Now what do I do? The corys, flagfish, kuhlis, black sand and a lot of plants aren't mixing well

[KittenFishMom]

I was planning on having only the 55 gallon tank over the winter. I ordered 6 female flagfish but asked them not to ship until after the holidays so they would travel quickly. I think I should cancel the fish because now one of the 2 flagfish I have seems to be bothering the corys everytime they feed on sinking food. If I do get and quarantine the 6 new fish, I don't think I could catch them in the planted tank, if they upset the corys even more.

Also, My peppered corys were light with dark splotches when I picked black sand to cap the soil in the 55 gallon tank. It was a nice contrast. Now the corys are turning very dark to match the substrate. I have trouble spotting them if they are not moving. I somehow missed that corys could darken their color this much when I researched them.

I was planning to replace the dark/black kuhli loaches with striped ones when I found a good source. Again, I don't think I can catch the  dark loaches if I wanted to because the plants are growing fast.

Should I postpone / cancel the flagfish?

Anything I can do to get the corys to contrast with the substrate again?

Is there a way to catch dark kuhli loaches in a well planted tank? Or should I stop looking for striped kuhli loaches? I want striped, but I don't want to over stock.

I could use some help before I make  things worse.

I look forward to any and all ideas.

 

[KittenFishMom]

@Pepere Thank, I put them in 2 areas on alternate days because the snails go for them as well. I will try putting them in both areas and work at thinning the snails out. I have a basil spice bottle with sinking wafers in it to catch the snails. but the snails are having a hard time finding their way into the bottle.

[nabokovfan87]

On 12/25/2022 at 7:52 PM, KittenFishMom said:

Anything I can do to get the corys to contrast with the substrate again?

Plants might work. Especially something carpeting.

On 12/25/2022 at 7:52 PM, KittenFishMom said:

Is there a way to catch dark kuhli loaches in a well planted tank? Or should I stop looking for striped kuhli loaches? I want striped, but I don't want to over stock.

Lots of patience, maybe someone here has experience in setting a trap for them. I would imagine they can easily get into a 2L bottle as opposed to any of the other species.

On 12/25/2022 at 9:11 PM, Pepere said:

Do you put the sinking pellets all in one spot, or do you separate them?

I find my flag fish will claim one and the cories go off to find another.

Agreed. I tend to not feed sinking wafers to corydoras. Totally works and it's absolutely fine, but I tend to not for a smaller pellet or something like vibrabites, repashy, or frozen foods. Just something that is slightly easier for them to chew and eat.

On 12/25/2022 at 9:18 PM, KittenFishMom said:

@Pepere Thank, I put them in 2 areas on alternate days because the snails go for them as well. I will try putting them in both areas and work at thinning the snails out. I have a basil spice bottle with sinking wafers in it to catch the snails. but the snails are having a hard time finding their way into the bottle.

Yeah, they do that. 😞

Maybe try something like a Sobe/Powerade/vitamin water bottle or one of the larger spice bottles that has a slightly larger opening.

I think there's just a ton of competition going on.

We're also talking about a 55G tank here as opposed to something like a 40B or 75G that has a slightly bigger footprint to spread things out for the snails and corydoras. That just means a lot of feeding is going on.

I think the solution might be having a few types of food, something specific to allow corydoras an easier time to eat that is also not as easy for the snails and others to go after. As mentioned, spread out the location of things or just the timing of things. Flagfish might eat a floating food or semi-floating food a bit easier, as an example. I don't know that for certain, but potentially something to test.

Finally, I think feeding dishes might help get the snails and corydoras a little easier time eating and give you a good way to just capture them.

Here's a fun video. Might be helpful!

 

[Flumpweesel]

Do you feed anything other than the sinking wafers ?

I feed flake and micro pellets to whole tank daily with some kinda fast sinking omnivore pellet (small ones so there is no big lump of food ). But I scatter this all the full length of the tank so everyone gets something. Corys are always foraging so they will be finding food all the time that's fallen into the gravel.

Not sure there is much you can do to alter the camouflage instinct but it might calm down as they gain confidence. I've never noticed it in my peppered corys but but they are on natural gravel.