sampster5000

Can someone tell me why my skunk cory is so discolored and why he is breathing so fast? My temperature is at 76 and has not moved for weeks and I just did a big water change of 60% yesterday. I thought my skunk looked normal until I started searching for pictures of other skunk cory's. Why is mine not white? Why is his stripe not clear at all? Why is he breathing so heavy? Also, I have 2 axelrodi and 1 orange laser cory in the tank and they are breathing very fast too. Really confused here :/

My pH is 7.6 from the tap. I've read that they will be fine with a wide range of pH though so that shouldnt be a problem. I have not measured ammonia, nitrite, nitrate because after doing 50-60% water changes every week this should be very low. My plants in the tank are java fern, water sprite, hornwort, anubias barteri, anubias nana, and 2 plants I'm not sure of. I'm using eco-complete and black sand on top of that. I am dosing flourish, excel, and NPK daily. My filter is an Aqua Clear.

davemonkey

What about chlorine or chloramines in yuor water? Do you use water conditioner when you water change?

50% water change per week may not be enough to clean out ammonia in a newly established tank that is lightly planted. Do you clean your filter (and if so, do you change the filter material often...which would effectively remove your bacteria/biological colony...leading to ammonia problems)?

davemonkey

I thought of another question: did you boil your driftwood before putting it the tank?

sampster5000

I use Prime water conditioner everytime I do a water change. I change the media every month. I dont have many plants right now because I'm waiting on my new lights to come in. I'm under 1wpg right now and these plants are really struggling. And yes I did boil my driftwood beforehand.

sampster5000

I guess one thing I can think of is the tank has been running 3-4 months (I've lost track) so maybe its still cycling? I didnt think it would take more than a few weeks. I got these cory's last week and have had a mystery snail in the tank since it started up.

swimfast59

Do you only have 2 cories in this tank? If so, he may be stressed out since cories thrive in groups of at least 3. I have 7 in my tank and they are doing really well.

davemonkey

At 3-4 months your tank should be well cycled by now.

It could be the black sand cutting their barbels (it's a very "sharp" substrate). Or, since you are adding your ferts daily, you may be overloading with nitrates since you are only lightly planted and very low WPG. I'm willing to bet that you are dosing more than your plants can consume right now. When you say, NPK daily, how much would that be (and is this the flourish liquids, or are they dry ferts)?

sampster5000

I have 4 cory's in the tank. I did not know that this sand was sharp. I was hoping it would be soft and good for them, hence why I got it What would you consider heavily planted? My tank is pretty full with plants. I dont have many but its only a 15 gallon tank. I use liquid fertilizers by Seachem. I took the recommended weekly amount for each fertilizer and figured out what a daily dose would be for each. For example: Flourish directions say to use 5 mL for each 60 gallons once or twice a week. I am dosing it .50 mL daily. I do this because I read that these fertilizers have a half life which would not get them through to the next adding of fertilizers.

Do you suggest adding them by what the bottle says? It is the same amount of fertilizer but spread out.

sampster5000

Well I did another 50% water change and cut my dosings in half until my new lights come in. I also decided to cut back on how much I'm feeding. The cory's are only eating 2 out of the 4 mini wafers I drop in so I dropped it to 2. I was feeding bloodworms every evening but I'm only going to do that every few days. Hopefully this helps.

sampster5000

bump... could anyone add anything?