance" in the event that something goes wrong or some situation that I do not fully understand occurs.

Glad to hear they seem to be doing better!

[Katie B.]

On 4/2/2022 at 11:56 PM, jwcarlson said:

I lost two sterbai corys right away after I got a group of 8 of them from a LFS.  They looked rough when I got them.  Lost them during the med trio (about 1 day in and the other day 3 maybe?), but don't think it was the meds fault, as everything else was fine until they showed signed of another infection.

I am not a farmer or a professional in any field like this (I'm an electrical engineer and I fancy myself a biology lover), but I've done tropical fish, hactched/raised chickens (both egg layers and broilers), and small business raising/selling honey bees.  I genuinely believe that some animals just aren't going to make it and a additive nature of disease, stress, and sometimes meds are too much.  There's a difficult balance of waiting long enough to help reduce stress and treating early enough to avoid the disease reaching lethal levels.  Death and loss is an unfortunate part of the hobby... but it certainly does stink.  I maybe should have been more specific in my earlier post asking if you had an airstone.  I've always kept air running in my tanks 24/7.  Now it is typically sponge filters with air stones in them, but even 15 years ago in my oscar tanks with two big HOBs I'd still run a 10" air stone curtain thing buried in the substrate (when the oscars allowed them to be buried).  Have always thought of it as "cheap insurance" in the event that something goes wrong or some situation that I do not fully understand occurs.

Glad to hear they seem to be doing better!

I had a sponge filter in the tank with them but maybe the additional air stone helped. 

The 5 that made it are doing well, eating, and behaving normally. I am afraid to try meds again, I am thinking I will just let them alone for three more weeks, see if there is any sign of infections and go from there. 

It does just make me scratch my head because Irene, Cory, and Zenzo seem to swear by treating new fish with the med trio right away and it works for them. I would have hated to left the corydoras alone and all of them pass away 🙁

[Jawjagrrl]

On 4/3/2022 at 10:16 AM, Katie B. said:

I had a sponge filter in the tank with them but maybe the additional air stone helped. 

The 5 that made it are doing well, eating, and behaving normally. I am afraid to try meds again, I am thinking I will just let them alone for three more weeks, see if there is any sign of infections and go from there. 

It does just make me scratch my head because Irene, Cory, and Zenzo seem to swear by treating new fish with the med trio right away and it works for them. I would have hated to left the corydoras alone and all of them pass away 🙁

Probably a controversial confession...but I have never used fish meds. They have their place and the med trio is actually part of my Coop order en route. In the 90s all my fish came from the same very good LFS that QTd before selling, never an issue except ich once, which I treated with temperature and salt. I had Mbuna and no plants though.

My current QT tank should really be called an isolation tank. I don't medicate, but watch closely and I never mix orders. I figure they have been in a stressful situation being shipped already. I had one DOA in a bag of 10 endlers from AH, and an Ebay seller's shipment got delayed and the endlers got too cold... but had babies that survived and are adults in my endor tank now!

I'm glad you got some fast and good advice, sounds like the additional air helped. I've watched Cory's video of his visit to Aqua Huna and they discuss their on site treatment, might be worth a look. Always good to be more cautious with scaleless fish that are more sensitive to meds too. I'm going to be really nervous if I ever have to treat my kuhlis for anything.

Just a thought, because of the forum structure - it might be a good idea to post updates at the end of the thread, especially if you need help quickly. It makes it a lot faster for the community to find new content from you since the "unread content" line helps us see where we left off. I totally get why you added the way you did, and it sometimes makes me wish the forum had an option for comments that were not in-line with the poster's content. Hope your cories continue to do well!

[H.K.Luterman]

I'm sorry you've had some trouble! Corydoras can be sensitive to meds, and shipping is very stressful; it could have just been all too much for the little guy. But every bad experience is still experience, and this is how you learn what works best. We've all been there. 🙂

[Katie B.]

Thank you @Jawjagrrl and @H.K.Luterman for your encouragement 🙂

On 4/3/2022 at 10:10 AM, Jawjagrrl said:

Just a thought, because of the forum structure - it might be a good idea to post updates at the end of the thread, especially if you need help quickly. It makes it a lot faster for the community to find new content from you since the "unread content" line helps us see where we left off.

I totally agree now that the situation is over lol (hindsight is 20/20)

Does anyone know what this little guy is? I'm assuming he hitched a ride with my last order of plants... (You can see him in the first 15 seconds of video)

 

Edited April 3, 2022 by Katie B.
Added question & video

[jwcarlson]

Scud, I think, Katie

[Jawjagrrl]

Looks like a scud to me too. I had one in my first plants too, now I have quite a few. All part of a healthy ecosystem 🙂 Mine are in a shrimp tank, but I'll move some over to my betta tank sometimes as a treat - he LOVES hunting them. They are predators and enjoy the enrichment.

