# New Corys have a bit of red around their gills



## GreenEmber (Aug 23, 2008)

Can you test the water to see what the ammonia/nitrite levels are doing? What was the tank like at the lfs and how were the Cory's behaving in the tank at the lfs? Can you increase the oxygen content in the water? As soon as a fish goes into a tank with nothing in it per sae, ammonia is starting to be produced....so levels can climb quickly....
I'm very fussy buying fish at aqauriums, and I always watch the behaviour of the fish and look for any signs of diseases/parasites/infections and I ask when they arrived at the aquarium, and I also ask what the parameters of the water they have in the tank....I must be a nightmare customer:red_mouth.....


----------



## GreenEmber (Aug 23, 2008)

Forgot to ask how big is the QT? They could also have some ammonia burn on the gills from being in the bag for too long....


----------



## VeeSe (Apr 16, 2011)

QT is 10 gallons. I added an airstone and it may be helping, or it may just be because it's night now and they're changing their behavior. I can't check my ammonia/nitrite levels because the tank has lots of Prime in it and it'll throw off the test results, but before they went in there it was 0/0/0 (nothing was in there before, it's literally a tank, a filter, and a heater, and now an airstone).


----------



## GreenEmber (Aug 23, 2008)

Yeah your right about the Prime throwing the results....hmmmmmm I guess the best thing to do is get a heap of bacteria in the system as soon as possible....I know you have moved some media over from your main tank but what about doing a water change on you main tank and then do a small water change on your QT, add the water from main tank into QT, it should help bring up the good bacteria levels, I have done this before and it worked. :icon_smil Oh and if it is possible put something in the tank for them to hide in as that will help reduce stress levels in the fish.:icon_smil


----------



## VeeSe (Apr 16, 2011)

I could put some Tetra SafeStart as well but I'm not sure how the bacteria there will interact with the bacteria that are already there. I tested the water anyway even though I knew that Prime was in there and got 0.25ppm ammonia and 0ppm nitrites. Even if the 0.25ppm ammonia were true I wouldn't be too surprised, since my tap water has 0.5ppm ammonia anyway and some of the tank's water just went in there when I got the fish.


----------



## wendyjo (Feb 20, 2009)

Are they actually breathing hard? What is the temp? If you noticed the red/pink areas before you even put them in the tank then I doubt it's from ammonia. I am not familiar with these particular corys - maybe do an image search on them and see if the pics show similiar coloring.

I agree that they need some hidey holes in the QT tank. I typically toss in some plants that don't need substrate, like java moss or java fern or floaters, along with some small driftwood, rocks and/or store bought decor. They will feel much safer and will suffer from less stress with some shelter.


----------



## VeeSe (Apr 16, 2011)

I don't have anything that can float or any cave... I threw out the last of my anacharis a few weeks ago and I don't have a light on the tank either =(

One of them was breathing pretty hard a few hours ago but I don't think any of them are breathing too hard now, although they still go up to the surface a lot... don't know if that's the normal rate or not... seems too often to be normal.


----------



## wendyjo (Feb 20, 2009)

You don't have anything you can move over from another tank that they can take cover in/under/behind? Heck I'd use a very well rinsed coffee cup or two if I didn't have anything else.


----------



## VeeSe (Apr 16, 2011)

I put in a couple PVC pipe fittings, but they're only like 2 inches long so it's not much of a tunnel.


----------



## wendyjo (Feb 20, 2009)

^Better than nothing - I'm sure they appreciate it. I would just leave them be for now and do a water change in the morning. 

My albino corys rush up to the surface for a gulp of air quite often.


----------



## VeeSe (Apr 16, 2011)

Hmmm... the red gills are still there... not sure if they are getting worse or not, but some of them are pretty active, flying around all over the place and riding the airstone up to the top of the tank frequently (I think they like letting it push them around in the air bubbles). I also fed them a couple sinking wafers to see if they would eat and they ate all of the chunks up within 2 hours or so. I'm not expecting them to be in great shape tomorrow, but maybe some of them will make it.


----------



## GreenEmber (Aug 23, 2008)

Cory's are pretty tough...if they seem a bit more active then that is a good sign  With the school of mixed cory's I had they flew up to the surface often...I didn't have any issues with lack of oxygen either  I also agree with wendyjo with doing a water change tomorrow....What is the PH in the QT?


----------



## VeeSe (Apr 16, 2011)

pH is 7.5, which is what comes out of my tap.


----------



## trixella (Jan 24, 2011)

When you stopped and talked to your neighbor were the fish sitting in a hot car?


----------



## VeeSe (Apr 16, 2011)

trixella said:


> When you stopped and talked to your neighbor were the fish sitting in a hot car?


Nope they were sitting in my air conditioned townhouse =P

They are all still alive and active, and the red has diminished a lot on some of them since I put them into the QT. It's still there on some of the others though, but hopefully those will also go away soon.


----------



## GreenEmber (Aug 23, 2008)

Thats great to hear that on some of the cory's gills the red gills has dissapated  The PH is ok....but would be better to have it at 7.0...however I wouldn't go stuffing around with it, I would keep things as they are and see how the rest fair.


----------

