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

allaboutfish

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.

TheWonderfulWub

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.

allaboutfish

He was in the bag about a hour
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TheWonderfulWub

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.

allaboutfish

Well it takes 30 min to get hom and then a 30 min acclimatiomm
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jaysee

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

allaboutfish

Yea. I'm getting my money back friday and getting some from the Lfs.
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Byron

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.

allaboutfish

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

Byron

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