I rinsed it lightly with dechlorinated tap water. Am I supposed to use old tank water? I've heard both.

One of my surviving Cories started showing the same behavior this morning as the one I lost. He shot up to the surface and gulped some air, then quickly swam back down to the substrate, but looked like he was having trouble staying on the bottom. I did a 30% water change this morning and this aftern...

Shoot, my big Cory just did the exact same thing the little one did before he died. He went up really quick for a gulp of air and then sat back down at the bottom, but looked like he was having trouble staying at the bottom. My last ghost shrimp was furiously scratching at the front of the aquarium,...

Thanks for the link. The cat-e-log has been acting up for me, every time I search something, it was coming up with an error message. I still can't get to any pictures or use the "show species within this temperature range" option. As far as temp, it looks like 76 F will be within the prope...

I can drop my tank temp down to 76, would that help them? My Betta will be fine at that temp. What's their optimum temperature? They're going to be moved into my new 30 gallon with a sand substrate in the next few weeks whenever it's cycled and I wanted to base the tank around conditions that are be...

Oh, it looks like I didn't shake the bottle well enough on the nitrate test, this time it came up at 5 ppm.

What exactly is in stress coat and what all does it do? I'm always a little worried about products that don't list their ingredients, but that seems to be pretty common with fish products. What situations is it supposed to be used in and what does it do exactly? I read something about it replacing e...

1. Water parameters a) Temperature range. 78 F b) pH. 8.1-8.2 c) GH. d) KH e)Ammonia, Nitrate, Nitrite, levels. 0ppm for Ammonia and Nitrite, 5ppm for Nitrate f) Water change frequency: 15% weekly (Most LFS's will check your water and give a list of readings). 2. Tank set up a) Size. 10 gallon b) Su...

The ammonia level is kind of frustrating for me. I'm pretty sure it's 0 or just above 0. It reads .25 straight out of the tap and I use Seachem Prime as a water conditioner. http://www.petsmart.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2753920 I was told that Prime would make the ammonia not harmful to the fi...

1. Water parameters a) Temperature range. 77-79 F b) pH. 8.2 c) GH. 300? (I don't have the test strips for KH and GH anymore, this is what it read straight out of the tap when I first was starting my tank) d) KH 300? e)Ammonia, Nitrate, Nitrite, levels. Ammonia: reads .25ppm, there's about .25ppm in...

That makes sense. Thanks for all the help. If they are still available when I get my tank all set up, I'll get a few. They should do ok in the 78-80 degrees Fahrenheit, right? Most of what I've seen that it could have hybridized from is in that suggested range and I don't want to go any lower becaus...

Ok, do you think that 2 of them would be a good fit in a 30 gallon with 3 C. paleatus, 1 betta, and 4 or 5 small schooling/social fish(I'm thinking Mollys, barbs, tetras, or platies. I haven't gotten too far with that yet)? The betta's pretty harmless, the cories follow him around whenever he hangs ...

Dang. If they're still there when this tank is cycled, I think I'm just going to pick up 3 of them. If they grow to the 9" some synodontis hybrids seem to get to, that just gives me an excuse to buy a 100 gallon.

My schedule was a lot less hectic than I thought it was going to be today, so I managed to pop in and talk to the guy working there. They said it was a synodontis hybrid closely related to either the robertsi or the schoutedeni. I got some cell phone pics, but they're not very good. They don't sit s...

Dang, I was really hoping this was a common species of catfish that I just didn't know about, since I'm new to the hobby. The closest I've seen for pattern is the hybrid #5 in that link you gave me. I just don't remember it having tiny spots on the head, but I could very well be wrong. I'm going to ...

They had darker and straighter edged spotting. I went through the list of pictures in the Mochokidae family and nothing quite looked like them. Thanks for the reply though. I'm about to just buy a few and upgrade my tank if they grow out of it.

I'm looking for fish for a 30 gallon tank, so I went to browse my LPS. They had some catfish that had rounded, squarish black splotches on a silver/beige background. Giraffe-like is the only descriptor I can think of for the spots, there was more black than background color on their backs. I didn't ...

Thanks for the reintroduction idea, I've been dreading putting these guys back in that tank. I think I'll leave that for the morning though. They're starting to work their way up into the hornwort, which I'm hoping is a good sign. The panda was pointed into a corner and just sort of shaking though. ...

I'm very sure I don't have high levels of ammonia or nitrite in my big tank or QT tank. I've tested with both my API liquid test and a strip test, the API test having been very accurate for me over the last few weeks while I've cycled my tank. I use Prime as a water conditioner to remove the small a...

I took the rocks out, boiled them, and did a 100% water change. The pH might have changed, I think my water generally sat at 8.4, but I just did a check and it was at 8.0. I'm not used to keeping track of the pH, since Bettas just adapt to whatever you throw them in. Is there something I can do to a...

I'm new to Cories, I just got 6 at the beginning of the month, 2 peppered, 2 julii, and 2 panda, as tank mates for my Betta in a 10 gallon tank. The Betta doesn't bother them and the tank parameters are: Ammonia - 0ppm, Nitrite - 0ppm, Nitrate - 5ppm. It finished cycling this sunday and I cycled wit...