Why new Cory's catfish never make it?

[Kaste]

I have had 4 mail orders of Corys from 3 different reputable companies and most of my corys die. 

Ist order, Panda Corys -2 arrived DOA, 2 died that night and 2 lived

2nd order, 6 Panda Corys, within 24 hours 3 dead (net 3). 6 pygmy corys, 2 DOA, 2 dead within 48 hrs, (net 2)

3rd order, 8 Panda Corys, 4 DOA and 4 dead within 24 hours, (net 0)  10 pygmy corys..4 dead within 24 hours. (net 6) Others still alive right now.

Petsmart trip - 8 Pepper corys, 3 DOA when I got home, 2 dead within 24 hrs - 3 survived.

QT all new fish.  10 gal. Tank is solid and cycled. 

I have lost so much money in Corys, it disheartening.  I am trying to put together a cory family of 6 for each of my 55 gal tanks.  One tank has 2 poor lonely cory's and one tank has 3. 😒

Any suggestion besides my husband's "stop buying them". 

[FrozenFins]

They all die before there even home?

Only thing I could think of is when corys are stressed they release a deadly toxin (not to humans but to other fish). Transportation can be very stressful for fish.

[Kaste]

On the shipment I received Tuesday, 100% of my Panda Cory are all dead and out of my 10 Pygmy I have 4 left.  

I have them in 10 gal. QT with 5 penguin tetra and 3 balloon molly.  

[Kaste]

The tetras and mollys are doing fine. And I have 4 nerite snails in there.  

 

[Marc]

I think just bad luck, but I do feel that corydoras can be fragile. 

My last two orders of corydoras through the mail have survived shipping. I got them from Aqua Huna. So far they are all still alive, I still have the second order in quarantine. I do a long acclimation period to give them a better chance of surviving in my water.

[Kaste]

Thanks.  I like the idea of a longer acclimation.  I was also thinking of possibly a separate tank for them if I purchase other fish at the same time. 

 What family of corydoras did you get.? I read that some are more fragile than others.   

Again thanks so much for "talking" with me.  It always upsets me when my fish die.  Not just the $ spent, but the fact that they were probably living healthy, happy till they were shipped to me. 🙄

[Marc]

I received some Julii Coryydoras in October, all 6 are still doing fine. I just got 4 golden laser corydoras this week and they seem happy but they are still in quarantine.  The first time I ordered fish from Aqua Huna I had several die, not corydoras but other species and I think it was due to the difference in water parameters, Their PH is around 7.0 and not very hard, my PH is around 8.0 and moderately hard. I found that a two hour acclimation period of slowly adding in tank water to their container has helped all the fish in my last two orders survive. I could probably cut that time in half. I don't know for sure that the water parameters is the cause but I am going to keep using this method as long as it works. 

Good luck, I don't know how to improve their chances in shipping alive but Aqua Huna has only had one dead fish out of the 84 that I ordered from them in my 3 orders. I also live on the West Coast and shipping took about two days.

[FrozenFins]

23 hours ago, Kaste said:

On the shipment I received Tuesday, 100% of my Panda Cory are all dead and out of my 10 Pygmy I have 4 left.  

I have them in 10 gal. QT with 5 penguin tetra and 3 balloon molly.  

have you been ordering from the same supplier? I know panda corys are really bad for that toxin, pygmy corys I'm not sure. And if the tetras are doing fine as well as the mollies I suspect its that toxin.

[Kaste]

Marc, Thanks for the great info.  I am going to use your suggestion of a couple hours to acclimate.  James had made a similar suggestion.  My water parameters are usually 7.6 PH and hard water.

I just took a chance and ordered more corys from Aqua Huna.   I did have pretty good luck with them.  I had an order of pepper corys from there a few months ago and 100% survived. 

My last order was from another supplier which the death rate has been huge. 16 out of 26 fish dead. (all corys but 1) 

James, I actually have used different suppliers, but I think I will not try Pandas for a while.  I did have one of the tetras dead this morning and another pygmy.  So I have 3 of 10 pygmy cory left.   I am hoping these 3 live.  If they get out of QT I have a family of 2 pygmy they can live with. 🙂

Thanks too both of you for the suggestions.  I have only been doing this since August and already have (2) 55 gal; (1) 37 gal; (2) 6.5 gal betta tanks and a couple hospital/QT tanks.  My husband says no more. 

 

Karen