I would consider something like optimal foraging strategy, which clearly several fish and bird species engage in, to clearly be logical thought.

It can't be registered as a record without killing it. They have to examine it and ID it to species (there is sometimes genetic testing), weigh it, and check the body cavity for added weights (lead sinkers, rocks, etc).

Silly Euros.

What did Uncle Ned's label them as? They're a pretty good LFS and tend to label stuff more correctly than most.

Check the catalog. It has a fair amount of info on the species and it is clearly not a tropical community fish.

First time I've seen this species. A truly remarkable looking fish!

That's a monster. Sweet.

Thank you both.

Hi, I've read quite a bit about people feeding live blackworms to Corys to help them get in breeding condition. I've never seen blackworms for sale, live or frozen. I've found frozen: brine shrimp, mysis shrimp, daphnia, white worms, blood worms, etc... but never black worms. Are they available and ...

It's super skittish, even still after all this time. Pretty much all the time I'm in the room (that there is any movement in the room, anyway) it's under the log.

If I can't get a better pic, I'll atleast try to enlarge and zoom on the head.

It came in very small, I've had it for about 2 years, it came from a South American shipment a good LFS imported directly (or so I was told). Assured it was wild caught, but stranger things have happened.

but just ever so barely, maybe that is a juvenile thing that changes?

I apologize if that last post came across as rude.

Nope, the bottom jaw is shorter. Like a tiger shovelnose.

I thought it was a Pimelodus sp., but after looking through the cat elog, i'm not so sure... about 7" here

<IMG SRC="http://www.moocowrecords.com/Assets/images/pet1.jpg">

Unfortunately, the fridge hasn't worked for me at all. The little 6 pack fridge just gets a bit barely cool, even with 10' of air tubing in it, it has no effect. I've lost 1 sterbai cory, 2 cardinal tetras, & 1 jellybean tertra in the last week during from the heat/stress (I believe, haven't los...

I know this is a bit off topic, but that top photo is stunning.

How did you take it? Set up, etc.

You still haven't said what the issue is.

I don't breed, but I've used these and my sterbai seemed to thrive in the tannin colored water.

However, the reduced light filtering through the water really hit the plants hard. So I've stopped incorporating them, for now.

That's a heck of an idea. Have you done it, or is this just conceptual?

Either way, I'm going to keep my eye out for a sale for one of those micro fridges.

I am worried about this as well, my room gets quite hot, during warm spells my room is consistently at around 35 C every day for 8-10 hours, but the tank is pretty small (too small I'm told) for a chiller. Not sure what else I could do.

I've never seen corys doing that, but it sure looks like some type of behaviour to establish dominance.

An update:

Since I started to include 30% aged tap water as a part of the 1/3rd water change every week I've had no further losses and all the fish appear healthy an happy. It looks like it may have well been the PH issue.

Thanks!

Thanks, I've never had a problem using pure RO water before, but you're not the first person to mention this as being a possible issue, some I'm going to mix in some tap.

Yeah, I'm keeping the aeration on now. I hope it helps. I've also been told that my using RO water for water changes might be a problem. There might not be enough calicium in the water to buffer the Ph, and perhaps the Ph is crashing over night. So, I'm going to incorporate some tap water (after agi...

Ok, I think I'm just going to chill a little while, let the tank age and cycle more, keep doing water changes before trying to add more C. sterbai. I really like them. I'm generally not a Cory fan, but this species has me hooked.

Thanks for the great advice and dialogue. Now I know where to get Cory sterbai if I want to try again once I fix some issues. I had the CO2/O2 cycle with plants totally backwards. I was turning on the air during the day and off at nights. So they had super oxygenated water during the day, then at ni...

http://www.planetcatfish.com/shanesworld/shanesworld.php?article_id=313 I just read this on dissolved 02. I think this might be it. I got the 02 cycle of the plants completely wrong. The sluggishness and the laboring of the other fish when I turn the light on, the corys sitting on Anubias leaves abo...

You're all more knowledgable about the availability of tank bred Corys than I am, but the store here in MA specifically did label these as "wild caught" C. sterbai.

I wondered about that as they were wild caught corys. I've had isolation/quaruntee tanks in the past for such a purpose, but unfortunately no space for one, not even a 5 gallon. Bummer.

You're correct, of course. The most perplexing part is the two original ones are fine, the ones added since have been fine for 4-7 days, then poof!

So, an issue the original inhabitants could have acclimated to over several months, while the new fish find a shock, makes some logical sense.

The sterbai at the shop have been there several weeks and appear to be doing well. I'll run the other tests, but in 20 years I've never had a problem with nitrate/nitrite/ammonia while I've had live plants. Most of the common community fish seem rather tolerant of going through the ammonia cycle ass...