# Lone Albino Cory Catfish



## AltheaGlyndwr (May 12, 2012)

I went to my local fish store today to get an assassin snail and a nerite snail if they had them(for a different tank). I ended up leaving with said assassin snail and what has turned out to be an albino cory catfish. Since they didn't have any of the netire snails I'd wanted I looked around and the guy (they had their bettas in the large tanks, one in each, so I figured they were compitent in fish.) was showing me the fish that eat algae. I haven't done too much research on them, I know a little but not much, and I can't recognize any of them specifically except for placos and otos. Anyway, I asked him if this fish (the cory cat which was labeled as something else entirely or I'd have known just by that name from seeing it on here that they need a schoal or school or w/e) had to be with others of its kind or if it would be alright on its own with female bettas. He was very confident that it would be just fine and told me that when it got too big I could trade it in for a smaller one (because I know that a lot of algae eaters get really big). He gave it a year to double in size. Anyway so I brought the poor little thing home and have it sitting in a 2 qt container to acclimate and quarantine in and I decided to look up what he said it was, some weird I don't even remember. I didn't find anything that looked like him until I started searching through a list of different kinds of fish.

That is when I realized that he/she is an Albino Cory Catfish, NEEDS at least 6 of itself, and needs a lot more that just algae. I feel so terrible for the little dear and I'm not sure exactly where to proceed from here. I want to do right by my fish, but I know that bioload in a 10g planted with 7 female bettas plus 6 of these little guys will be far too much and I cannot upgrade for several months. Should I take the poor thing back tomorrow morning? Will it even make it through the night? I turned off my tank light because I read they are super sensitive to bright light and I'm not sure what to put in his little quarantine or really what to do with him... 

Can anyone give me some good advice? I wish I'd known what all these fish really looked like. :/ And last time I listen to someone from an LFS... I mean one of the ones in my area, well an hour from here, keeps their bettas one to a giant tank as well so I figured it was cool... Apparently not... That and I know that further away store in fact does carry nerite snails...

I want to make this poor little guy as comfortable through the night/evening/going into early morning as I possibly can. Thanks!


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## Canis (Apr 15, 2013)

Just a quick question, did you mean to keep the nerite and the assassin in the same tank? The assassin would soon make a meal out of any other snail that it comes into contact with, because its diet is pretty much made up of other snails.

I'd bring the cory back, as it will eventually get lonely and the stress will lower its life expectancy. Next time, make sure you research what you want before you get it. I've learned after a while not to listen to the advice of the petstore people, and also not to get fish that I know nothing about. It would be better to find a fish that you like, research it, and then decide whether it is suitable or not.

If you are still interested in a nerite, I got mine from this person and it does a pretty good cleaning job http://www.ebay.com/itm/Tiger-Nerit...546?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item20d6f1cdc2


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## AltheaGlyndwr (May 12, 2012)

I was most definitely going to keep the snails separate. I added it in parenthasis after the sentence but re-reading I can totally see how you got that >.<;;

But yeah... I felt really bad. I hope it'll be okay once it's back with it's friends/family. I also feel silly... but yeah. Thanks! I will look into that


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## Canis (Apr 15, 2013)

Okay, thanks for clarifying! XD 

Don't worry about it though, we all make mistakes. I've brought several fish back to the store because of mis-information ^^


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