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AMAZONAS
62
Avoiding trouble
As long as you follow a few basic procedures, it is quite a
simple matter to avoid losing corys through self-poisoning.
Before catching your fishes, take enough water for
transportation from their tank and put it into the bag or
container to be used. Then fill another, larger container
with water from the cory tank, catch the fishes, and put
them into this second container. Next, disturb them
several times over the next few minutes—this can be done
simply by chasing them with a small net, enough to make
them skittish but not enough to cause them to panic and
try to jump out. This should create enough stress to cause
them to release their toxins. The fishes should then be removed
from the second, larger container and placed in the
smaller transportation container; you can then discard the
water from the second container. You will probably notice
that this waste water has a slightly pungent smell.
A further tip (and one that might elicit a comment
or two from the animal rights fraternity) is that when
buying corys, you should try to ensure that they are
stressed enough by the person catching them to make
them release their toxins before they are put into a bag or
other transport container. Sometimes the inexperienced
shop assistant is the best person to catch your new corys,
mainly because he or she will tend to chase them around
a little more than an experienced person.
I know I am repeating myself, but it is important to
spot the first signs of a potential problem, which is small
bubbles forming around the edge of the water surface; the
water may also start to take on a yellowish tinge and begin
to go cloudy. Quick action is required: you must re-bag the
fish in new, clean water. Most, if not all, aquatic shops will
gladly re-bag fish if you think there is a problem, and you
could even ask for some extra water in an empty container
(taken from the tank before the fishes are caught) and
spare bags, in case re-packing is required halfway home.
The species I have found to be most susceptible to
self-poisoning are C. adolfoi, C. arcuatus, C. melini, C.
metae, C. panda, C. rabauti, C. sterbai, and C. trilineatus.
However, care should be taken with all Corydoras species.
Red Blotch Disease
Another phenomenon that appears to be prevalent only
in armored catfishes, and particularly in corydoradine
species, is commonly known as “Red Blotch Disease.”
Very little is known about its cause, although it is almost
certainly related to water quality. This condition, too,
can manifest in the confines of a transportation bag,
especially if the water put into the bag is of poor quality
or comes from a source other than the tank in which the
fishes were kept.
The first signs to appear are small red spots on the
body scutes; these are actually small skin hemorrhages
that are showing through from beneath the scutes. These