# Hunting-Song of the Seeonee Pack



## NorthernLights (Mar 2, 2012)

With thanks to Rudyard Kipling for the title!

I moved everyone a few weeks ago into the 10 gallon at last, but sadly Akela developed saprolegnia (possibly, less likely columnaris) within hours and died the next day. I think he was injured during the netting process.

Prince Alexander, of course, took the move in stride. He really is not the brightest of fish, but I think for him that is actually a good thing, as he doesn't seem to stress much. 

The Corys, however, immediately went and hid (in their new ceramic log from Underwater Galleries) and didn't come out for hours.

So, for the next two weeks, the tank was under quarantine while I treated it. My five remaining corys were so shy I rarely saw more than 2 or 3 at a time, and for a while I wondered if more had passed under the Rainbow Bridge.


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## NorthernLights (Mar 2, 2012)

Yesterday, I decided the tank was safe and that I should at least get a 6th cory for the tank. Prince Alexander, of course, has been healthy as a seahorse. 

I was still not totally certain if I had 5 corys still living, although I had seen all of them during the week, so I got the last 3 Julii (of course, they are probably 3-Lines) at Petsmart, and also got 2 mystery snails, as I have missed my snaily friends. I checked Aq Advisor before I did this, and it is supposed to be okay for a bio-load, even before adding in my horde of live plants. 

What a change! All 8 corys came out to play and cavort and be joyful! I've heard that sometimes, when you have more than 6, the suddenly get brave and social -- but WOW, the difference is incredible! Ever more amusing, Prince Alexander seems to have decided at last, that he is a cory! He keeps trying to snuffle in the sand dish, and shoal along with them. It's hilarious to watch. The corys seem to have lost their fear of him (he doesn't attack them, but he's so big I think just seeing him approach used to terrify them), so now it is one big, bizarre family. 

The two snails have vanished, so I think they are hiding inside the logo. Adnarel quickly came out of his shell after being acclimatized, and started cruising. Alarid stayed in the java fern I had dropped him into, so I was pleased when he disappeared, since that means he must have moved. Alarid is the smaller snail, maybe 0.75 inches across, and Adnarel is about an inch across. 

We shall see what today brings!


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## NorthernLights (Mar 2, 2012)

Well, Adnarel has vanished, and Alarid has come out to play.

Meanwhile, After discovering my cycle had completely crashed (back to ammonia, no nitrite, no nitrate), and seeing some white mold on one or two plants (to which I have lost two corys in the past) I decided to do a very thorough cleaning. Pulled out all the plants, rinsed them in tap water, soaked them in tap water, then dechlorinated them. Sucked out all the fallen leaves, etc, that I could find. Pulled the log (where the snails had been hiding), the works. Got everything back in. Noticed later that one of my corys had lost his barbels, probably due to the cycle crashing and harming the water quality. Did some reading on PlanetCatfish and determined that bare-bottom is generally a very bad idea for corys, since the bacteria that live on the bottom tend to infect the barbels easily. So, I washed a bunch of my national geographic sand, and poured it in by handfuls. I now have a very thin layer (1 cm or less) of sand on the bottom, and honestly I can't tell if the corys are happier -- they're definitely more confused. Prince Alexander, of course, was confused for a few minutes, then forgot about it. 

Now I am back to being able to find only 6 cories at a time, and Adnarel is vamoosed. Huh.


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## NorthernLights (Mar 2, 2012)

Hooray, I still have 8 cory cats! I managed to see them all last night and also this morning. Whew, I was worried that somehow two of them had died and been eaten or were stuck rotting in the tank somewhere. 

Adnarel has also reappeared, so naturally Alarid has disappeared.


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## NorthernLights (Mar 2, 2012)

Two days ago, freaking out that my pH was always so low and since pH Up wasn't having a lasting effect, I got some Carib Sea Aragonite sand and added it to the tank. Aragonite is apparently the same as crushed coral, and when I check the tank pH yesterday morning, it was 7.2 (its been around 6.0 on the liquid scale without the pH Up, and changed back quickly to the 6 range within 12 hours of added the pH up). Maybe the low pH (the scale only goes down to 6.0, so it could have been lower) was why my cycle crashed, and why I've lost several corys. Sadly, I lost Lala recently. He must have died right before I found him, as he was not decomposed at all. I got three cory cats on Saturday and all three had this odd redness around the gills and chest, which I think might have been ammonia burns, so he may have just been very weakened, and the fluctuating pH didn't help matters.


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## NorthernLights (Mar 2, 2012)

I lost Sura (another of the Cory Cats) a couple of weeks ago, and by the time I found him tiny body, parts of him had been eaten. The surviving cory cats are all a bit larger in size except for one. 

I did find out more about why my cycle crashed and wouldn't re-start for so long (BTW, it seems to be done now, as there is barely readable ammonia (less than 0.25) and nitrate (less than 0.5). I went to my favorite LFS to get a malaysian trumpet snail, as I have made the substrate sand deeper (it's now about 0.5-1" deep) and was concerned about detritus building up in it. They told me that the water in this area is very acidic (plus the high ammonia levels make Prime vitally important but also makes for even more water chemistry issues), and it does tend to crash cycles and make cycling difficult, and that the corys I have lost are an unfortunate but common problem around here because of all this. This is the same place that also determined that my snails had been dying in a few months because I kept my tank too warm (about 82 degrees), which caused them to be very active but also age faster. It's a great LFS, and I wish there were more like them.


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## NorthernLights (Mar 2, 2012)

On a happier note, the corys have grown (Mowgli II is still the smallest), and so have the snails! Gosh, Alarid is about an 1-1.5 inches across, and Adnarel is is huge -- must be 2" across now! Prince Alexander remains in fine finnage, and good spirits (as usual), and doesn't harass his tank mates. When I introduced Achsah (MTS) yesterday, I was a little worried Prince Alexander might try to eat him, since Achsah is much smaller than any snail he's seen before, but he just did his usual "What the HECK is that?" study routine, then went on his way. The corys acted like he wasn't even there while he burrowed into the sand. I can only hope Achsah isn't going to breed much, so we will see. 

I finally switched out to my 50 watt heater after finding the tank was hovering around 70 degrees even with the 25 watt heater turned up (when the weather was warmer, I had to use the 25 watt turned down to 71 to keep the temp around 78. Nobody seemed distressed by the lower temp (heck, least of all Prince Alexander, he's such a trooper), but I would not have kept it that low on purpose. You'd think with two thermometers in the tank I'd have noticed something was up sooner.


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