[nabokovfan87]

On 3/30/2022 at 5:41 PM, Katie B. said:

I poked them and they frantically swam back to the bottom and acted normal for a few minutes before they sam their way back to the top. I read that they can play "dead" if they are stressed or feel threatened... I know meds can stress fish so am I correct in placing my blame on the meds? Do you think they will be Ok 😥

 I tried to read up on everything, I'm sorry if I missed something.

I would add carbon for the meds as suggested.
I would add an air stone as others have mentioned, preferably a HOB to house a fine filter pad and the carbon filtration.  If you only have a sponge filter just drop in another line with an airstone on the other side of the tank.
I would add salt, it really helps corys out especially when they are so stressed out.
I would check the price of the fluval hang on breeder box and a metal gang valve (I'll never use anything else now because I've gone through way too many airline kits and had them restrict flow and break pumps (reminder, use a check valve everyone, don't do what I did!)

If they don't perk up with the above, I would put them in a hang on fluval box and lower their tank depth a bit. It helps them to get air a little bit and not have to race to the top for an already stressed out cory.

How do they look now, are their gill plates still reddened and moving very rapidly?

On 4/3/2022 at 7:16 AM, Katie B. said:

The 5 that made it are doing well, eating, and behaving normally. I am afraid to try meds again, I am thinking I will just let them alone for three more weeks, see if there is any sign of infections and go from there. 

thank goodness!

On 4/2/2022 at 7:48 AM, Katie B. said:

I recorded a video of breakfast this morning, hope you enjoy it 😄

too adorable. Love the corys!  I am gad they are doing ok. And for clarity, any food is their food. LOL.  At least, that's how mine are. 

[nabokovfan87]

On 4/3/2022 at 7:16 AM, Katie B. said:

It does just make me scratch my head because Irene, Cory, and Zenzo seem to swear by treating new fish with the med trio right away and it works for them. I would have hated to left the corydoras alone and all of them pass away 🙁

I would say the takeaway here is to give the fish some time to acclimate, especially after shipping and just monitor them. Sometimes you will see a disease and want to treat right away, but because you're not under the pressure of running a store you have the luxury of a bit of patience.  The corys were super stressed from what I could see and my cory loving heart literally stopped when I saw that picture. It could have been something as simple as the height of the tank being new for them, the flow, or just the temperature. It could have also been the meds thickening the water and the fish being a certain size and the above reasons.  When I do my meds, I almost, generally, always add salt as well. I think it helps the fish through the stress a bit. I would have to check, but I think in some of the older co-op vids I've seen cory do the same thing for some species.

[Katie B.]

@H.K.Luterman where do you get your fish??? Just curious since we are both in Madison, wondering if you order or purchase yours locally. 

[H.K.Luterman]

On 4/4/2022 at 8:04 AM, Katie B. said:

@H.K.Luterman where do you get your fish??? Just curious since we are both in Madison, wondering if you order or purchase yours locally. 

I have bought fish locally. I got my featherfin catfish (labeled as a lace catfish) several years ago from Pet Supplies Plus in Madison (best $8 I ever spent). Never had any health issues with her. However, I did buy a fish from them who ended up dying of epistylis, so just be careful; make sure to thoroughly look at anything before buying. For the most part everything there looks healthy when I take a peek.  Not sure when they restock, I went last Tues and their tanks were full of fish.

Edit: Oh, and beware; their plant tanks have duckweed! (I like duckweed but you may not)

I got my blood parrot from the Madison Petco. Absolutely no health issues, and she's more than a year old. I also tend to buy bettas there too. They restock either Wednesday or Thurs.

And I got my albino senegal bichir from the Huntsville Petco, and no issues as well for more than a year. This Petco seems to have more diversity in stock, but just be very careful to thoroughly look over their tanks before buying. I've seen sick fish, and their tanks are all connected; if one is sick, they all have probably been exposed. I think they restock on Thurs.

My ctenopoma and my pea puffer both came from the best store in town, which sadly closed about 4 years ago; The Aquarium Shop in Huntsville. I miss them.

If I want something really specific, like high end shrimp or an uncommon type of live bearer, I order online. 

I should mention Aquatic Cove; they seem great if you're into salt water, but the last time I went in (about 2 years ago) a lot of their freshwater tanks were sick (and a figure 8 puffer was completely dead and fungused). Maybe they've improved, I don't know, but definitely be cautious. I have bought plants from them though with no problem, and a lot of my driftwood came from them. 

Edited April 4, 2022 by H.K.Luterman

[Katie B.]

@H.K.Luterman that's very helpful, thank you!