# 1 cory died in the bag. now other corys dieing?



## allaboutfish (Jul 16, 2012)

so i bought 2 julii corys today bc i couldnt find anymore to go with my julii cory in quarentine. when i got home one was already dead and the other seemed fine. i put him in the tank and turned out the lights. i looked in a minute ago and he went up the side of the glass and then down and fell on the ground sideways. i think hes dead also  if so ill take him out tomorrow. is this just stress killing them? they just got the shipment in yesterday.


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## TheWonderfulWub (Aug 22, 2012)

How long were the fish in the bag? Shipping fish can be very stressful on them (which is why I keep my fish for at the very least a few days before I sell them in my store), so it's entirely possible that the combination of the shipping stress, acclimation stress (into their tanks), being netted and bagged, travelling with you, and acclimation stress into your quarantine tank did the poor fellow in. There's no knowing for how long they may have been without food at the distributor, whether they had been fed at the LFS, what their acclimation techniques are (if any), etc.


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## allaboutfish (Jul 16, 2012)

He was in the bag about a hour
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## TheWonderfulWub (Aug 22, 2012)

I generally tell people to avoid having them in the bag much over 30-45 minutes. An hour wouldn't have necessarily killed him on its own, but the combination of a lot of different factors is probably what did it.


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## allaboutfish (Jul 16, 2012)

Well it takes 30 min to get hom and then a 30 min acclimatiomm
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## jaysee (Dec 9, 2009)

I think it's safe to say that the fish had some preexisting problems. That does not happen to healthy fish.


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## allaboutfish (Jul 16, 2012)

Yea. I'm getting my money back friday and getting some from the Lfs.
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## Byron (Mar 7, 2009)

Corys are one fish that i will never acquire if they have just come in to the store. I always wait at least a week. It doesn't happen always with all stores, but I have known very reputable local stores have up to half their corys dead within 2-3 days. I'd rather the fish died in the store tank than in mine.

One reason for this is improper shipment of Corydoras. This fish does not tolerate ammonia. They must be shipped in very large bags/boxes, or few fish to a container. As TheWunderfulWub said from his own experience, the trauma fish go through from capture/farm, to distributor, to store is significant; I often wonder how any fish even make it.

You mention Corydoras julii, if you have the true C. julii species, it will be wild caught; this species is quite rare. Most corys labeled as julii are in fact C. trilineatus. This species is hardier, but as far as I know is still wild caught.

You should be able to get a credit, but please wait a week before selecting any more. If they are alive and acting OK then, you will probably be fine. I have stores that will hold fish for me, for this reason; they too would rather the fish did not die in the bag to my aquarium.

Byron.


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## allaboutfish (Jul 16, 2012)

im going back friday and they got them monday. is that enough time?


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## Byron (Mar 7, 2009)

allaboutfish said:


> im going back friday and they got them monday. is that enough time?


Observe them carefully. They will likely still be under some stress, in the store tank, but check their respiration rate, activity, etc.


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## allaboutfish (Jul 16, 2012)

ok. im actually going tomorrow. i may just call and ask my lfs if they have julii corys. i wouldnt wanna drie all the way out there and they not hae them though.


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## John0216 (Aug 23, 2012)

Sorry TO Hear


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## TheWonderfulWub (Aug 22, 2012)

Byron said:


> You mention Corydoras julii, if you have the true C. julii species, it will be wild caught; this species is quite rare. Most corys labeled as julii are in fact C. trilineatus. This species is hardier, but as far as I know is still wild caught.


Corydoras julii have been very difficult to find the last few years for some reason; I'd wager export laws have changed in their major collection areas. Corydoras trilineatus is available captive-bred now (and in fact is what I see the majority of the time when I'm doing fish orders for the store).

Ultimately there isn't a huge difference between the two. I'd much rather go with the trilineatus just for the captive-bred aspect.


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## fishlover1138 (Aug 23, 2012)

TheWonderfulWub said:


> Corydoras julii have been very difficult to find the last few years for some reason; I'd wager export laws have changed in their major collection areas. Corydoras trilineatus is available captive-bred now (and in fact is what I see the majority of the time when I'm doing fish orders for the store).
> 
> Ultimately there isn't a huge difference between the two. I'd much rather go with the trilineatus just for the captive-bred aspect.


ya im with wonderfulwub. the captive bred species is hardier and can substain more.


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## Byron (Mar 7, 2009)

> Corydoras julii have been very difficult to find the last few years for some reason; I'd wager export laws have changed in their major collection areas.


The likely reason is given in our profile; but in addition to what is stated therein, another issue could be the flooding this year. According to one collector in Peru, where the probably source river for this species is located, this was the worst year in 20 years for either floods or drought, both of which preventing collection from several areas. [In case you're not familiar with the profiles, they are under the second tab from the left in the blue bar across the top. If the name is used identical in a post to how it is given in the profile, common or scientific, it will shade and you can click that to pop-up the profile.]



> Corydoras trilineatus is available captive-bred now (and in fact is what I see the majority of the time when I'm doing fish orders for the store).


This is worth knowing, though I will always select wild-caught over commercially-raised if given the option.

Which brings me to the comment about hardiness raised by fishlover, and to which I do not subscribe. There is plenty of evidence that in most cases, wild caught fish will be less prone to disease in the aquarium. I don't want to get into whether this is or isn't due to inbreeding of captive fish, and I don't know if this plays a part or not, though i suspect it must given the considerable weakening of the various livebearers in particular. But wild fish seem to be "healthier" which is always a good sign, and they are often more colourful. The cardinal tetra has shown this, the wild caught are more brilliant than the tank-raised now appearing.

Byron.


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## TheWonderfulWub (Aug 22, 2012)

Byron said:


> The cardinal tetra has shown this, the wild caught are more brilliant than the tank-raised now appearing.


Yes, but take it from someone who deals with cardinals on the retail level on a daily basis, wild-caught cardinals are wayyy more delicate than the captive-bred ones.


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## Byron (Mar 7, 2009)

TheWonderfulWub said:


> Yes, but take it from someone who deals with cardinals on the retail level on a daily basis, wild-caught cardinals are wayyy more delicate than the captive-bred ones.


It may depend upon what one means by "delicate." It would take some fairly controlled experimentation to determine that tank-raised are more resistant to disease. And in general, wild fish are stronger in this respect. If it is a case of lifespan, then that comes down to the water parameters. Given soft acidic water, wild cardinals will easily live beyond 10 years. I'd be interested in any evidence showing that harder water is less detrimental to tank-raised cardinals.


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## TheWonderfulWub (Aug 22, 2012)

In my personal experience (your mileage may vary), wild cardinals have a higher mortality rate in our water than the captive bred ones. That's with a pH of 6.5~, hardness around 4, and temperature of 82~ (for our cardinal/rummynose tanks, that is).

I'm not saying it's because captive-bred fish somehow have a stronger immune system or that they're stronger against parasites/diseases, but they tend to have traveled far less and gotten a healthier start in life. Stress kills fish, that's a fact, and (properly) captive-bred fish are (in my opinion and experience) healthier for it, which is why I tend to gravitate towards and recommend CB fish over wild-caught.


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